Schevenhütte Quarry

The Schevenhütte quarry is a former slate quarry in Stolberg-Schevenhütte. Unique Schevenhütte natural stone was quarried here presumably from the Middle Ages until 2008. In the 20th century until it was closed down, the quarry was called "Kaspar Müller I Quarry". It is located on the northern edge of the Eifel at the southern end of Schevenhütte. Geologically, it is part of the outermost foothills of the Venn saddle, where very old rocks from the latest Ordovician period are exposed. These rocks are the oldest in North Rhine-Westphalia. As a special feature, the so-called "Schevenhütter Schichten" (Schevenhütte strata) dip very straight in the quarry area and were thus worth mining. "Schevenhütter Naturstein" was quarried mainly in two varieties, a greenish and a red variety. Basically, the stone from the middle and upper Wehebach layers was roughly processed and sold on site. The "Schevenhütter Schiefer" (Schevenhütte Slate) was used in a variety of ways throughout the region, including as ornamental and rough building material, but also as walking slabs and as gravestones. After the closure in 2008, slates still in stock were sold until the middle of 2012. After this time, the site was left to its own resources. The site was neither renaturalised nor restored nor was the slope stabilised. With the end of the swamping in the quarry basin, an endorheic small lake developed over time and the open quarry slope in the east suffers greatly from the lack of supporting rock, which repeatedly causes rock slides, landslides and mass movements. Today, the quarry is a registered soil heritage site of the Kupferstadt Stolberg because of its outstanding role as a teaching and research object. The site is owned by Laufenburg GmbH and may not be entered due to the acute danger to life caused by the rock slides. The site is fenced off.