Port Wing brownstone, a reddish sandstone formed about a billion years ago and composed mostly of quartz, feldspar, iron oxide, and silica, was prized for its strength, its lack of fossils and pebbles, and its softness when first quarried, which allowed it to be cut and carved for architectural use before hardening with exposure. Considered by some to be of the very best grade in the Port Wing area, it became a popular building material for grand and massive structures across the Midwest and Eastern United States during the last half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, before skyscraper and steel girder construction brought decline to the industry. Quarrying around Port Wing began in 1889 on land leased from Issac Wing, and soon another quarry opened on the Iron River south of the Orienta Townsite. In 1895, Joseph, John, and Ole Miller of Duluth bought 68 acres on Quarry Point from land originally owned by Maggie McCardle, and their Lake Superior Brownstone company began operations that year, cutting stone that was then barged to Duluth for finishing. At the site, steam drills bored holes, a steam-powered channeler cut slices 8 to 10 feet deep, and chunks three or four feet wide were cut crosswise from the bed and hoisted out, with the company operating one channeler, two gang saws, and two derricks. Ownership passed from the Miller Brothers to Portage Entry Quarries in April 1903, when the property had grown to 114 acres, then in 1906 to George Froney representing Port Wing Quarries Co., in 1909 to Kettle River Quarries Company, and in 1921 to John A. Smith and William Penn of Minneapolis, while Froney remained general manager throughout successive ownerships until the quarry ceased operation in 1929. Stone from Port Wing was used in the Wisconsin Building at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, in William Jennings Bryan's home in Lincoln, Nebraska, George Crosby's home in Duluth, the Martin Patterson Mansion in Superior, the Department of Interior Building in Washington, D.C., and locally in the basement floor of the Port Wing School, the foundations of the Lutheran Parsonage, and the O.T. Bagstad warehouse.