MID HUDSON
OPUS 40
356 George Sickle Road
Saugerties, NY 12477
Hours: 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday through Monday. Guided tour at 11 AM.
Admission: See website.
Phone: (845) 246-3400 Email: [email protected]
Historical Description:
"In the early seventies Fite, a sculptor of wood and stone who spend 37 years turning his land into the architectural masterpiece known as Opus 40, took the time to build a museum to house his collection of quarryman's tools and artifacts -- a fascinating tour through the history of the area and the skills of its workingmen."
The Site:
Represented are not only quarrying equipment but also folk tools, most of them hand-forged, that the quarryman used every day: tools for farming, blacksmithing, caprentry and the like. Furnishings from a quarryman's household are also shown here -- stove, cupboard, even a game of handmade dominoes.
In creating Opus 40, Fite worked with traditional quarryman's tools: hammers, chisels and drills, and a huge hand-powered boom with a flat wooden tray for moving rocks.
He worked alone, using these hand tools, for most of 40 years, and his museum honors the tools and them upon whose work he created Opus 40.