Editing Indiana Limestone (section)

== History ==
[[File:Indiana limestone - the nation's building stone, v. 2 - DPLA - 34ab77899a0747d1465810a8da6f02d7 (page 7) (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|Indiana limestone loaded on freight trains in Bedford, Indiana.]]
[[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] were the first people to discover limestone in Indiana. Not long after they arrived, American [[settlers]] used this rock around their windows and doors and for memorials around the towns. The first [[quarry]] was started in 1827, and by 1929 [[Hoosier]] quarries yielded 12,000,000&nbsp;ft<sup>3</sup> (340,000 cubic meters) of usable stone. The expansion of the railroads brought great need for limestone to build bridges and tunnels and Indiana was the place to get it.

[[Architecture of the United States|American architecture]] of the late 19th and early 20th century included a lot of limestone detail work on buildings, but as architectural styles changed, so did the demand for limestone. Indiana limestone was officially designated as the state stone of Indiana by the Indiana General Assembly in 1971.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/emblems/embriver.html|title=Indiana State River and Indiana State Stone|access-date=2007-11-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218143055/http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/emblems/embriver.html|archive-date=2007-12-18|url-status=dead}}</ref> With the [[Arab Oil Embargo]] of 1973, the price of alternative building materials skyrocketed so Indiana limestone reemerged as an energy-efficient building material.<ref>{{cite web | url =http://iliai.com/index.php?pageId=44 | title = History of Indiana Limestone| access-date =2007-07-11}}</ref>