Quarryman's Museum

In the early seventies Fite took time out from Opus 40 to build a museum to house his collection of quarryman's tools and artifacts -- a fascinating tour through the history of the area and the skills of its workingmen.

Represented are not only quarrying equipment but also folk tools, most of them hand-forged, that the quarryman used every day: tools for farming, blacksmithing, caprentry and the like. furnishings from a quarryman's household are also shown here -- stove, cupboard, even a game of handmade dominoes.

In creating Opus 40, Fite worked with traditional quarryman's tools: hammers, chisels and drills, and a huge hand-powered boom with a flat wooden tray for moving rocks.

He worked alone, using these hand tools, for most of 40 years, and his museum honors the tools and them upon whose work he created Opus 40.