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Quarry site given golf makeover

According to the US’ National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association (NSSGA), the site that is currently occupied by the Chambers Bay Golf Course in Puget Sound, Washington was once one of the most successful quarries on the US west coast.

It was said that the area’s quarrying history began in the early 1890s when the US Government appointed Pacific Bridge Company to mine granite from the site for use in army fort construction. Over the next century, the site continued to be quarried by various owners, and by 1992, all the mining operations had been consolidated by Lone Star Northwest into one of the largest single producers of sand and gravel in the US.

“‘Steilacoom grade’ aggregate was some of the best in the region and highly sought after because of its extreme hardness,” an NSSGA press release said. The Steilacoom Indian tribe were the first people to settle in the Puget Sound area.

{{image2-a:r-w:220}}“It is estimated that 95 per cent of Seattle was built on the site’s sand and gravel,” the release added.

Washington’s Pierce County purchased the property in 1992, and in 2007 – after yielding more than 165 million tonnes of aggregate – the rehabilitated quarry site opened as the Chambers Bay Golf Course.

Golf course renaissance

Architect notes on the golf course’s website stated that the former sand and gravel mine site had provided architects with “an ideal medium” upon which to build a traditional “links” golf course, which usually features various ground contours.

“The land set aside for the golf course was degraded after a century of industrial usage but contained bold landforms shaped by wind and weather,” the notes explained. “The design team used these landforms as the scaffolding for the golf course design.

“They crafted a dramatic links landscape by clearing non-native vegetation and reworking the sand piles left from mining operations into massive dunes. They then routed the golf holes between, over, and around these dramatic features and planted the entire course in fescue, the grass found on traditional British links.”

The course was designed with the aim of one day hosting a major golf championship – a goal that was recently realised after the site was selected for the 2015 US Open, which took place from 15 to 21 June.

NSSGA president and CEO Michael Johnson said the Chambers Bay was just one high-profile example of an aggregates operation that “went on to a higher purpose of serving its community”.

“It exemplifies the sustainability of the stone, sand and gravel industry and shows what an asset an operation can be to future generations,” he commented.

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