Phenix

Overview

Marble for the Capitol

Railroad crews blasting a line between Ash Grove and Walnut Grove in 1884 hit a bed of fine limestone on Sugar Creek. Four years later a Kansas City investor, C. R. Hunt, started quarrying it, and a town grew up beside the pit. In 1904 the state geology bureau called Phenix the largest and best-equipped quarry in Missouri. Its polished stone, sold as marble, went into the Missouri State Capitol in 1917, and the company says it also went into the New York Stock Exchange and San Francisco's Legion of Honor.

Phenix was a company town. A 2017 Stone World article describes two- and three-room company houses, wages paid in scrip for the company store, two hotels, a church, a school, a depot and a community hall. The Depression stopped production, the rail line was pulled up, and the post office closed in 1942. Later owners never brought the quarry back to its old place in the market, and by the 1970s the town was largely gone.

In 2016 a Springfield quarry company bought the site and revived the Phenix Marble Company. The new stone has gone back to the Capitol, for its south steps. Photos from September 2017 are the newest record we found of what's left of the town itself.

Timeline

Stone, scrip and a second life

1. 1884Blasting for the Kansas City, Clinton and Springfield railroad between Ash Grove and Walnut Grove turns up limestone on Sugar Creek.
2. 1886Phenix gets a post office.
3. 1888Kansas City investor C. R. Hunt starts quarrying. The business runs as the Phenix Stone and Lime Company for nearly two decades.
4. 1902–1905A general store opens in 1902 and a two-room school in 1905. Milwaukee marble finisher W. J. Grant buys into the company.
5. 1904The Missouri Bureau of Geology calls Phenix the largest and best-equipped quarry in the state, with about 500 employees.
6. 1913The firm becomes the Phenix Marble Company, known for a stone sold as Napoleon Gray.
7. 1917Phenix marble goes into the interior of the new Missouri State Capitol.
8. 1930s–1940sThe Depression halts production and the rail line is abandoned. In World War II much of the quarry's iron equipment is scrapped.
9. 1942The post office closes.
10. 1945–1951Vermont Marble runs the quarry, then sells it to Carthage Marble in 1951.
11. 1970sPhenix is largely a ghost town.
12. 1980sDavid Richter buys the quarry and uses the land mainly for gravel hauling. Wikipedia dates the purchase to 1988.
13. Jun 2016Conco Quarries of Springfield buys the quarry and revives the Phenix Marble Company. Block mining resumes that summer.
14. 2020sThe company lists Phenix stone in projects from 2020 to 2026, including the Missouri State Capitol.

Site map

Where the town stood

Today's USGS topo puts Phenix at a crossroads of county farm roads beside Sugar Creek, with the quarry pit just to the southwest. On the 1956 sheet in the historic maps below, the name sits by a building on the creek, with quarries marked across the road to the west. The 1886 sheet, drawn before the quarry opened, marks no settlement here, only the railroad running south from Walnut Grove across Clear Creek.

Accounts of what still stands disagree. One listing says nothing is left of the town, while the same page's description mentions surviving marble buildings. Neither is dated, and we haven't confirmed either.

Historic maps

Phenix on USGS maps, 1886–1982

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18861:125,00019561:24,00019821:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Walnut Grove is the nearest town, a few minutes north. From Springfield the route runs out US 160 and MO 123. We haven't driven either route, and the last stretch is on county farm roads next to the working quarry.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Photos

An abandoned stone house across the road from the quarry, September 2017A big circular saw inside a quarry building, with cut stone on the floor, September 2017A stone-cutting saw on a freshly cut limestone bench in the quarry, September 2017A concrete quarry building seen from the road, September 2017

Visitor reports

Been to Phenix?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Thanks. Your report reached us, and we'll read it before it goes on the page.

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Nearby

Other sites near Phenix

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Missouri index.

• Emmett6.9 mi SW · Dade
• Gresham8.7 mi E · Polk
• Orleans10.0 mi N · Polk
• Hulston11.5 mi NW · Dade
• Seybert15.8 mi NW · Dade
• Crisp18.7 mi NW · Dade
• Gaither24.3 mi SW · Lawrence
• Dewey25.2 mi NE · Polk

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Phenix": fact sheet fields (roads, climate) and the conflicting, undated notes on remains.
2. Wikipedia, "Phenix, Missouri", retrieved October 2026: the 1884 discovery, the railroad, Hunt and Grant, the store and school, the 1904 state report, the 1913 name, the decline, the 1970s, the Richter and Conco purchases, coordinates.
3. Stone World, "Phenix Marble Co.: The resurrection of a historic stone", June 1, 2017: the company town, scrip, buildings, 250 workers, the 1917 Capitol, later owners, the 2016 restart and the Capitol steps.
4. Phenix Marble Company and its Stone page, October 2026: mined since 1888, notable buildings, projects from 2020 to 2026.
5. Jim Forte Postal History, Greene County: post office 1886–1942.
6. RSMo 569.145, Missouri Revisor of Statutes: purple-paint posting.
7. Diedrichb's photos on Wikimedia Commons, taken September 4, 2017: the stone house across from the quarry, the concrete quarry building, the saws and the cut limestone. The newest record of the townsite we found.
8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• An abandoned stone house across the road from the quarry, September 2017: Diedrichb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A big circular saw inside a quarry building, with cut stone on the floor, September 2017: Diedrichb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A stone-cutting saw on a freshly cut limestone bench in the quarry, September 2017: Diedrichb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• A concrete quarry building seen from the road, September 2017: Diedrichb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Phenix and its quarries on Sugar Creek, 1956 USGS sheet: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Greenfield 1886, 1:125,000; Walnut Grove 1956, 1:24,000; Springfield 1982, 1:100,000.