Dorset Marble Quarry

Dorset, Vermont

Verified · 3 independent sources

WATER: quarry
ACCESS: Local spot, unofficial
FEE: No fee found
SEASON: Best in summer

About Dorset Marble Quarry

Dorset Marble Quarry (often called the Dorset Quarry) is a flooded, disused 19th-century marble quarry in East Dorset, Vermont, just off US Route 7. Once one of the first commercial marble quarries in the United States, it has become a well-known summer swimming and cliff-jumping spot for locals and visitors.

The quarry sits in the Valley of Vermont in East Dorset, a village of the town of Dorset, wedged between Mount Aeolus and the Green Mountains along US Route 7; the Battenkill river has its headwaters in the same valley.

Swimming at Dorset Marble Quarry

The old quarry pit is filled with water and used as a swimming hole through the summer months, with marble ledges and cliffs from which visitors jump into the water; it draws enough of a following that it has been described in national coverage as attracting 'cliff-jumping pilgrims.'

How to get to this swimming hole

Located in East Dorset, Vermont, along US Route 7 in the Valley of Vermont.

Plan your visit

Bringing kids

OK with supervision

This is a flooded former marble quarry with cliff-jumping ledges (previously documented via Wikipedia/NPR coverage describing 'cliff-jumping pilgrims'); quarry water bodies typically have abrupt depth changes and no lifeguard. No source found this session specifying a shallow beach-style entry, so families with young kids should treat it with caution rather than assume easy wading access.

On the water

No source found confirming or ruling out kayak/canoe/paddleboard use on the quarry pond; given it is a small flooded quarry primarily used for swimming and cliff jumping, informal small-craft use is plausible but unverified.

Backstory

Marble was quarried here from the 18th/19th century onward, making it one of the first marble quarries in the U.S.; the East Dorset quarry operation was run across three generations by the family of Bill Wilson (co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous), and stone from the quarry was used in construction of the New York Public Library's Main Branch building in New York City. The quarry eventually closed and the flooded pit became a recreational swimming spot.