ROCK CITY
Prior to the incorporation of the Village of Valmeyer, the area that developed near the bluffs was called “Rock City.”  Around 1900 the St. Louis Valley Railroad opened a Quarry in the bluffs to provide rock for their roadbed as the railroad was built through the Monroe County bottoms.  After the railroad had enough rock for their needs the Quarry was closed.  Around 1918, the Quarry was reopened as the Columbia Quarry Company.  This company continued limestone quarrying operations at the facility until the early 1990’s.
For many years the mined out area of the Quarry was used for growing mushrooms.  The first mushroom farm was started in Valmeyer in 1930 under the name of Valmeyer Farms, and it was operated by Gus Ritzel.  In 1950 the mushroom farming operation was taken over by the Knaust family of New York.  Knaust marketed fresh mushrooms throughout the greater St. Louis area, and canned mushrooms all across the world.  In 1974, the plant was sold to the Castle and Cooke company of California, and the facility was eventually closed in 1981.

During the height of the Cold War in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, part of the abandoned underground was set up as a Civil Defense shelter, completely stocked with supplies to accommodate thousands of people in the case of a nuclear attack.

As a result of the relocation of Valmeyer following the 1993 flood, the Village of Valmeyer took over ownership of the Quarry property in 1995.  In 2000, the Village entered into a marketing with Joe Koppeis / Admiral Parkway to develop the abandoned Quarry into an underground business complex.  More than 6 million square feet of space is available for development.  The facility now includes more than 200,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space, and development is underway on 400,000 square feet of space for the National Archives and Records Administration for storage of military personnel records.

For more information on the current Rock City development and for leasing space in the facility contact: Joe Koppeis, Admiral Parkway Development, 1000 Columbia Center, Columbia, Illinois, 62236 – Phone 618-281-6300.