Billion Dollar Rock Quarry

How’s this for interesting…  A $50,000 purchase of a rock quarry is really worth millions (billions?).  Here’s an excerpt from the whole story, which can be found here:

Matt White, a journeyman pitcher trying to make the Los Angeles Dodgers, could become baseball’s first billionaire player.

It has nothing to do with his arm. He owns a rock quarry in western Massachusetts.  White, who has appeared in seven big league games in nine professional seasons, paid $50,000 three years ago to buy 50 acres of land from an elderly aunt who needed the money to pay for a nursing home.

While clearing out a couple acres to build a home, he discovered stone ledges in the ground, prompting him to have the property surveyed.  A geologist estimated there were 24 million tons of the stone on his land. The stone is being sold for upward of $100 per ton, meaning there’s well over $2 billion worth of material used for sidewalks, patios and the like.

No word on what happened to the aunt (who one assumes is either still in a nursing home or who has passed away).  Apparently White may turn his tale into a movie.

[Miriam A. Cherry]