Swimming hole

I’ve seen mined-out quarries used in a variety of ways—from office parks to shopping centers to golf courses. But, until now, not for use as an upscale backyard swimming pool. Perhaps you’ve seen it on TV or you’ve watched the CNN Money video that has been making it’s way around the Internet.

The website Spaces reports that the pool is built into a Berkshires limestone quarry in Sheffield, Mass., on 50 acres owned by Joel Goldstein. Goldstein greatly improved and beautified the property, but the transformation of the quarry into a pool was the previous owner’s project.

Aqua Pool & Patio, a Connecticut-based family business, built the pool. Michael Giannamore, vice president of Aqua Pool, says the property was buried in the woods and the previous owner bought it because she wanted a “swimming hole” at the site of the quarry. Spaces cites Giannamore as saying the owner “imposed no budget whatsoever,” and wanted to keep the quarry as intact as possible. That, Giannamore says, ruled out the easiest transformation solutions.

Gregg Pruitt of Aqua Pool says his company went in with an excavator, but also with shovels and buckets, “hauling stuff out like a mule.” All of the rock was powerwashed and the project completed in two to three months.

The finished pool is about 15,000 gallons, measuring roughly 20 by 40 ft., and deepening from about 3 ft. at its shallowest to about 7 ft., Goldstein told CNN Money. Goldstein expanded the building on the property from a simple poolhouse into a home of about 3,500 sq. ft. “We have no intentions of ever putting this on the market,” Goldstein says. “Hopefully, it’ll be passed down from generation to generation.”

National Lime & Stone Co. of Findlay, Ohio, has its offices on a beautiful lake setting, at the site of one of its former quarries. Homes have been built around it, and during my visit some years ago, area rescue teams were using the beautiful lake for diving practice. And one of the top golf courses in the state of Ohio is The Quarry Golf Club near Canton. I plan to visit it in the spring — for business purposes, of course.

We’d love to hear about your re-uses for mined-out pits and quarries. Email me and tell us your reclamation story.