In one scene in the iconic Little 500-based movie “Breaking Away,” four young men lay on a slab of limestone, sunning themselves. As working-class locals, they were called the “Cutters” for the years their families spent working in the stone industry.
The first man leaps off the slab. He dives into the clear blue water below.
The shot shifts as another group arrives, this one of Indiana University students. One young man executes an impressive flip off a high cliff.
The Sanders Quarry they’re swimming in, known locally as Rooftop, sits 3.5 miles south of Bloomington.
Rooftop today is no longer the idyllic scene from the 1979 movie. It was recently filled in, following years of safety concerns.
It’s unclear when exactly the quarry was filled or who was contracted to do the job, but one thing is certain: the days of Rooftop swan dives and sunbathing are over.
Though it has become a symbol of Bloomington and a highly sought after hangout, Rooftop is privately owned.
Monroe County Sheriff Brad Swain said that’s where much of the trouble starts. The same things that made the quarry so inviting – no lifeguards, swimming all day and the freedom to lug a cooler of beer along with you –make it dangerous. In fact, swimming in the Sanders Quarry is trespassing.
Beyond that minor offense, Swain said the quarry also provided a huge opportunity for serious injuries.
“We’ve always had people that would drown from jumping and colliding with a rock on the way down,” he said.
Three people have died jumping from the quarry’s 65-foot ledges over the past 25 years, Swain said.
For this reason and more, the sheriff said it would have been attractive to the land’s insurance carriers to have the iconic place filled in.
Yaël Ksander, a spokesperson from the mayor’s office agreed.
“Of course Sanders Quarry is outside of Bloomington city limits but a big part of the lore of our area and beloved to us all!” she wrote in an email. “Clearly the liability was just too much for the owners to continue to shoulder.”
Swain said it’s also difficult for law enforcement to get equipment to the quarries when someone’s in danger. The space isn’t easily accessible, though he said some quarry owners do give keys and other forms of access to police.
The amount of people who park nearby and trespass through homeowners' yards is also high, he said. There's also the issue of the frequent incidents of petty theft from cars.
Though Rooftop was made famous by the Little 500 film, it was a popular hangout well before its release.
Swain said the picture of just a few people swimming on a clear day like the one depicted in “Breaking Away” isn’t accurate.
“If you watch the movie, it’s about five people,” he said. “Just picture that with about 100 — that was more commonplace.”
The sheriff, who grew up swimming in Monroe County’s quarries, said he remembers days where hundreds of people would gather at the various quarries across the county.
“It was just part of what you did to fill a summer day,” he said. “Its popularity preceded the movie.”
