A couple more historic photos of the Lehigh Portland Cement Company in Iola, courtesy of the Allen County Historical Society:
This 1903 photo of the quarry shows a rough rail line, used to haul rock from the quarry to the crushing machines. Looks like a lot of manual labor was involved at this period of time.
This photo provides an aerial perspective of the Lehigh Portland Cement Company’s plant and quarry. It is undated, but is obviously later than the first photo, in that the plant wasn’t purchased by Lehigh until 1917. The quarry is rather large, but the mound that we call “Mt. Lehigh” does not appear to be in place. The houses in the background also give a clue to the time period. At some point, much of that land was purchased by Lehigh, and houses torn down, and some subsumed. Their foundations remain on the property.
This photo looks east, so the road running horizontally across the photo must be 1600th Road (Kentucky Street), and the road running east must be Nebraska Road. (Our current eastern trailhead is located at the intersection of those two roads.)
So this photo is from the 1940’s, perhaps?
It does remind us that the land was not always as we see it now. At one time, not all that long ago, it was homes, farms, and in many places, a barren industrial landscape.