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Home > California > CA - Quarry Links and Photographs > Santa Cruz County > List of Stone Quarries
(* Please note this list does not include sand or gravel quarries.)
According to this article, the Bamboo Giant Nursery in Aptos is located in an old rock quarry. The nursery is 15 minutes south of downtown Santa Cruz , California . (A map of the pathways in the nursery is available at the nursery in addition to benches on which you can enjoy a picnic lunch.)
(A. R. Wilson Quarry - See: Armoas, Santa Cruz County, California - Aromas Granite Quarry below.)
Mine name: Bonny Doon Limestone & Shale;
Operator: RMC Lonestar;
Address & County: 700 Hwy. 1, Davenport, CA 95017, Santa Cruz County; Phone: (408) 458-5700;
Latitude: 37.03, Longitude: -122.15, and Mine location number: Map No. 728; Mineral commodity: Limestone.
"Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company's plant at Davenport and the quarry on San Vicente Creek 3 miles north of the plant in sec. 15, T. 10 S., R. 3 W., M.D., have been illustrated and described by Hubbard (43),* Laizure (26),** and Young (25).***
(* Henry G. Hubbard, "Carbon Dioxide Gas Occurrences in Mendocino and Northern Sonoma Counties," California Journal of Mines and Geology, vol. 39, pp. 301-309, 8 figs., 1943.)
(** C. McK Laizure, San Francisco Field Division, "Santa Cruz County," California Mining Bureau Report 22, pp. 8-93, illus., 1926.)
(*** "Quarrying Limestone by Glory Holes," Eng. and Min. Journal-Press, vol. 120, pp. 13-16, 7 figs., pp. 249-253, 5 figs., 1925.vol. 127, pp. 954-956, 1929.)
"The cement plant has been in operation since 1907. It has a capacity of 10,000 barrels daily and makes portland and high-silica cements. The land holdings are about 1100 acres.
"The limestone deposit is stripped under contract and is quarried by a combination of glory hole, transfer raises, bulldozing chambers, chute-loading and adit transportation. The deposit has the appearance of a roof pendant but does not show evidence of contact metamorphism near the surface; the effects are those of regional dynamite metamorphism, where the limestone has been recrystallized as a coarsely crystalline semi-marble. There was reported to be 500 feet of backs and the length is reported to be 2800 feet to three quarters of a mile. The quarry-run material is said to have from 85 to 92 percent CaCO3, the balance being mostly 'clay.'
"An analysis made in 1911 agrees closely with others previously quoted for the district.
CaCO3, 95.97 percent
MgCO3, 1.34 percent
Fe2O3, 0.60 percent
Al2O3, 0.73 percent
SiO2, 1.42 percent"The manufacture of 10,000 barrels of cement a day requires mining about 2,000 tons of limestone. The company was the first to make use on this coast of bulk loading of a specially designed ocean-going steamer for transporting cement, in conjunction with cement silos and packing plants which were built at Portland, Oakland, Stockton, and Long Beach. A special pier 2327 feet long extending to deep water at Davenport, and carrying the pipes for loading the cement on the steamer, was required. The steamer has a cargo capacity of 422,712 cubic feet."
(Operator) Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co.; (Address) 324 Crocker Bldg., San Francisco 4; (Location) Davenport.
(Operator) Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co. (industrial limestone); (Address) 327 Crocker Bldg., San Francisco; (Location) Davenport.
"Felton, a station on the Narrow Gauge Railway, 6 miles north of Santa Cruz, is the center of an important lime industry. Two separate beds of limestone, having a northeasterly dip and northwesterly strike, form bold projecting ridges on the face of the mountainside west and northwest of Felton."
Mine name: Felton Quarry; Operator: Granite Construction Company; Address & County: End of San Lorenzo Ave., Felton, CA 95018, Santa Cruz County; Phone: (408) 335-3455; Latitude: 37.04, Longitude: -122.10, and Mine location number: Map No. 731; Mineral commodity: Stone.
"Holmes Quarry; The Holmes Lime Company, 24 Sacramento street, San Francisco, owner. Located on the mountain 2 miles northwest from Felton. The limestone is exposed from the base to the top of the mountain, a height of probably 1000 feet, along the strike, and a quarry face of this height could be obtained if desired. Mica schist occurs in considerable quantities in the limestone, both as continuous bands from 6 to 10 feet thick and in irregular patches. It is readily separated in the quarrying, and the only serious drawback connected with its occurrence is the expense in handling it. In some places there will be a thickness of from 50 to 60 feet of limestone free from other rock, while elsewhere from 10 to 20 feet will be followed by a layer of schist of nearly equal thickness.
"The principal workings at two levels, one about half way up the mountain, the other near the top of the mountain. There is an incline railway extending from the kilns to the top of the mountain, and the stone is transferred from the quarries to the kilns on this track by gravity. At present, much of the stone is obtained at the head of the incline, where several openings are being made on both the north and south sides of the gulch.
"There are two quarry openings on the mountainside a quarter to half a mile south of the large quarry.
"Part of the stone is shipped in rough blocks as it comes from the quarry, but the greater portion is burned to lime in the pot-kilns at the foot of the incline, or in the kilns near the town of Felton, to which the stone is run on a tramways. Burning is done with wood obtained from the neighboring mountainside. The lime is barreled at the kilns in barrels made on the spot. These quarries have been in operation forty years or more."
"Holmes Lime Company began lime burning in this county in the early eighties near Felton, and continued work there until 1936. Since then title to the property passed to Santa Cruz County Title Company, Santa Cruz.
"The limestone quarries were on a steep hill rising 1000 feet about 2 miles west-northwest of Felton. Several quarry faces, the highest near the summit, were operated. The limestone occurs interbedded with mica schist. It was white, varied from finely to coarsely crystalline and was considerably shattered. The layers of limestone were said to be 50 or 60 feet thick.
"The company was an important lime producer, reporting, for example, an output of 220 barrels of lime for the two years ended September 1, 1890, and 70,000 barrels in 1893. Most of the lime was burned in pot kilns near Felton, and in later years a hydrate plant of 25 tons daily capacity was also operated. Continuous kilns were tried here also, but evidently did not prove satisfactory for the shattered, coarsely crystalline limestone."
(The following is an excerpt from A Guidebook to Mining In America: Volume 1: West (The Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and farther West), by John R. Park, Stonerose Publishing Co., Miami, Florida, April, 2000," available at Stone Publishing Company. The following quotation is used with permission of the author, John R. Park..)
"The Nature Center in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park includes a room devoted to the Fall Creek Lime Kilns. A video may be watched.
"The 3 existing lime kilns and a supporting company town (which no longer exist) were built in the early-1870s by the IXL Lime Company.The works were purchased by Henry Cowell in 1900 and incorporated into his lime and cement company. Limestone was blasted from a nearby cliff and transported to the kilns by a gravity railroad. Local timber was felled to fire the kilns. The lime produced was transported to Felton by wagon, then by train to Santa Cruz and finally by ship to San Francisco. Peak annual production reached 50,000 barrels of lime. The operations were shut down in 1919 because of competition from more efficient kilns.
"The Santa Cruz and Felton Railroad began operation in 1875, and presumably shipped the locally produced lime. Two excursion railroads are related to the SC&F, the Santa Cruz, Big Trees, & Pacific Railway (which runs from Felton to Santa Cruz using diesel locomotives) and the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad (which uses historic steam locomotives).
"Fall Creek Unit of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park features a map of hiking trails in the park and a concise well-written history of the lime works. Discovery Fall Creek...provides substantial additional detail."
"I X L Quarry; Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company, 211 Drumm street, San Francisco, owner. Located about half a mile north of the Holmes quarry above mentioned. There are three pot-kilns in use, with a capacity of about 250 barrels per day. The lime is barreled at the kilns in the barrels made at the works and hauled by wagon to Felton station, about 2 ½ miles. The quarry is at the confluence of two deep cañons, with one opening in the steep hill between the two cañons and another opening on the point immediately west. The limestone stratum at the quarry is nearly vertical, and extends from the base to the top of the mountain, with no covering except a little vegetation in the irregularities of the surface. The present quarry face is about 200 feet, but may increase to 400 feet or more as the quarry is worked back, before any stripping is necessary. The thickness of the stone exposed at the quarry is nearly 300 feet, but the entire bed is probably considerably thicker, as the contact with the granite is not shown on either side. The greater comparative durability of the limestone over the granite is shown by the projecting ridges of limestone in the midst of the granite mass, both here and at the Holmes quarry. The wood for burning the lime is obtained from the hills in the immediate vicinity of the kilns."
| Ill. No. 33. I X L.. Limestone Quarry, Felton, Santa Cruz County. |  |
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