Description

Puntenney Lime Quarry, Puntenney, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, c.1920's.

The Puntenney Lime Quarry was in heavy use from the 1880’s into the 1930’s. The project was the brainchild of a George Puntenney and his wife Lucy who arrived in Arizona in 1879.

Limestone was in abundance in the south rim of Hell Canyon – located about 40 miles north of Prescott along Highway 89. Lime was an important commodity in the early West. It was an important additive for making mortar and plaster, and as importantly, used for manufacturing glass and castings, refining sugar, and tanning leather. The oxidation of lime was used in early theatre spotlights; lime created a brilliant and warming light, hence the origin of the phrase “standing/basking in the limelight.”

Two small towns sprang up around the quarry, the town of Puntenney on one side of Hell Canyon and the town of Cedar Glade on the other. A cutoff line was constructed on the railroad between Prescott and Ash Fork. Huge vertical lime kilns were erected beside the stone and block quarry next to the railroad tracks.

When the railroad line was removed between these two cities, and Highway 89 was rerouted, traffic moved away from Hell Canyon, the two towns and the quarry. All were eventually abandoned. There are no traces of either the kilns nor the towns today.