Sanpete Valley is surrounded by great slabs of inclined sedimentary rock layers that rise from the valley floor and flatten on the crest of the Wasatch Plateau on the east, and the cliffs of the San Pitch Mountains on the west. The attractive physical properties of the Sanpete oolite limestone were due to the geological conditions of formation and exposure in Sanpete Valley. Architects inspired by the Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical styles found the stone suited their artistic talents, and the arrival of railroad transportation, made possible the use of the stone for structures beyond Sanpete County. Stone craftsmen among early Mormon immigrant settlers recognized the value of the stone and opened quarries soon after settlement.

The widespread use of the Sanpete oolite limestone was due to its cream color, ease of quarrying and carving, durability, and its exposure in easily accessible sites near the valley floor. The oolite limestone exposed in the isolated Sanpete Valley one hundred miles south of Salt Lake City was the most widely used. The building stone varieties exposed in the mountains near the early settlements include onyx marble from Nephi, sandstone from Park City and Heber City, granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City, and volcanic rock from St. A great variety of rocks suitable for building were formed during the complex geological history of Utah. Oolite limestone from Sanpete County was the building stone chosen for many private and public structures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Long before gold, silver, and copper mines caught the headlines in early Utah newspapers, another treasure was being quarried from the earth in the Sanpete Valley.

Oolite stone wall