After being shut down in 1937, the Arizona Marble Co. has reopened under new ownership, which has invested in the quarry to expand its selection of product offerings
Located east of Tucson, AZ, in the Chiricahua Mountains in the town of Wilcox is the Arizona Marble Co. The quarry was originally established in 1908 by the board of directors consisting of Gerald Hughes, John G. Kerr, Clyde Turnbull, F.G. Moffat and Walter E. Wilmot. The original marble camp featured a place to eat, a couple of wooden houses, a group of tents and a four-stall barn. To transport the blocks to be shipped, the quarry used two 110-horsepower steam tractors that pulled wagons that held the blocks. The quarry ran until it was shut down in 1937.
Currently, the quarry is owned by Matt Klump, who purchased the company in 2002. He had a vision to bring this highly prized material back into the market. Klump’s grandfather was a cattle driver and had owned a lot of land in the area. His grandfather’s children were ranchers as well. It wasn’t until Klump took over that he went a bit further than just ranching. He started with a gravel pit, then a batch plant.