Comments on the Yule Marble Haines Block—Potential Replacement, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery

Abstract

Marble for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery was cut from the Colorado Yule Marble Quarry in 1931. Although anecdotal reports suggest that cracks were noticed in the main section of the monument shortly after its installation at the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, detailed documentation of the extent of cracking did not appear until 1963. Although debate continues as to whether the main section of the Tomb of the Unknowns monument should be repaired or replaced, Mr. John S. Haines of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, in anticipation of the permanent closing of the Yule Quarry, donated a 58-ton block of Yule Marble, the so-called Haines block, as a potential backup. The brief study reported here was conducted during mid-summer 2009 at the behest of the superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery. The field team entered the subterranean Yule Marble Quarry with the Chief Extraction Engineer in order to contrast the method used for extraction of the Haines block with the method that was probably used to extract the marble block that is now cracked. Based on surficial inspection and shallow coring of the Haines block, and on the nature of crack propagation in Yule Marble as judged by close inspection of a large collection of surrogate Yule Marble blocks, the team found the block to be structurally sound and cosmetically equivalent to the marble used for the current monument. If the Haines block were needed, it would be an appropriate replacement for the existing cracked section of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Monument.

First posted July 23, 2014