In 1938, Harvey Fite, one of the founders of the Bard College Fine Arts Department, purchased an abandoned quarry in the town of Saugerties, NY, in Ulster County, about 100 miles north of New York City.

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During a period of 37 years, he created the monumental world-acclaimed 6½-acre bluestone

sculpture now known as Opus 40. Over time he 

acquired additional land (70+ acres today) and built several structures, including a beautiful large wood and stone home, a studio, garage, blacksmith shop and the Quarryman’s Museum, which houses his unique collection of indigenous tools.

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Constructed by this one man, using dry-key stone masonry techniques inspired by his work in restoring the Mayan civilization at Copan, refined by experiment, trial and error, Opus 40 is a labyrinthine world of finely fitted stone, swirling with ramps and terraces constructed around pools and trees and fountains, rising out of bedrock a half mile deep.

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