Reading a little book put out years ago by the Potsdam Museum, I learn that there were two sandstone quarries of Potsdam, and several more up and down on both sides of the Raquette River. The two quarries were flooded in 1922 when a dam above Sugar Island was built. Geologists named the stone Potsdam because it was first quarried in Potsdam and geologists went to Potsdam to study the rock between 1838 and 1842. The Upper Cambrian which underlies a large portion of the US is known to geologists as the Potsdamian.
The Potsdamian is only exposed close enough to be quarried in a few locations in North America because of the depth of the Cambrian. It's also prominent in localities of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which have a close resemblance to the Village of Potsdam. Marquette Michigan is a beautiful old sandstone town along Lake Superior and is also a university town.
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I’ve lived in Boulder Colorado since August 2005, and moved here to write about something I know while I live in the Rockies at the same time. The town I grew up in, Potsdam NY, gave the name to a special red sandstone called Potsdam Sandstone, which was first quarried in Potsdam. And after the sandstone, an entire geologic layer of the Earth is named The Potsdam Layer. Here in Boulder the character of the town is marked by its sandstone buildings, which are lighter red than Potsdam sandstone, and softer. There are scattered in isolated spots some buildings, mostly churches, that have a few pieces for color of the deep red Potsdam sandstone.
Mt. Sanitas from my little deck
uncut raw sandstone
A building of Potsdam sandstone in Potsdam
Wells Fargo Bank building, Boulder
a business on Pearl St. mall
This Church in Boulder uses colored bricks to match the sandstone trim
Here the town I live in now and the town where I grew up become one trope
I’ve lived in Boulder Colorado since August 2005, and moved here to write about something I know while I live in the Rockies at the same time. The town I grew up in, Potsdam NY, gave the name to a special red sandstone called Potsdam Sandstone, which was first quarried in Potsdam. And after the sandstone, an entire geologic layer of the Earth is named The Potsdam Layer. Here in Boulder the character of the town is marked by its sandstone buildings, which are lighter red than Potsdam sandstone, and softer. There are scattered in isolated spots some buildings, mostly churches, that have a few pieces for color of the deep red Potsdam sandstone.
Mt. Sanitas from my little deck
The Potsdam contains within it fossils from the trilobite's era of life on earth.
uncut raw sandstone
A building of Potsdam sandstone in Potsdam
Wells Fargo Bank building, Boulder
a business on Pearl St. mall
This Church in Boulder uses colored bricks to match the sandstone trim
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