Since children generally avoid their parents at all cost after the age of 15, when I told my son I was
thinking of exploring around the old split rock ammunition factory grounds and he said he would
be interested in going, I jumped on that activity. So on an awfully hot and muggy July day, we
ventured out into the hot sun in an old limestone quarry.

Split rock was originally a small limestone quarry to supply the Solvay process company with limestone in 1834. In 1880 the Solvay process company expanded the quarry operations and began delivering the limestone by a elevated conveyor about 2 miles long to the processing plant in Solvay New York. The quarry was abandoned about 1912. In 1915, during World War I, the split rock quarry became a munitions factory. The plant employed about 2500 people at the time of the explosion on July 2, 1918. A fire occurred in a mixing motor in the main TNT building and rapidly spread throughout the wooden structure of the main factory. The company fire brigade fought valiantly the fire until they lost water pressure and the fire took over and caused a major explosion. It is listed as one of the most powerful explosions heard around the world at that time in the 20th century. The explosion killed at least 50 men, and there is a memorial with their names in section 52 of Oakwood Cemetery.

Luckily, there were large quantities of TNT and Picric acid awaiting shipment stored in magazines and warehouses across a small valley from the main factory. This small valley prevented the fire from reaching the storehouse of these explosives. Though the TNT production facility was destroyed, Picric Acid, nitric acid, and other products continued to be made throughout the remainder of World War I.

Later around the 1960s, the state Department of Transportation used the facility for maintenance and parking of snowplows and highway trucks. They abandoned the site in the middle of the 1980s. Split rock is also known as a unique locale for the American Harts Tongue Fern, which is only found at Split Rock and Clark’s Reservation State Park. The population is a small group of plants in one spot in both places. And so the state would like to protect these populations as much as it can. Though just making the area a unique designation would attract collectors and tourists that might impact the plant negatively.

Since the 1980s the majority of activity in the old quarry has been from mountain bikers, historical curiosity seekers, firearms target practice, and general teenage partying. None of these uses has really done any more damage than the original explosion or operating the DOT maintenance facilities, and the rare and endangered plants are pretty well hidden and protected in a out-of-the-way place. In our expedition through the quarry it seems there is more motorbike activity than I have seen in the past. But I guess that’s time marching on with the advent of technology of motorsports and extreme sports.

The only recognizable portion of any past operations in the quarry is the large Aztec like crusher foundation. I can’t for the life of me figure out how it was used or even if it was really a “Stone Crusher”. But it definitely has an awful lot of interesting things about it. I have read in old historical documents that it was something that was built by the quarry workers to make their job easier. That it was all hand built without help of steam shovel or any modern tools. But it is surrounded by a number of tunnels and recognizable air chambers going to the surface that have since been blocked with debris. And there are also old limestone caves that are just part of the natural limestone character of the area. One of the areas right next to where we parked has some caves that have been blocked off by the DOT piling rocks all around the entrances so that they are almost impossible to find. And now, 20 years since my last visit to the area, the overgrowth  also made the caves pretty hard to find. However the incredible cold air coming out of the rocks made it pretty evident that the caves were still there.

So split rock is a pretty neat place, and there is a “Draft Land Management Plan” to designate it as a unique natural habitat and put some real protections and management onto the grounds. I would hope that would mean that they would clean it up of all the used rifle shell casings and broken glass and other trash that has been dumped around the quarry. Perhaps they would open the road up to where the DOT maintenance facility was  and allow parking so that people could actually ride bikes on the trails and have a nice area to hike around in. As far as the plants are concerned, the same plants have existed in a very busy state park across the valley for 50 years without being impacted. So I believe this area would probably be okay with more active management and human use than it currently gets. But if you like to ride mountain bikes, and you’re in the Camillus area of Onondaga County, and you know how to change a flat tire, riding around the split rock quarry can be a fun activity. As long as you’re not afraid of the ghosts that have been seen there several times!