John B. Gallegos, owner of Telluride Stone

Interview by Irene Rawlings

Margie Hamrick, owner of EcoExistence and developer of Mountain Living’s Natural Dream Home 2008, chose Telluride Stone because of its beauty and versatility. “We are using ‘Telluride Gold’ as the masonry stone on fireplaces and outside walls and, in the form of huge, beautiful boulders, as part of the landscaping.” Margie was also impressed with the green aspects of the company. “They are mining stone from an area (the Telluride airport) that probably would just have been blasted and hauled away to the landfill, but John is disassembling this mountain one rock at a time and, in the process, preserving the earth in a very well-thought-out way.”

Photo by John Johnston

Mountain Living: Tell us how your company, Telluride Stone, got its start?
John B. Gallegos: I grew up in the masonry business and got into the stone-quarrying business in 1991 through a chance meeting with some executives of the Telluride Airport. They were being mandated by the FAA to create a larger safety area around the airport but were challenged by the amount of stone that would have to be quarried out of the mountain. They would have had to petition either the town of Telluride or San Miguel County for tax dollars. But we are able to harvest the stone and pay the airport a royalty. This allows the airport to expand the runways and safety area, and to operate without tax money. In return, we are able to provide a fine local stone to the construction industry in Colorado and western United States. That’s what I call a win-win situation.

ML: What kind of stone are you harvesting?
JBG: It is a quartzitic sandstone—basically sandstone that was hardened and stratified by local volcanic activity millions of years ago. Our stone varies in color from light brown to gold to black.

ML: How do area builders use your stone?
JBG: We can cut the stone to any thickness, from 3/4 of an inch to 24 inches. The larger stone is often used for landscaping elements—like dry-stack retaining walls—and for dramatic entry features. The thin (1-inch to 11/4-inch) veneer can be applied onto a home—outside or inside—to give the look of full veneer stone without the weight and expense.

ML: What are some of the uniquely green features of stone?
JBG: I like the potential for passive solar. With the proper architectural design, stone provides coolness during the day and heat at night.

ML:  In what other ways is Telluride Stone a green company?
JBG: Most of our workforce lives in the Montrose area. Each day, up to 60 employees are transported by a 15-passenger van to our quarry operation. At our facility in Grand Junction, we are using a state-of-the-art water-filtration system that removes the non-toxic stone cuttings so that we can continually recycle the water used in the sawing process. Our diamond saw blades are resegmented up to nine times. We use recycled lumber for our pallets and crates for shipping, and we are always looking to do other things to become more energy efficient.

Telluride Stone
(303) 888-8863 (Denver showroom); (970) 728-6201 (Telluride, Colorado)
telluridestone.com