Southern Indiana's central region has long held abundant sedimentary rocks, and Perry County drew on major supplies of limestone, sandstone, and coal with the advantage of Ohio River transportation from the nineteenth century to the present. These rocks were described as souvenirs of the ice age, with limestone identified as a Mississippian-age grainstone deposited more than 400 million years ago along with gypsum, dolostone, shale, siltstone, and chert. Indiana limestone's uniform texture made it a favored building stone around the world, bringing about $26 million annually, and although the chief source lay north of Perry County in Monroe and Lawrence counties, crushed limestone was produced at many Ohio River sites, especially by Mulzer Crushed Stone in nearby Tell City. Sandstone was plentiful in Perry County, particularly along the bluffs, and in 1836 Seth Hunt opened a quarrying business on the hillside behind Cannelton for coal and sandstone. The venture took twenty years to become profitable, but before then Hunt supplied sandstone for the Indiana Cotton Mill at Cannelton. From 1849 to 1861 Hunt did not use the quarry, and community members cut stone there for many Cannelton buildings, including St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, built in 1858 with a 156-foot spire that dominates the townscape. Other quarries in the Cannelton area furnished materials for locks and dams, building foundations, and stone blocks, and the stone was shipped to many parts of the country. Perry County, established in 1814, was named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry after his 1813 victory over the British on Lake Erie during America's second war with England.