The Castalia Quarry MetroPark began as the Wagner Stone Company's Quarry #5, a limestone quarry that operated from the early 1870s. From 1870-1929, its limestone was used mainly for shoreline rip-rap, glass making, railroad ballast, and other general building purposes. Early operations relied on horses, steam engines, and hard manual labor to blast the stone and carry it up to the quarry ridge, where crushers broke it up before delivery by wagon or railroad. Quarrying ended in 1929 during the Great Depression, but work resumed in 1954 with upgraded machinery when construction of the Ohio Turnpike began. Stone from the quarry was used in the foundations of both the Edison and Bay Bridges. After major construction projects were completed by the mid 1960s, the quarry closed permanently. In 1987, Wagner Quarries donated part of the property to Erie MetroParks, which bought the rest to create the Castalia Quarry MetroPark.