Basalt was mined at the mountain stone from 1937 to 1962. To transport the basalt away, a 4.4 km long cableway was built to the former quarry at Farnsberg. There, the cableway was diverted and the basalt was transported to the basalt ballast plant in Oberriedenberg in the Sinn Valley.

The quarry at Gebirgsstein was used as a landfill for a while after it was closed down. Today it has been renaturalized and is part of a nature reserve. It may not be entered in March and April. The quarry allows us to take a look back into the earth's history. The traces of volcanism give us an idea of what the landscape looked like here about 18 million years ago when the mountain stone was formed. Red cinders and black basalt tell the story. The red cinders (also called "tuff breccias") were formed during explosive volcanic eruptions. The volcano spewed ashes and bombs that piled up to form a cone of cinders. We owe the black basalt to a somewhat quieter phase of volcanism, when the volcanic crater filled with molten magma. This lake of molten rock cooled slowly, forming the typical 5-6-cornered basalt columns. The present quarry is therefore located in a former volcanic crater. This has been preserved until today because it was covered by harder basalts in the following millions of years and thus protected.The mountain stone belongs to "Bavaria's most beautiful geotopes", an award of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment. On site, an information board vividly explains its formation and the history of the quarry.

The natural forest reserve is located on the premium hiking trail Extra tour "Basalt Trail.