Some areas of the park are open only for ceremonial use; the 75,000 yearly visitors are asked not to interfere with the quarriers.

It’s a haven of striking beauty, dotted with quarriers’ cottages.

Landscapers, like quarriers, have relied heavily on seasonal labor mostly from Mexican workers.

Cicadas and a crop duster battle for sonic supremacy as Travis Erickson, a fourth generation pipestone quarrier and pipe maker, bails water out of the quarry to begin the day’s work.

Wouldn’t that be followed by granite quarries stripped bare and, with no granite left, granite quarriers thrown out of work, thus losing their granite-countertop-kitchen homes?