Dispatch: Quarry ruins at Banning State Park

"I grew up near Sandstone, Minn., which is obviously named after the quarry the city was founded around. The Banning quarry was an offshoot of the original Sandstone quarry. What we have today are the ruins of the Banning quarry. I grew up in a family with five kids and we spent a lot of time hiking around at Banning State Park. It's one of my favorite places. When I was growing up, it was like, here's a cool wall — Dad, boost me up into the window. But now I understand how things worked, why those pieces of iron are stuck in the rock. I designed a set of seven interpretive signs and we installed them a year ago. There's one at most of the major features of the quarry ruins."

Megan Johnsen, Minnesota State Parks interpretive naturalist