Columbia River Basalt
Quarried in the "Gorge", Columbia River Basalt is widely used in the Northwest because of it's availability, workability and neutral color tones. Sometimes called Camas Basalt because of the location of a large quarry on the Washington side of the river, the stone we call Columbia River Basalt is quarried in the Corbett, Oregon side of the river and runs a true blue-gray whereas the material quarried in Camas tends to be a lighter gray that takes on a pinkish tint when it get's wet.
Specifications
CURBSTONE: large, blocky stone 6-8" thick by 10 - 16" in rectinlinear dimensions. Typical use is as curbing and when laid end to end the coverage is 25-30 linear feet.
Other uses include dryset stairways or mixed in with other types in drystack walls.
SQUARES & RECS: 3-5" thick stone roughly split into random square and rectangular shapes. Typical use is in veneer work, cap stone, stair treads or drystack walls. THINSPLIT: 2-3" thick split face, random shapes. Typical use is in veneer work, drystack walls or pond edging.
A-SPLIT: 3-5" thick, angular shapes. Typically used in veneers and drystack walls.
ECONOMY WALL ROCK: This is what's left over from the splitting operations at the quarry. Typically 2-5" thick, random shapes and tapered edges. This is a good cheap rock for low, informal drystack walls.
See also: Camas Basalt & Multi-purpose Stone