“There were some Scotsmen who came through the area and found granite outcroppings,” said Rick Dilts, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, adding that they did some testing on the stone. “They weren’t good businessmen though, so they partnered with a banker who later bought the two of them out.”
Until 1965, the growth of Dakota Granite Co. was attributed to the production and sales of monuments to over 2,500 retail granite shops throughout the U.S., according to the company. “We started out fabricating monuments and quarrying, and then in the ‘60s, we were contacted by a Japanese customer who wanted blocks,” explained Dilts. Currently, about 40% of the blocks quarried by Dakota Granite are shipped to companies around the world, including Italy, Japan, China and Malaysia.