What was the big hole?

[shadowedgalaxy]

I thought this was going to be another Uhura thread.

Giggity.

 

[M'Sharak]

Will there suddenly appear particular minerals at sites where they were not present before? No, there will not; geology doesn't work that way. Quarries are located in a particular place because that is where the minerals are.

I'm not talking about minerals. I mean the Riverside shipyard. It is entirely possible that this is where the shipyard will one day be built.

We're talking about the big hole in the ground -- the kind of hole from which minerals are taken in the form of large slabs -- the kind of hole in the ground which has a sign at the gate reading:

DANGER
Open Quarry Ahead
​

It cannot be the same spot as the shipyard, because there's nothing to quarry in Riverside, nor is there anywhere within 20 miles. Period.

Who's to say the yard doesn't have some underground component?

Where is there anything in the movie which suggests that it does?

 

[Jeri]

Some posters may not be aware that Riverside, Iowa, is a real place and that facts can be known about it; as well as where the real quarries are in Iowa.

 

[Kelso]

Some posters may not be aware that Riverside, Iowa, is a real place

Jeri is right about that. I saw it in Fanboys.

 

[M'Sharak]

Some posters may not be aware that Riverside, Iowa, is a real place

Jeri is right about that. I saw it in Fanboys.

It was also the setting for much of Shatner's 2005 parody/spoof/reality series Invasion Iowa. The town has been calling itself the future birthplace of Captain Kirk since 1985 and in more recent years has become the site of an annual Trek festival.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside,_Iowa#Star_Trek