Frankfort’s long-dormant granite quarry likely holds many secrets, exciting and mundane, beneath its surface.
What lies deep in its bowels has long been the subject of speculation among locals and Mount Waldo’s many visitors.
That mystery recently drew a small group of divers, led by 58-year-old Chip Lagerbom, to the quarry, according to Down East magazine.
Lagerbom, a teacher of Belfast Area High School and founder of the affinity group Mid-Coast Maine Aqua-Nuts, was joined by other divers from Hampden, Windham and the University of Rhode Island. And the group attracted many curious onlookers, perhaps piqued by the off chance the divers would unearth some dark secret from the quarry’s bottom.
The Mount Waldo quarry opened in 1853, and it operated intermittently until the last blocks of granite were hauled up in 1966, according to the Penobscot Marine Museum.
The state of Maine later deeded 130 acres of Mount Waldo to Frankfort in 1988, including the now-flooded quarry. Restrictions on the deed require the town to use the land for “public recreational purposes,” according to the Bangor Daily News archives.
That working-class history still lingers below the surface, where the divers found a crane, cables and other equipment. Lagerbom told Down East magazine that it was “like regular work at the quarry just stopped one day and the water came and filled everything in, like it was suspended in time.”
The water’s surface temperature was about 73 degrees Fahrenheit, but after descending 30 feet into the quarry, that quickly fell to 42 degrees while even flashlights could barely penetrate the murky water, according to the magazine.
The divers didn’t find any dead bodies. They did, however, find golf balls, flying discs, a trailer, a car radio, a still-sealed barrel and even a CD of Bob Seeger’s greatest hits, Down East reported.
The quarry has been the subject of much debate over the years because of its tendency to draw locals looking to cool off and thrill-seekers, many of whom have broken their bodies jumping from the quarry’s many cliffs. Now and then, a day of swimming has turned tragic. In 2010, a Bucksport woman was killed when she jumped from a 30- to 40-foot cliff into the water and never resurfaced.
That’s prompted calls for the town to close, drain and fill the quarry, but those requests have been repeatedly rebuffed, with some pointing to the deed requirement that the land be kept open for public recreational use.
