Mount Airy is a town built on granite, even its soil is mixed with residue of the stone. Long before anyone had even heard of “Mayberry," Mount Airy was already earning acclaim as “The Granite City” largely due to the existence of 40 acres of bare rock just a couple miles south of town. Known to locals as “The Rock”, the land was deemed “useless” by the farmer who purchased the parcel as part of a bigger tract. This “useless” portion of land is now home to the world’s largest open-faced granite quarry, owned and operated by North Carolina Granite Corporation, A Division of Polycor.