In 1947 John and Mary Stark came to the area from Camp Campbell, Tennessee, where they had operated a rock-crushing business for the U.S Army. The Starks were offered the chance to own their own business and relocate to an area southwest of Girard. Once there, they produced agricultural lime, material used by local farmers to enhance crop growth, particularly for soybeans and corn. During the late 1940s and 1950s, the U.S. Government encouraged the use of agricultural lime to improve fertility of farmlands located in the so-called rain belt that included Missouri, eastern Kansas, Iowa, eastern Oklahoma, and much of the rest of the Midwest. Though ag lime was a principal company product in the early years, more recently, materials used in construction and road material have become the major materials produced and sold.
The Starks later expanded their business to include quarries in Farlington, Parsons and Mound Valley. Over the next several years, additional quarry locations were established as the company experienced growth. Those locations included Jasper Missouri, Miami Oklahoma, and Coffeyville and Chetopa Kansas. Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, competitive operations were purchased, which provided the company access to new markets. Companies purchased included Rock Inc. Carr Rock Products, Neodesha, with locations in Elk City, Altoona, Neodesha and Fredonia; Benedict Rock, Benedict; Harry Keith & Sons, Coffeyville, and OBrien Rock, St. Paul.
During the late 1960s, Midwest Minerals, which began as a sole proprietorship and later became a partnership of John and Mary Stark and George Nettels in 1968, incorporated with the current name of Midwest Minerals, Inc. Nettels is the chairman of the board and his son-in-law, Steve Sloan, who came to Midwest in 1995, serves as president of the company.
Midwest Minerals entered the ready-mix concrete business in the middle part of the 1980s and the asphalt plant began in the late 1980s. The company, which continues to thrive, operates three separate crushing operations that are portable and moved from one location to another. Demand for crushed stone products is forecast for each location and then subsequently crushed and inventoried. Midwest produces approximately 10 different-sized materials in addition to ag lime.
