Houdaille Quarry

[1][2] Bisected by Interstate 78, it is directly east of the Watchung Reservation and touches the Summit border as well as Hidden Valley Park.

The Springfield Environmental Commission, which conducts foliage walks in the former quarry, has described it as an [E]cologically unique wild area in Springfield, located between Rt.78 and Mount View Rd., with trails to a deep basin and to a beautiful pond where wild turkeys, foxes, coyotes and colorful migrating birds have been spotted.

Today, along the summits of the Watchungs, talus slope environs as well as globally rare trap rock glade/outcrop communities and their unique species have become threatened by development.

The Hudson Institute of Mineralogy writes: This quarry in the Orange Mountain (First Watchung) basalt began operating in the early 1900s under the ownership of Louis Keller.

However, the quarry closed only 2 or 3 years later in the aftermath of the 1973 oil embargo and the resulting increase in fuel and asphalt prices.

[7]In the 1970s, the remains of a teenage girl named Jeannette DePalma, who lived with her family in Springfield, were discovered atop the Houdaille Quarry cliff known as The Devil's Teeth.

The Houdaille Quarry sits directly to the left of the Springfield dot marking the Hobart Gap , in the first Watchung Mountain
A sample of greenockite collected at the Houdaille Quarry in 1964.
A greenockite crystal in the center of a specimen collected at Houdaille which has a small crystal of chalcopyrite at the base. The crystals are sitting on a green prehnite matrix.