According to snipped-for-privacy@wdeans.com :
I think you should really consult a stone mason with ample experience before getting too serious about this, and then look into what's available at local yards and inspect what you have on the property.
Committing yourself to laying 1000 yards of stone without any serious prior experience is, I think, a course for disaster.
Almost all stone walls are built with a core of rubble with dressed (or at least more "regular") stone as a facing. You may wish to consider not going with
100% stone, and, for example, using a poured/reinforced concrete core with rock exterior layer (which is stronger, much quicker to build, has the same thermal characteristics as a mass stone wall and _much_ cheaper).Much "roughly square" stone naturally occurs that way. On our property, the bedrock (limestone) naturally fractures (by winter freeze/thaw) into fairly nice rectangular blocks 5"x10"x7" (flattened cinder block size) We just go out and pry 'em out. In another spot on our property, they naturally fragment into rocks about 1'x2'x18". We use the smaller ones for garden walls. Haven't started trying to use the bigger ones yet.
There are other places nearby where the natural fragmentation is like
2'x2'x3'. Fences built with this stuff look really cool.If you're lucky, you may find that "Gabion (sp?) basket stone" in your area is pretty squareish. These are wire mesh baskets used to build retaining walls around stream beds and bridges. In our previous home, the local rock supplier's basket stone was very similar to the stuff we find naturally on our current property - being close enough to square that you could build dry walls with it, with under 10% wastage. The advantage to this is that it's as cheap as you can possibly get for "bought stone" - often cheaper than crushed gravel. Like $12/yard. Meanwhile, "designer stone" can sometimes be >$1000 per ton.
Demolition companies are sometimes a source too. Cohen's (in Ottawa) collects building stone from demolished buildings and sells it by the ton. We bought a few skids worth at $100/ton.