Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Macchu Picchu
Peru • 10 days, 9 nights
Peru: Machu Picchu & the Last Incan Bridges
from
Central Asia yurt night stars
Uzbekistan • 15 days, 14 nights
Central Asia Road Trip: Backroads & Bazaars
from
View all trips
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All the United States New York State New York City Saugerties Opus 40

Opus 40

One man's swirling six-acre monument of stone.

Saugerties, New York

Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
A view of Opus 40 from the eastern edge of the quarry   Blake Olmstead
Bluestones cascading toward a meadow   Blake Olmstead
A pool at the base of Opus 40   Blake Olmstead
A view of Opus 40’s central nine-ton monolith   Blake Olmstead
A collection of tools inside the Quarryman’s Museum at Opus 40   Blake Olmstead
Harvey Fite’s home   Blake Olmstead
Creepy Fite Workshop, TCM style   Willymjr / Atlas Obscura User
A bridge in disrepair at the edge of the quarry   Blake Olmstead
Fite House Window   Willymjr / Atlas Obscura User
Quarry Trenches   Willymjr / Atlas Obscura User
Endless Stone.   Willymjr / Atlas Obscura User
Opus 40 under a blanket of snow  
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

Nestled in the woods below the Overlook and Roundtop Mountains in the Catskills, Opus 40 takes the visitor by surprise.

In 1938, artist and sculptor Harvey Fite purchased the quarry as a source of stone to use in his own work. That same year, Fite—who was then a professor of the Fine Arts at nearby Bard College—was invited to Honduras by the Carnegie Institute to do sculptural restoration work. During his season of work in Honduras, Fite was awestruck by the dry-stone building methods employed thousands of years prior by the Mayans and was thus inspired to use the heaps of stone in his own quarry to create an outdoor gallery in which to showcase his own sculptures.

He began what would become his most ambitious work in 1939 by first diverting water from a spring within the quarry to create two large pools. Around these pools, he constructed curving walls connected by cobbled pathways and labyrinthine staircases. Over twenty years after starting his work on Opus 40, Fite realized that the scale of his stone landscape had begun to overwhelm his smaller sculptures and that the landscape had become a sculpture in its own right. He removed his figurative works from the main site, placing some of them, which still stand to this day, nearer his house on the eastern edge of the quarry. 

For the next decade, Fite continued to refine, rebuild, and extend his earthwork, eventually installing the stately nine-ton, monolith at the work's highest point. After his retirement from Bard College in the early 1970s, he built the Quarryman's Museum on the grounds to house his private collection of folk tools and artifacts of the quarrying era. Around this same time, he finally gave a name to his masterwork. Fite jokingly said “Classical composers don’t have to name things, they can just number them Opus One, Opus Two, and so on.” Expecting that he would need 40 years to complete the work, it become known as Opus 40. 

Fite died in an accident during the thirty-seventh year of his labors. And while some areas are certainly left unfinished, Fite's stepson Jonathan Richards observes, "Opus 40 is as complete as it ever would have been. It was the product of Fite’s ceaseless vision, and could only have been stopped by his death."

Today, the site is open to visitors thanks to Barbara Fite, Harvey Fite's widow, who created a nonprofit group which still administers the site. A short monograph is screened on a loop in the admissions building where visitors can also visit the Quarryman's Museum. Above the amphitheater within the quarry, visitors can use provided stones to construct their own homage to Fite's work. Opus 40 was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001 and has been described in Architectural Digest as "one of the largest and most beguiling works of art on the entire continent."

Related Tags

Outsider Architecture Outsider Art Sculptures Sculpture Gardens Quarries Art Earthworks Statues

Know Before You Go

Hours vary.  Check the website before visiting and secure tickets.

Community Contributors

Edited By

jenneide, Blake, Willymjr

  • jenneide
  • Blake
  • Willymjr

Published

August 9, 2016

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Opus 40
50 Fite Road
Saugerties, New York, 12477
United States
42.050673, -74.031693
Visit Website
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Woodstock School of Art Sculpture Garden

Woodstock, New York

miles away

Overlook Mountain House Ruins

Woodstock, New York

miles away

Woodstock Artists Cemetery

Woodstock, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York State

New York State

United States

Places 807
Stories 45

Nearby Places

Woodstock School of Art Sculpture Garden

Woodstock, New York

miles away

Overlook Mountain House Ruins

Woodstock, New York

miles away

Woodstock Artists Cemetery

Woodstock, New York

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of New York State

New York State

United States

Places 807
Stories 45

Related Stories and Lists

50 Obscure and Amazing Places to Visit in 2017

List

By Atlas Obscura

The Most Curious and Fascinating Places We Came Across This Week

list

By Meg Neal

Related Places

  • The pond at Shisa park.

    Ishigaki, Japan

    Yonekoyaki Craft Center Shisa Park

    Along the side of the road on a small Japanese island is an extensive garden of uniquely designed Shisa statues.

  • Samúel Jónsson’s chapel, built to hold altar he built for the local church.

    Iceland

    Selárdalur Valley

    A "simple-hearted artist" turned an isolated Icelandic valley into his own art museum.

  • Neruda’s Gate by Mark di Suervo

    New Windsor, New York

    Storm King Art Center

    100 massive sculptures in the Hudson River Valley.

  • Baltimore, Maryland

    The American Visionary Art Museum

    A museum dedicated to exhibiting remarkable outsider art.

  • Chiann, a big beer drinker.

    Phillips, Wisconsin

    Fred Smith's Wisconsin Concrete Park

    An oddly poignant roadside attraction celebrating American folklore.

  • Knislinge, Sweden

    'Fideicommissum'

    A bronze, peeing self-portrait protests unequal inheritance rights.

  • The Raven’s Nest.

    Reykjavik, Iceland

    The Raven's Nest

    This oceanside Reykjavik spot is speckled with recycled sculptures and large stones.

  • The Gnome gnows!!

    Silverado, California

    Modjeska Shakespeare

    This 75-year-old Shakespearean sculpture is painted by a local artist for every season.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.