Calaveras County - List of Stone Quarries, Etc. *

(* Please note this list does not include sand or gravel quarries.)

• Altaville, Calaveras County, California – Rhyolite Tuff Quarry (From Geologic Guidebook Along Highway 49 – Sierran Gold Belt: The Mother Lode Country, Bulletin 141, Olaf P. Jenkins, Chief, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, 1949. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  “Altaville, the historic Cherokee Flat (also known as Winterton and Forks of the Road), has one very well preserved stone building, the Prince and Garibardi Store, built in 1857 of dressed blocks of rhyolite tuff (Fig. 59). Several dryrock walls are built of the same material (Fig. 63) as is the Demarest Foundry. A mile east of Altaville on the road toward Murphys there is a prominent butte, capped with rhyolite tuff. Known locally as 'lava' this material has been quarried since the 1850's and has provided a substantial, decorative building material for structures in Altaville, Angels Camp and Vallecito and facing and trim materials for buildings in more distant towns. This Peirano quarry is still in operation (Fig. 64) (circa 1948).”

  (pg. 116) Fig. 59. Prince and Garabardi store, Altaville, HABS 1205-2.	The B.R. Prince and Garibardi Building - This is the only building left in Altaville, which lies adjacent to Angels Camp. The building was built of dressed blocks of rhyolite tuff. *
  Altaville RhyoliteTuff Quarry at a distance (Photo #1) *	Altaville RhyoliteTuff Quarry at a distance (Photo #2) *
  Altaville RhyoliteTuff Quarry at a distance (Photo #3)*	Altaville RhyoliteTuff Quarry at a distance (Photo #4) *
  (pg. 118) Fig. 64. Rhyolite tuff quarry, 1 mile east of Altaville, DMBS Cal-H5.

  (* Photographs by Peggy B. Perazzo.)

  “The modernized town of Angels Camp is built around a core of eighteen-fifty period stone structures. The Angels Hotel built in 1855 now bears a new façade, but is still recognizable in its earlier style shown in Fig. 56 (sic). It is built of dressed rhyolite tuff blocks, as are at least a dozen other buildings in town of equal age. Examples which show rhyolite block construction are the Stickle Store, Scribner's Store, the Wells Fargo Building and the present Sierra Club (circa 1948). Source of the tuff was the quarry east of Altaville (Fig. 63) (sic)....”

• Calaveras County, California - Marble Tombstones Used in Calaveras County circa 1959. (Newspaper article transcribed by Dee Sardoc and presented on the Norcal email list July 25, 2006. )

  The San Andreas Independent, San Andreas, Calaveras County, CA, Saturday, May 7, 1859.

  “MARBLE TOMBSTONES -- It is perhaps not generally known that the marble from which tombstones are cut in this part of the world is nearly all obtained from quarries in Vermont. Such is the fact; and yet we have just as good marble within 10 or 15 miles of most of our mountain towns. Our attention was called to this matter on Wednesday last, whilst examining the lettering cut upon a tombstone by our townsman, Mr. James FINNIE, who has done an extensive business in this line and informs us that most of the marble for such purposes is imported.”

• Calaveras County, California - Hogan Quarry (Stone) (active ca 1996) (From Mines and Mineral Producers Active in California (1994-1995), Special Publication 103 (Revised 1996), California Department of Conservation, Division of Mines and Geology, in cooperation with California Department of Conservation, Office of Mine Reclamation. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  Mine name: Hogan Quarry; Operator: Ford Construction Co., Inc.; Address & County: 639 E. Lockeford St., Lodi, CA 95240, Calaveras County; Phone: (209) 333-116; Latitude: 38.15, Longitude: -120.83, and Mine location number: Map No. 34; Mineral commodity: Stone.

• Campo Seco (near), Calaveras County, California – the Campo Seco Tufa Quarries (circa 1887) (Tufa) – Excerpts from California “Building Stone” (pdf), in the Seventh Annual Report of the State Mineralogist.  For the Year Ending October 1, 1887, California State Mining bureau, Sacramento:  State Office, J. D. Young, Supt. State Printing, 1888, pp. 211-212.  (See the pdf version of the transcription above for detailed information on the Campo Seco Tufa.)
  

  Camp Seco Tufa.

  “...The Campo Seco tufa is a dull, grayish-white, earthy-looking stone, that to the casual glance seems to be fairly homogeneous in color and compact in texture, except for the occurrence of irregularly-shaped, soft, snowy-white fragments, with delicate, silky luster, immediately suggestive of pumice fragments....”

  “The stone is quite soft, easily admitting sawing into blocks and slabs, and yet is remarkably coherent, as the comparative high crushing strength testifies.  Mr. Morton A. Edwards, of San Francisco, the sender of the specimens tested, states that two years’ experience has proved that the tufa hardens somewhat on exposure to the weather....”

  “Occurrence. – Mr. Edwards states that there is an inexhaustible supply of the quarries near Campo Seco, in Calaveras County.  The stone has not yet been used in San Francisco.”

• Copperopolis (west of), Calaveras County, California - Slate Deposit (Slate) (Excerpt from Report XIV of the State Mineralogist - Mines and Mineral Resources of Portions of California, Chapters of State Mineralogist's Report - Biennial Period 1913-1914, Part I. “The Counties of Amador County, Calaveras County, Tuolumne County,” by W. B. Tucker, Field Assistant, San Francisco, California, July, 1915, California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1916, pp. 2-172.)

  “Running through Calaveras County there is a great belt of black slate, having a northwesterly and southeasterly course, and which has been exploited to some extent near Tower’s Ranch, 2 miles west of Copperopolis, on the Copperopolis and Oakdale road.”

• Douglas Flat (in the neighborhood of), Calaveras County, California - Marble Deposits (Marble) (Excerpt from Report XIV of the State Mineralogist - Mines and Mineral Resources of Portions of California, Chapters of State Mineralogist's Report - Biennial Period 1913-1914, Part I. "The Counties of Amador County, Calaveras County, Tuolumne County," by W. B. Tucker, Field Assistant, San Francisco, California, July, 1915, California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1916, pp. 2-172.)

  "The Columbia area of limestone which is exposed in the neighborhood of Vallecito, Douglas Flat, and Murphy, is extremely irregular, having a general strike of northwest and southeast. Most of the limestone although retaining a distinct bedded and schistose structure, has become a granular crystalline rock to which the name marble is applicable. When polished it is generally nearly white, marked by faint gray veinings and is rather fine grained. A small amount of development has been done on these deposits, but the quarries are idle (circa 1914) due to their distance from railroad transportation.

  "In the neighborhood of Murphy, east of Mokelumne Hill, and near San Andreas, there are extensive marble deposits which are undeveloped on account of the lack of transportation facilities."

• Douglas Flat, Calaveras County, California - Marble Quarried at Douglas Flat circa May 1860. (newspaper article)

  The San Andreas Independent, San Andreas, Calaveras County, California, Saturday, 12 May 1860. (Transcribed by Dee Sardoc and presented on the Norcal genealogy email list on November 5, 2006.)

  BEAUTIFUL MARBLE -- Mr. James HOLOHAN, of Angel's, exhibited at this office on Wednesday, a specimen of marble, neatly dressed and polished, obtained at Douglas' Flat, which is decidedly superior to any marble we have ever seen. It is of a spotless white, hard, and of the finest texture.

  • Douglas Flat, Calaveras County, California - Marble Quarried at Douglas Flat circa May 1860. (newspaper article)

    The San Andreas Independent, San Andreas, Calaveras County, California, Saturday, 19 May 1860 (Transcribed by Dee Sardoc and presented on the Norcal genealogy email list on November 6, 2006.)

    FINE MARBLE -- We have received from Mr. HOLOHAN of Angels, 2 finely dressed blue marble imposing stones each 26 x 40 inches, worked to the smoothest polish, and without flaw or imperfection. He informs us that the vicinity in which his quarry is located abounds with similar rock. We shall not be surprised if before many years the marble quarries of Calaveras and Tuolumne counties are rated among our valuable resources.

• Fosteria (near), Calaveras County, California - Young's Quarry (Limestone)

  See: Valley Spring (northeast of), Calaveras County, California - Young's Quarry on the next page.

• Jenny Lind, Calaveras County, California - Ione Silty Sandstone Quarry (Sandstone) (From Geologic Guidebook Along Highway 49 - Sierran Gold Belt: The Mother Lode Country, Bulletin 141, Olaf P. Jenkins, Chief, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, 1949. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  "Jenny Lind, today (circa 1948) almost deserted, was a booming town during the Gold Rush and vestiges of her previous opulence are seen in the abandoned ruins of stone and adobe buildings. The town can be reached from Cooperopolis via Salt Springs Valley and Milton. It is seven miles north of Milton. A building made of carefully dressed blocks of tuffaceous sandstone (Fig. 79) was once a grocery store. The building material was quarried near Valley Springs, a few miles to the north. One large adobe structure still stands (Fig. 80). Its foundation is made of local fieldstone. An old quarry, dug into an outcrop of Ione Silty Sandstone can be seen on the hillside just behind the town (Fig 81)."

  Fig. 81. Ione silt-sandstone quarry, Jenny Lind DMBS Cal-H18.

• Kentucky House/San Andreas (southwest of), Calaveras County, California - the Calaveras Cement Company Plant and Quarries (Limestone) (From Geologic Guidebook Along Highway 49 - Sierran Gold Belt: The Mother Lode Country, Bulletin 141, Olaf P. Jenkins, Chief, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, 1949. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  ".In several places along Calaveritas Creek, both southeast and southwest of San Andreas, limestone lenses occur in the Calaveras which are suitable for use in making Portland cement. Although parts of the lenses are dolomitic and carry too high a magnesia content for cement, excellent bodies of cement-grade limestone occur in them and are being exploited at the present time. The Calaveras Cement Company has a large plant situated a short distance west of Highway 49, 2 ½ miles south of San Andreas. The company allows visitors at its plant which is well worth going through.The plant can be reached by two different roads connecting with Highway 49 close to San Andreas. A private road and overpass which connects the plant to its eastern limestone quarries crosses Highway 49 at the Calaveritas Creek bridge."

  Fig. 25. Aerial view of part of the Calaveras Cement Company plant southwest of San Andreas.

  Fig. 26. Quarrying operation in one of the limestone pits of the Calaveras Cement Company near San Andreas.

  • San Andreas, Calaveras County, California - Calaveras Cement Co. (Cement) (Excerpt from "California Mineral Commodities in 1951," California State Division of Mines, California Journal of Mines and Geology, pp. Vol. 50, No. 1, January 1954, pp. 59-147. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

    (Operator) Calaveras Cement Co.; (Address) 315 Montgomery St., San Francisco 6; (Location) San Andreas.

  • Kentucky House, Calaveras County, California - Calaveras Cement Company's Plant (Cement Plant-Limestone) (Excerpt from "Limestone in California," by Clarence A. Logan, California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 43, No. 3, July 1947, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, pp. 175-357. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

    "Calaveras Cement Company's plant is at Kentucky House and is served by a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad from Valley Spring. The main office is at 315 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. The plant has been in operation since June 1926. It has been described in detail by the author (Logan 36, pp. 227, 232-233),* and by Townsend (33).** It is a wet-process plant and with the improvements and additions made during the past 2 years has a daily capacity of 7500 barrels. Starting with limestone deposits near Kentucky House, the company later opened a quarry near Old Gulch, northeast of Calaveritas. They also own limestone-bearing land in sec. 1, T. 5 N., 12 E., and sec. 6, T. 5 N., R. 13 E., 6 to 7 miles east of Mokelumne Hill. In both localities there are clusters of limestone outcrops in the Carboniferous (Mississippian) rocks which have been exposed by erosion in the stream canyons. A private road was built to the limestone near Old Gulch and high-speed hauling of stone has been employed over it since 1935.

    (* Clarence A. Logan and H. A. Franke, "Mines and Mineral Resources of Calaveras County," California Division of Mines Report 32, pp. 226-364, illus., 1936.)

    (** Robert H. Townsend, Method and Cost of Quarrying Limestone at the Plant of the Calaveras Cement Company, San Andreas, California," U. S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 6610, 11 pp., 1933.)

    "The recent additions to the plant include an Allis Chalmers kiln 11 feet 3 inches by 360 feet to supplement the two old 240-foot kilns, and the necessary crushers and mills for handling the increased tonnages of both stone and clinker. Diesel side-dump semi-trailer trucks with two dump-bodies each and a capacity of 35 tons are used for hauling limestone 5 ½ miles from No. 4 quarry near Old Gulch.

    "Limestone is drilled with churn drills, holes are chambered and large tonnages broken down by simultaneous blasting. Large blocks of stone are reduced by block-hole blasting. A Bucyrus 120-B electric shovel is used for loading trucks.

    "About 400,000 barrels of this company's low-heat cement was used in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Eight kinds of cement are made, including a white portland cement. This company (and a few others) have used some of the light-colored high-alumina clay of the Ione district, Amador County, for making special types of cement."

• Kentucky House (northeast of), Calaveras County, California - Cave City Limestone Deposit (Limestone) (Excerpt from "Limestone in California," by Clarence A. Logan, California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 43, No. 3, July 1947, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, pp. 175-357. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  "Cave City limestone deposit is 10 miles northeast from the railroad and cement plant at Kentucky House. It is the largest deposit in the western part of the county, comparing in size with the Volcano deposit in Amador County. Like the Volcano region it was once the scene of placer mining; there were some 1000 inhabitants in Cave City. The deposit is of Carboniferous (Mississippian) age.

  "The deposit is over 2 miles in length and extends over a vertical range of 500 or 600 feet between elevations of 1500 and 2100 feet. Crystal Cave in this limestone has been known since 1850, but because of its remoteness has not received the attention given to the caves near Murphy and Vallecito.

  "There is a very large tonnage of limestone in this deposit but its development may have to wait the exhaustion of smaller but more accessible deposits. A climb of over 1000 feet is involved in reaching it by present roads from Kentucky House."

• Kentucky House, Calaveras County, California - the Hertzig Marble Quarry (Limestone) (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

  "Hertzig Marble Quarry, in Sec. 29, T. 4 N., R. 12 E., M. D. M.; M. Hertzig, San Andreas, owner. A compact, gray building marble."

  • Kentucky House, Calaveras County, California - Hertzig Marble Quarry (Marble) (Excerpt from "Limestone in California," by Clarence A. Logan, California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 43, No. 3, July 1947, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, pp. 175-357. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

    "Hertzig marble quarry was in sec. 29, T. 4 N., R. 12 E., M. D., near the site of Calaveras Cement Company's plant, and probably on land now held by that company."

• Melones (northeast of), Calaveras County, California - Bishop Marble Properties (Marble) (Excerpt from Report XIV of the State Mineralogist - Mines and Mineral Resources of Portions of California, Chapters of State Mineralogist's Report - Biennial Period 1913-1914, Part I. "The Counties of Amador County, Calaveras County, Tuolumne County," by W. B. Tucker, Field Assistant, San Francisco, California, July, 1915, California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1916, pp. 2-172.)

  "Bishop Marble Properties. Situated 2 miles northeast of Melones, on the North Fork of the Stanislaus River. Controls 120 acres. Property undeveloped. Thomas B. Bishop Estate, 166 Geary street, San Francisco, Cal., owner."

  • Melones (northeast of), Calaveras County, California - Bishop Marble Quarry (Marble Placer Mine) (Marble) (Excerpt from "Limestone in California," by Clarence A. Logan, California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 43, No. 3, July 1947, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, pp. 175-357. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

    "Bishop marble (Marble placer mine) is in secs. 17 and 18, T. 2 N., R. 13 E., M. D., 2 miles northeast of Melones on the west side of Stanislaus River. It is undeveloped."

• Mokelumne Hill (near), Calaveras County, California - Rhyolite Tuff Quarries (From Geologic Guidebook Along Highway 49 - Sierran Gold Belt: The Mother Lode Country, Bulletin 141, Olaf P. Jenkins, Chief, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, 1949. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  "Near the junction of Highways 8 and 49, a group of underground rooms and quarries, from which rhyolite tuff building stone was taken, can be observed. Mokelumne Hill was fortunate in having so satisfactory a source of building material so close."

  "A traveler arriving in Mokelumne Hill is immediately struck by the observation that most of the buildings are made of well finished stone blocks. These are of light brown rhyolite tuff...The hill which rises west of town was the source of the rhyolite tuff which has here a long surface outcrop in which can be seen the quarry pits opened in the 1850's (Fig. 95)."

  Fig. 95. Rhyolite tuff quarry, Mokelumne Hill, DMBS Cal-H30.

• Mokelumne Hill (east of), Calaveras County, California - Laidet Ranch Talc Deposit (Talc) (Excerpt from Report XIV of the State Mineralogist - Mines and Mineral Resources of Portions of California, Chapters of State Mineralogist's Report - Biennial Period 1913-1914, Part I. "The Counties of Amador County, Calaveras County, Tuolumne County," by W. B. Tucker, Field Assistant, San Francisco, California, July, 1915, California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1916, pp. 2-172.)

  "Laidet Ranch. Situated 6 miles east of Mokelumne Hill, on the Calaveras River, in Sec. 3, T. 5 N., R. 12 E., There is a deposit of good grade talc, 3 feet in width, also a reef of soapstone 50 feet wide, and can be traced for 1000 feet on the property. Idle. Aime Laidet, of Mokelumne Hill, owner."

• Murphys (west of), Calaveras County, California - the Ed. Black's Claim (Talc) (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

  "Ed. Black's Claim, 2 ½ miles west of Murphys, on the French Gulch road. Some talc has been taken out for local use in building chimneys and fireplaces."

• Murphys (northwest of), Calaveras County, California - the Mercer's Cave (Limestone) (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

  "Mercer's Cave, in Sec. 31, T. 4 N., R. 14 E., M. D. M.; W. J. Mercer, of Murphys, owner. This wonderful work of nature lies just off the Sierra road, 1 ¼ miles northwest of Murphys, and was discovered in 1885 by the owner. It occurs in the limestone belt that passes through Murphys, and consists of several chambers, which are connected by stairways and lighted by electricity. The first room is 200 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 58 feet high, with thousands of stalactites hanging overhead and on the walls in the most fantastic shapes. The entire cave is 362 feet long and about 150 feet deep.

  • Murphys (northwest of), Calaveras County, California - Mercer's Cave Limestone Belt (Limestone) (Excerpt from Report XIV of the State Mineralogist - Mines and Mineral Resources of Portions of California, Chapters of State Mineralogist's Report - Biennial Period 1913-1914, Part I. "The Counties of Amador County, Calaveras County, Tuolumne County," by W. B. Tucker, Field Assistant, San Francisco, California, July, 1915, California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1916, pp. 2-172.)

    "Mercer's Cave. Situated 1 ¼ miles northwest of Murphy, and was discovered in 1885. It occurs in the limestone belt that passes through Murphy, and consists of several large chambers which are connected by stairways and lighted by electricity. The entire cave is 362 feet long and about 150 feet wide. W. J. Mercer, of Murphy, owner."

• Murphys (west of), Calaveras County, California - Talc Deposit (Talc) (Excerpt from Report XIV of the State Mineralogist - Mines and Mineral Resources of Portions of California, Chapters of State Mineralogist's Report - Biennial Period 1913-1914, Part I. "The Counties of Amador County, Calaveras County, Tuolumne County," by W. B. Tucker, Field Assistant, San Francisco, California, July, 1915, California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1916, pp. 2-172.)

  "Two and one half miles west of Murphy, on the French Gulch road, some talc has been taken out for local use...."

• San Andreas (southwest of), Calaveras County, California - the Calaveras Cement Company Plant and Quarries (Limestone)

  See: Kentucky House, Calaveras County, California - Calaveras Cement Company above.

• San Andreas (near), Calaveras County, California - Marble Deposits (Marble) (Excerpt from Report XIV of the State Mineralogist - Mines and Mineral Resources of Portions of California, Chapters of State Mineralogist's Report - Biennial Period 1913-1914, Part I. "The Counties of Amador County, Calaveras County, Tuolumne County," by W. B. Tucker, Field Assistant, San Francisco, California, July, 1915, California State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1916, pp. 2-172.)

  "The Columbia area of limestone which is exposed in the neighborhood of Vallecito, Douglas Flat, and Murphy, is extremely irregular, having a general strike of northwest and southeast. Most of the limestone although retaining a distinct bedded and schistose structure, has become a granular crystalline rock to which the name marble is applicable. When polished it is generally nearly white, marked by faint gray veinings and is rather fine grained. A small amount of development has been done on these deposits, but the quarries are idle (circa 1914) due to their distance from railroad transportation.

  "In the neighborhood of Murphy, east of Mokelumne Hill, and near San Andreas, there are extensive marble deposits which are undeveloped on account of the lack of transportation facilities."

• San Andreas (east of), Calaveras County, California - Marble Deposits (Marble) (Excerpt from "Limestone in California," by Clarence A. Logan, California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 43, No. 3, July 1947, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, pp. 175-357. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  "A mile northwest along the strike of the Calaveras beds, there are 2 small bodies of marble on each side of Murray Creek, a short distance east of the Mokelumne Hill road. About 1 ½ miles farther northwest, 2 more small outcrops occur. None of these have been developed."

• San Andreas (east of), Calaveras County, California - the Treat Marble Quarry (Marble) (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

  "Treat Marble Quarry, in Sec. 16, T. 14 N., R. 12 E., M. D. M.; J. F. Treat, Sr., San Andreas, owner. Located 1 ¼ miles east of San Andreas. The quarry lies on the hillside, and the marble is very easily quarried. The stone is used in erecting the Hall of Records in San Andreas. It is a very compact, finely crystalline marble, and both white and variegated varieties are available."

  • San Andreas (east of), Calaveras County, California - Treat Marble Quarry (Marble) (Excerpt from "Limestone in California," by Clarence A. Logan, California Journal of Mines and Geology, Vol. 43, No. 3, July 1947, California Division of Mines, San Francisco, California, pp. 175-357. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

    "Treat marble quarry is in sec. 16, T. 4 N., R. 12 E., M. D., 1 ¼ miles east of San Andreas. The deposit is on a hillside and easily accessible. It is a very compact, finely crystalline white and mottled marble. It was used in erecting the Hall of Records in San Andreas."

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