Bussen Quarries, Underground Warehouse, River Terminal
History
Bussen Quarries was started in 1882 when Johann Gerhard Bussen purchased a 10 acre parcel of land along the Mississippi River just south of the Quarrentine Grounds and began mining limestone from the hillside. Mining started out slow as the drilling was done by hand and the rock was hand sorted and moved by mule cart. Crushing was originally done by hammermill crushers that were powered by steam wagons. In 1929 the first stationary crushing/screening plant was built and greatly increased production. This plant also had spurs from the Missouri Pacific Rail Road under the bins for easy car loading which inturn increased product distribution. The normal production out put being around 100 tons per hour
Athough modifications and updates were done to the original plant over the years by the early 60's the need for faster production brought about plans for a new crushing plant. A Missouri- Rogers 56-60 rotary impactor was to be the new primary crusher with an average 500-800 tons per hour. Currently in 2011 we are workin on the third "new plant" .
Over the years surrounding properties were purchasedand and added to the original 10 acres totaling the site to now over 600 acres.
In 1957 we expanded to open Antire Quarry in Eureka to meet the demands for stone in west St. Louis County and Jefferson County. Crushing originally began with small portable plants and eventually a staionary plant was added to meet consumer demands for stone. Once again modifications and updates helped with increased procuction over the years but by 2005 the plans for a new plant were in the works. Today, Antire's new state of th art crushing plant can produce 1600 tons per hour.