Waveland Park Neighborhood Association

Spotlight on Businesses Des Moines-Winterset Monuments

Mar 31, 2001

Des Moines-Winterset Monuments at 4819 University has its roots in Madison
County, circa 1878. If you've visited the Winterset area, you've probably
seen the limestone deposits, the stone courthouse, Clark's Tower, and many
old homes made of limestone. County pioneers Ruth and Caleb Clark had a son
who started a monument works on the site where the Winterset factory stands
today.
The business has had a number of owners, and today is owned by the
Vermont-based Rock of Ages Company. It is managed by two Winterset natives,
Bob Bass and Gary Chickering. They have the Winterset and Des Moines
locations plus an office in Atlantic.

The Des Moines office was established in 1958, but there had been two other
monument companies on or near the same site for many years. One was the P.B.
Sheriff Memorial Company, the other was the McIlhon Memorial Company.
The Des Moines-Winterset Monument Company is the only Iowa monument company
which finishes (cuts and polishes) granite. It is also in the top two to three per cent nationally in retail sales.

The stonemason's craft has advanced to the point where they now use a
computer to design and cut stencils for the monuments. This has improved
quality and speeded up the process.

Today's monuments are almost all crafted from granite. Marble, a softer
stone, is sometimes used. D.M.-Winterset sells, but does not manufacture,
marble cremation urns.

Des Moines-Winterset Monuments receives its raw product (quarried chunks of
granite about the size of a small car) from wholesalers in Vermont, Georgia,
Minnesota, and South Dakota. Occasionally they get imported stone, but it
tends to be of a lesser quality. Indian and African granites are cheaper due
to the cheap labor in those areas of the world. Jet-black granite is the
rarest and most expensive.
Finished markers include engraving, digging down three and a half feet to
pour a concrete footing, and setting a foundation and marker. Prices range
from around $375 to $75,000, although the average is between $1,500 and
$2,500. Granite quality (there are seven different quality/cost categories),
color, size, and length of warranty all affect the ultimate consumer price.
Raw granite is relatively expensive because there may be up to seventy per
cent wasted during the blasting and sawing processes. The plant at the quarry
uses a computer to control the saws, which run night and day with almost no
human input. The expensive half-inch diamond blades must be replaced every
two weeks.

In about one out of every thousand monument sales, there is an engraving
request, which they must refuse because it may be in poor taste, according to
Gary Chickering, Vice President of D.M.-Winterset Monuments. There is
purportedly a monument (although not one of theirs) in Glendale Cemetery
which says, "I told you I was sick!"

If you have questions or are considering a monument purchase, stop by the
office on University. They are another of our Waveland Park good business
neighbors.
Janice Bristow