Irony of Stones: The Demise of Graniteville, Connecticut's Waterford

Waterford was a sea of green, but in the 19th, the town found a cruel rhythm with granite. New York's facades and DC's sidewalks reveled in the stone, but the miners sweated, hard-nosed, and underpaid. The rhythm brought accidents, hellish conditions, sickness, and silicosis - a nightmarish tango. At its peak, Graniteville boasted a school, a hotel, and numerous homes. However, the digging seemed to dance the miners right out of town. By the 20th, the mines were still, the miners vanished, and Graniteville staggered, desperately clinging to existence. Today, only the school echoes, while the rest is an open quarry, a haunting stage for wild weeds and trees. A poor chapter for Graniteville, indeed.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons