PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE Harrell Clary, left, helps Lampasas County Historical Commission member Jim Anderson and chairman Janie Potts identify a grass on Clary’s property just east of Lampasas. Clary has planted native grasses and flowering plants to attract butterflies to the site of the former Casbeer quarry. Long after the removal of the last stone block from the Casbeer quarry, several landowners and history aficionados continue their search for facts about the site.

Samuel Houston Casbeer -- who lived from 1859- 1929 -- owned a quarry off what is now Farm-to-Market Road 580 East just outside Lampasas, according to a family history, written by Sharon Pinckney, included in “Lampasas County Texas: Its History and Its People.”

Isaac Preston Casbeer, Samuel Houston’s younger brother and the fourth of John and Elizabeth Casbeer’s six children, worked as a master stone mason and got most of his limestone from Samuel Houston’s quarry.

PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE Lampasas County Historical Commission member C.M. Crawford, far left, snaps a photograph on a rock ledge at Harrell Clary’s property on Farm-to-Market Road 580 East as commission member Jim Anderson, Clary and historical commission chairman Janie Potts look on. The ledge is part of the remains of the historic Casbeer quarry, believed to have supplied much of the limestone for several of Lampasas’ oldest homes and buildings. A newspaper account of I.P. Casbeer’s death, quoted in the county history book, states that Casbeer “either built or assisted in the construction of more buildings in Lampasas than any other man. Among the first work he did was on the First Baptist Church building, which was...destroyed by fire last year [in 1938].

“Then to complete his work of labor along this line, he was permitted to work on the new building just completed in its place,” the obituary continued. “Many a stone building in Lampasas is a memorial of his labors in his chosen field.”

I.P. Casbeer helped build numerous stone buildings around the downtown square and the original limestone high school and junior high school buildings, according to the county history book.

He also built many of Lampasas’ old stone and brick residences -- including the Key houses and the Stokes home on Fourth Street, according to the history book.

Under new owner Harrell Clary, the former Casbeer land -- perched on one of the highest points overlooking Lampasas -- is set to host much more delicate visitors than stone cutters.

Clary, who acquired the property earlier this year, plans to turn the former quarry site into a butterfly sanctuary.

Clary cleared cedars and planted about a thousand dollars of “weed seed” to generate a mix of about 30 native flowering plants, which he believes will attract butterflies. A number of native grasses -- including sideoats grama, the official state grass; big bluestem; Lometa yellow Indian grass; and buffalo grass -- also are taking root at the property. Clary plans to surround the area with a high fence to prevent deer from eating the butterflies’ habitat.

The Lampasas County resident hopes to attract a variety of butterflies, including black and yellow swallowtails -- which are among the largest kinds of butterflies found in Central Texas, Clary said -- yellow-colored sulphur butterflies and nymphalids. Nymphalids look like monarch butterflies but are smaller and arrive in Lampasas County in the summer, a few months before monarchs, Clary said.

Members of the Lampasas County Historical Commission recently toured Clary’s property, stopping to see the rock ledge where workers quarried blocks of limestone and a two-story rock house on the property. The home was built in 1916, said Elizabeth Benson, a neighbor of Clary’s who has lived next to the former quarry site since 1953.

Commission member Wilda Mullins has been researching the quarry for several months, and she said several questions remain. Who built the house on Clary’s land? Do adjoining properties have quarry ruins? When did quarrying stop?

To learn more about the quarry’s history, Lampasas Countians will have to keep digging.