Granite Industry in Llano County

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the granite industry in Llano County. Now, if you've ever driven through this part of Texas and wondered what all those big pink and gray outcrops were doing just sitting out in the sun, well, the land itself was practically beggin' somebody to come along and do something about it. And eventually, somebody did.

Throughout Llano County, large granite outcrops exist, rising up out of the Hill Country like the earth forgot to finish putting them away. The first granite quarry in the county opened in 1888, right there on the Llano River. That was just the beginning.

Then the railroad arrived in 1892, and when it did, the demand for granite rapidly increased. You give a quarry a railroad and step back, because things are about to move. Into this growing operation came a man named Vincenzo Fantozzi Petrick, an Italian immigrant who made his way to Llano County, established a quarry of his own, and got to work.

His stone didn't stay local. It went to Texas's coastal jetties, hauled out to where the land meets the Gulf and needs something solid to hold the line. When Buchanan Dam was completed, men and materials were diverted to the war effort, and work at Petrick's quarry declined.

That's how the tide of history moves sometimes, pulling resources toward the next urgent thing. But look around and you can still see what came out of this county. Llano's granite is in the state capitol.

It's in the University of Texas at Austin. It reached all the way to the federal building in Kansas City, Missouri, and it stands in monuments scattered across Texas to this day. Quarries owned by Petrick contributed to Llano County's success.

Not bad for a stretch of rocky Hill Country ground that most folks might have ridden right past without a second glance.

What the marker says

GRANITE INDUSTRY IN LLANO COUNTY Throughout Llano County, large granite outcrops exist. The first granite quarry in Llano County opened in 1888 on the Llano River. When the railroad arrived in 1892, the demand for granite rapidly increased. Italian immigrant Vincenzo Fantozzi Petrick came to Llano County established a quarry and provided stone for use in Texas" coastal jetties. When Buchanan Dam was completed, men and materials were diverted to the war effort and work at Petrick's quarry declined. Llano's granite can be seen in the state capitol, the University of Texas at Austin, the federal building in Kansas City, Missouri, and in many monuments across Texas. Quarries owned by Petrick contributed to Llano County's success. (2014)