Junction City furnished all the limestone that was needed in the construction of the East wing of the Kansas State Building.

The first commercial process for sawing stone happened in June 1866 when Major O. J. Hopkins got the idea after watching Junction City local, Daniel Mitchell, experiment with hand sawing the stone during the construction of his home the previous year.

Hopkins gathered some associates and formed a company to saw stone. After several moderately successful attempts, one of the associates, James R. McClure, retired from the company to focus on his law practice.

Later, Hopkins interested other people in the endeavor and formed the Junction City Stone Sawing Company on April 10, 1867.

On April 19, 1867, the Junction City Stone Sawing Company secured the contract to furnish limestone for the Capitol east wing project.