Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near West Oolitic Oolitic, IN

Oolitic is built directly on the stone it is named for: oolitic limestone, whose name comes from the Greek words for 'egg' and 'stone,' after the tiny egg-shaped grains in the rock.

The town was first platted as 'Limestone' on September 26, 1888, but when a post office was requested in 1896 the name was refused because another Indiana town already used it, and Dr. R. B. Short suggested 'Oolitic' instead.

Replatted on March 23, 1896, by the Bedford Quarries Company and incorporated in 1901, Oolitic was founded expressly to quarry building stone.

The quarry boom pushed Oolitic's population to 1,079 in 1910 and roughly 2,000 by 1914.

Immediately north of Oolitic lie some of the largest limestone quarries in the world, many of them in continuous operation since the 1830s.

The 'Empire Hole,' about half a mile north of town, supplied the Empire State Building: 35,017,500 pounds of limestone block were extracted there in 1931 and shipped to Manhattan, and the same quarry provided stone for the building's 2001 renovations.

Lawrence County brands itself 'Limestone Country,' and its stone - also called Bedford stone or Salem limestone - was used in the Pentagon and the new Yankee Stadium as well as the Empire State Building.

A limestone statue of Joe Palooka, the comic-strip boxer, stands in Oolitic; it was moved there from Bedford in 1984.

Movie fans know Oolitic as the opposing basketball team in the season opener of the film 'Hoosiers.'

Oolitic had a population of 1,137 at the 2020 census, living in 500 households.