Santa Cruz County – List of Stone Quarries, Etc. (Continued) *

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

Go to Section: Aromas, CA THRU Olympia Santa Cruz, CA (A-I) Santa Cruz (J) THRU Wagners Park, Santa Cruz (north of)

• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Jordan & Davis Lime Company Lime Kilns in the Pogonip Open Space Preserve (Lime Kilns) (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. If you are interested in a copy of this book, it is available on amazon.com.)

  “Pogonip Open Space Preserve – City of Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Dept.; 307 Church St.; Santa Cruz, CA 95060-3811. (408) 429-3663.trailhead is just south of jct of Coolidge Dr. and McLaughlin Dr., on E side of Coolidge Dr....”

  “The lime kilns of the Jordan & Davis Lime Company, are accessible via the Rincon Trail from SR9 or from Coolidge Drive on the University of Santa Cruz campus, an easy hike, about 0.7 mile, from either direction. Both trailheads are obscure and unmarked. The lime kilns are not identified. It is my understanding that there is only one set of lime kilns - if so, they are not on the Lime Kiln Trail, but rather are on the Rincon Trail about 500' south of the junction with the Lime Kiln Trail.”

  (Also See: Santa Cruz, California – Pogonip and Spring Street Limestone Quarry below.)

• Santa Cruz, California – Pacific Limestone Products Company and Quarry. History of the company taken from: "Mines and Mineral Resources of Santa Cruz County," by Henry G. Hubbard, California Journal of Mines and Geology, January 1943.
• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Pogonip and Spring Street Park - Limestone Quarry, presented by the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department. (The Mountain Network News web site provided further information and directions to the Pogonip Park.) (The link from which this information was obtained is no longer available.
  <www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/pr/parksrec/parks/pogo.html>

  According to the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation – Pogonip web site lumber and redwood logs were used to fuel the limestone kilns. The kilns were used to convert the limestone to lime, which is an ingredient in mortar and plaster. Originally, it is believed, parts of the Rincon Trail and Spring Trail were constructed for use as a road to connect the timber area, limestone quarries, and limekilns. You can still view the limestone kilns, and the roadside is still visible at several locations.

  The old Cowell Ranch once encompassed the Pogonip area. It was originally purchased for the lime and timber resources on the property. As the lumber was depleted and limestone use declined in the early 1900s, parts of Cowell Ranch were converted to livestock operations. The western portion of Cowell Ranch was sold to the University of California in 1961, and the remaining portion of the land became known as Pogonip.

• Santa Cruz (northwest of), Santa Cruz County, California – the Santa Cruz Lime Company Quarry (Limestone) (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

  "Santa Cruz Lime Company; Charles Moore, manager. The quarry of the Santa Cruz Lime Company is about 18 miles northwest of the city of Santa Cruz, and 4 miles inland of the beach. The landing place is some distance north of the mouth of San Vicente Creek. The quarry is on the west side of a deep cañon in the Coast mountains. A little railway track is cut into the steep rocky side of the cañon, and the stone is carried on small tram-cars about a quarter of a mile north of the quarry to the limekilns. There are two large stack-kilns, which produce from 90 to 100 barrels of lime each per day, and three pot-kilns in use. A cooper shop is located at the kilns, where the barrels are manufactured. The lime is barreled as it is drawn from the kilns and then hauled by wagon 4 ½ miles to the beach, where it is loaded on boats and shipped by water to San Francisco and points along the coast. The quarry has been in operation about five years and produces about 300 barrels of lime per day.

  "The stone is a coarsely crystalline blue limestone, similar to that at the other quarries in the Santa Cruz region. It is much broken and shattered and comes from the quarry in large, irregular blocks, which are broken up by blasting and by sledges into pieces small enough for the kiln. The present quarry face is nearly 100 feet high. The company is now starting a new opening on the upper side of the road, much nearer to the kilns.

  "The limestone occurs here in great abundance and outcrops in a number of places in the cañon. In the vicinity of the quarry there is a heavy growth of redwood and other trees, which are being cut to furnish wood to burn the lime and make barrels."

  Ill. No. 34. Santa Cruz Limestone Quarry, 18 miles N. W. of Santa Cruz.

  Ill. No. 35. Kilns and Cooperage of the Santa Cruz Lime Company, 18 miles N.W. of Santa Cruz.

• Santa Cruz (near), Santa Cruz County, California – Thurber's Quarry (Limestone) (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

  "Thurber's Quarry, the nearest one to Santa Cruz, is on the roadside about half a mile northwest of the reservoir. The stone has been quarried at three different levels. The lowest one, now abandoned, covers an area of several acres, and was quarried from 8 to 20 feet deep. The stone in the quarry face is much weathered. The second level has been worked over an area of about 500 square feet, and contains blue and gray coarsely crystalline limestone, banded in places and containing a pocket of white, yellow-stained clay. The upper level, now in operation, has been quarried from 8 to 20 feet deep over an area of a quarter of an acre. The stone in this opening occurs in larger dimensions than in any of the others. With the exception of the black adobe clay that has worked down in the fissures, it is quite pure limestone, and small pieces of good marble could be obtained. The stone is used for rubble and crushed stone. A crusher is located at the quarry."

  • Santa Cruz (northwest of), Santa Cruz County, California – the Thurber Quarry (Limestone) (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

    "Thurber Quarry; S. L. Thurber, 465 Pacific avenue, Santa Cruz, owner. The quarry is located 10 miles northwest of Santa Cruz, and is worked through a large, irregular, shallow cut. (See Macadam.)

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Thurber Quarry, City Street Improvement Company (Quarry Photographs ca early 1900s) The following photographs are from the Twenty-Second Annual Report, Part 1, U. S. Geological Survey . (The date of publication is unknown.)

    Thurber Quarry, City Street Improvement Company. Showing the bituminous sandstone overlain unconformably by Monterey shale.

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Thurber Quarry (or Miller Quarry) (Limestone) (Excerpts 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.)

    "Pacific Limestone Products Company was organized in 1922 and has been in operation since as a producer of limestone for a variety of uses. The main office, quarry, and plant are at the end of Spring Street, Santa Cruz."

    "When the company was organized it took over the Caplatzi quarry which had been supplying limestone for fertilizer, poultry food, flux, etc. Later the Miller, or Thurber quarry, which had been producing limestone for macadam and concrete work, was absorbed...."

    (Also see: Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Miller or Pacific Limestone Products Company Quarry.)

• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – W. E. Miller (Macadam) 28 Church street, Santa Cruz. (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.) (No further information is given.)
  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Miller Quarry (or Thurber Quarry) (Excerpt from “Mines and Mineral Resources of Santa Cruz County,” “Limestone,” by Henry G. Hubbard, California Journal of Mines and Geology, January 1943, California Division of Mines and Geology, pp. 44-46. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

    “Pacific Limestone Products Company

    “Home office, plant and quarry at Santa Cruz. Officers: Fred W. Johnson, president; D. L. Martin, vice president; M. M. Johnson, secretary. This company was organized in 1922 and took over the old Caplatzi quarry which had been operated on a small scale by former owners for many years. Since this 12 ½-acre property was taken over by the Pacific Limestone Products Company, the number of the raw limestone products prepared for specific purposes has been greatly increased, and they are now being sold under the trade name Kalkar for terrazo, stucco dash, chicken grit, roofing grit, commercial filler, mortar sand, cattle calcium, poultry calcium, fertilizer, macadam, and other ruses. By the installation of additional equipment at the plant and sales promotion work carried on among prospective users of raw limestone products, the company has succeeded in quadrupling the output of the quarry in the past 20 years. In 1922 production was about 125 tons per month as compared to the present average of 1200 tons per month. Complex mineral mixes for livestock and cattle now form the principal product. Of the many different salts and other minerals blended with the limestone in the latter products, only the iodine comes from California . However, the quarry itself has produced occasional rich specimens of metallic minerals, such as a seam or kidney of arsenopyrite in a calcite gangue.

    “The property now comprises 49 ½ acres, having added the adjoining 12-acre parcel, as yet unopened, on the north and having also acquired 23 acres adjoining on the south. This latter parcel was formerly known as the Miller quarry and previously as the Thurber quarry.

    “Miller Quarry

    “The Miller Quarry was described by Laizure* as having rock which varies from a coarsely crystalline white or bluish-white limestone to a finer-grained hard siliceous limerock. The small crushing plant then producing stone for macadam and concrete work has since been removed and the quarry has lain idle for the past 10 years or longer.

    “The working quarry and plant are located at the end of Spring Street, Santa Cruz, 2 miles northwest of the Southern Pacific depot, at an elevation of 250 feet. The deposit is a limestone rock, medium hard with very fine to very coarse crystals. The rock is shattered and broken in large masses and is bluish-white in color. The average face is 80 feet high; overburden consists of 2 to 8 feet of soil and red clay. Within recent years a new level has been opened 22 feet below the original floor and a greater selection of material thus made possible. The new level is drained by gravity flow in a deep ditch passing under the office building. The overburden is shot down with black powder to the floor of the quarry and removed by trucks. A good deal of this overburden is sold for fill material. All that is not sold is hauled to a waste dump.

    “Rock is blasted down with 10- to 22-foot toe holes averaging 8 to 10 feet from the face with 40 percent L. F. Extra Giant 7 / 8x8 dynamite. Owing to the many vertical seams a large amount of the rock is broken down without drilling. Air from a portable Schramm compressor operates several dry jackhammers using detachable bits. Pieces larger than 24 inches are plug shot and all rock is broken with 16-pound rock hammers to sizes less than 12 inches. Because of mixed impurities of magnesium and silica, all rock is hand-picked for its color, crystals, and impurities. Loading of all material is done by hand into steel skips fitted with removable aprons (for fine material) that trip from the truck-driver's seat. These skips hold from 1 to 1 ½ tons of rock and have a lug in each side to fit hoisting hooks on the company's ingenious patented trucks. The trucks are specially built on the Model A Ford chassis with a friction-drive cable hoist employing a worm-drive rear-axle assembly. Steering and handling are fast and flexible, since the driver faces the driving wheels with his back to the regular truck-motor wheel installation. This converts these trucks into a front-wheel drive, rear-wheel steering vehicle, and the steering gear is a simple lever that moves to and fro the driver like the stick in an airplane. After leaving an empty in its place, drivers pick up a skip loaded with the desired grade of rock and haul it some 600 feet from the working face to the primary crushed. Overburden is loaded into regular dump trucks by a similar hoist-truck having a somewhat higher lift. These special trucks burn butane gas carried in a tank placed in front of the radiator to counter-balance part of the pay-load which is all concentrated right over the driving wheels. In addition to butane gas, distillate and gasoline are also used. The plant, however, is operated entirely by multiple-unit electric motors connected by V-belts.

    “The 14 by 42-inch Roller-Bear primary jaw-crusher reduces the rock to 4 inches or less. This material is then elevated about 30 feet to a trommel screen removing waste dirt and cleavage material; passed through the secondary 10 by 36-inch haw-crushed which reduces it to 1 ½ inches or less; elevated 50 feet to a 100-ton working bin; thence automatically fed to a No. 2 Williams hammer mill; elevated to 3 units of Rotex 4-deck screens which make a separation of finely divided material and five sizes of granulars. The Rotex tailings go in closed circuit through a set of 12 by 16-inch rolls and drop into material from the hammer mill. Rotex screen scalpings, however, pass through a ring-roll Sturdevant mill; are elevated 35 feet and passed through a single-deck Ro-Ball screen. This material is either used as screened or passed into a 6-foot Sturdevant centrifugal air separator. Products are weighed by five automatic scales and packaged in four-lined paper bags.

    “The layout is simple and so arranged that the special products can be produced without any difficulty.

    “The plant operates the entire year. Twenty-two men constitute the average working force. Eight men are employed in the mill and sacking department, four men handle all hauling, and the rest are used in the quarry.”

    (* Footnote: Laizure, C. McK., Santa Cruz County: California Min. Bur. Rept., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 86, January 1926.)

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Miller Quarry (or Thurber Quarry) (Limestone) (Excerpts 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.)

    "Pacific Limestone Products Company was organized in 1922 and has been in operation since as a producer of limestone for a variety of uses. The main office, quarry, and plant are at the end of Spring Street, Santa Cruz."

    "When the company was organized it took over the Caplatzi quarry which had been supplying limestone for fertilizer, poultry food, flux, etc. Later the Miller, or Thurber quarry, which had been producing limestone for macadam and concrete work, was absorbed...."

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Miller Quarry (AKA the Thurber Quarry, & the Pacific Limestone Products Company Quarry, today known as Westlake Park at Bradley Drive and Spring Street. (These photographs were taken in the summer of 2003.) For more photographs of Westlake Park, visit the Santa Cruz City Parks Website for Westlake Park.

    Westlake Park sign.

    Westlake Park Lake (previously the Miller Quarry – AKA the Thurber Quarry, & the Pacific Limestone Products Company Quarry)

    Close-up photographs of the marble around Westlake Park lake. (Please note that this marble placed around the lake did not necessarily come from this old quarry. There is no indication of where it originated.)

• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – New Quarry, City Street Improvement Company (Quarry Photographs ca early 1900s) The following photographs are from the Twenty-Second Annual Report, Part 1, U. S. Geological Survey. (The date of publication is unknown.)

  New Quarry, City Street Improvement Company. Showing features similar to those of the Thurber.

• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Pacific Limestone Products Company (Excerpt from “Mines and Mineral Resources of Santa Cruz County,” “Limestone,” by Henry G. Hubbard, California Journal of Mines and Geology, January 1943, California Division of Mines and Geology, pp. 44-46. Used with permission, California Department of Conservation, California Geological Survey.)

  "Pacific Limestone Products Company

  “Home office, plant and quarry at Santa Cruz. Officers: Fred W. Johnson, president; D. L. Martin, vice president; M. M. Johnson, secretary. This company was organized in 1922 and took over the old Caplatzi quarry which had been operated on a small scale by former owners for many years. Since this 12 ½-acre property was taken over by the Pacific Limestone Products Company, the number of the raw limestone products prepared for specific purposes has been greatly increased, and they are now being sold under the trade name Kalkar for terrazo, stucco dash, chicken grit, roofing grit, commercial filler, mortar sand, cattle calcium, poultry calcium, fertilizer, macadam, and other ruses. By the installation of additional equipment at the plant and sales promotion work carried on among prospective users of raw limestone products, the company has succeeded in quadrupling the output of the quarry in the past 20 years. In 1922 production was about 125 tons per month as compared to the present average of 1200 tons per month. Complex mineral mixes for livestock and cattle now form the principal product. Of the many different salts and other minerals blended with the limestone in the latter products, only the iodine comes from California. However, the quarry itself has produced occasional rich specimens of metallic minerals, such as a seam or kidney of arsenopyrite in a calcite gangue.

  “The property now comprises 49 ½ acres, having added the adjoining 12-acre parcel, as yet unopened, on the north and having also acquired 23 acres adjoining on the south. This latter parcel was formerly known as the Miller quarry and previously as the Thurber quarry….”

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Pacific Limestone Products Company Quarries and Plant (Limestone) (Excerpts 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.)

    "Pacific Limestone Products Company was organized in 1922 and has been in operation since as a producer of limestone for a variety of uses. The main office, quarry, and plant are at the end of Spring Street, Santa Cruz. The property and operations have been described by Laizure (26)* and Hubbard (43a)** in such detail that little could be added.

    (* C. McK Laizure, San Francisco Field Division, "Santa Cruz County," California Mining Bureau Report 22, pp. 8-93, illus., 1926.)

    (** Henry G. Hubbard, "Mines and Mineral Resources of Santa Cruz County," California Division of Mines Report 39, pp. 11-52, 2 pls., 21 figs., 1943.)

    "When the company was organized it took over the Caplatzi quarry which had been supplying limestone for fertilizer, poultry food, flux, etc. Later the Miller, or Thurber quarry, which had been producing limestone for macadam and concrete work, was absorbed. The raw limestone is marketed under the trade name 'Kalkar' for use in stucco dash, poultry grit, cattle and poultry feeds, fertilizer, fillers, terrazo (sic), roofing grit, mortar sand and macadam, and part of the waste from removing overburden is sold for fill material.

    "The deposit shows more contact metamorphism than noted in most deposits of the region. A. A. Fitch (31)* listed numerous contact-metamorphic minerals, including diopside, forsterite, and others characteristic of contact zones altered by granitic intrusives. The crystals of the altered limestone are of all sizes from very fine to 4 inches on a side. Irregular vertical fissures are filled with broken limestone cemented by fine-grained calcite and black opaline silica occasionally carrying pyrite and arsenopyrite. The limestone is bluish white and considerably shattered. It has an overburden of 2 to 8 feet of soil and red clay. The average height of face has been about 80 feet. Because of the mineral impurities, the material is hand sorted and hand loaded.

    (* A. A. Fitch, "The Geology of Ben Lomond Mountain," University of California, Department of Geological Science Bulletin, vol. 21, pp. 1-13, 2 figs., 1931.)

    "The crushing units include a 14- by 42-inch primary jaw crusher, 10- by 36-inch secondary jaw crusher, and a hammer mill. Three units of four-deck Rotex screens separate finely ground rock and five sizes of granular products. A set of 12- by 16-inch rolls and a ring-roll Sturtevant mill handle screen tailing and scalpings and a further separation is made in a 6-foot Sturtevant centrifugal air separator. A crew of 20 to 25 men is employed throughout the year."

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Pacific Limestone Products Company and Quarry. History of the company taken from: "Mines and Mineral Resources of Santa Cruz County," by Henry G. Hubbard, California Journal of Mines and Geology, January 1943.
  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Pacific Limestone Prod. Co. (Lime & Limestone) (Excerpts 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) Pacific Limestone Prod. Co. (industrial limestone and agricultural lime); (Address) 445 Spring St., Santa Cruz; (Location) Santa Cruz.

• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Point Quarry, City Street Improvement Company (Quarry Photographs ca early 1900s) The following photographs are from the Twenty-Second Annual Report, Part 1, U. S. Geological Survey. (The date of publication is unknown.)

  Point Quarry, City Street Improvement Company (South face, showing details of stratigraphy)

  Point Quarry, City Street Improvement Company. Showing the structure of the Monterey shale, a dike of bituminous sandstone passing from the main beds upward, and the upper layer of the main bed of bituminous sandstone.

  Point Quarry, City Street Improvement Company. Viewed from the southeast.

• Santa Cruz , Santa Cruz County, California – Rattlesnake Quarry, City Street Improvement Company (Quarry Photographs ca early 1900s) The following photographs are from the Twenty-Second Annual Report, Part 1, U. S. Geological Survey. (The date of publication is unknown.)

  Rattlesnake Quarry, City Street Improvement Company. Showing joint planes in the bituminous sandstone.

  Rattlesnake Quarry, City Street Improvement Company. Viewed from the northwest.

• Santa Cruz County, California – Rhodes & Robinson (Limestone) (Excerpts 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) Rhodes & Robinson (crushed limestone); (Address) Box 325, Palo Alto; (Location) (blank).

• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company
  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Standard Portland Cement Company  (Excerpt from Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. 82, Western and Company, 1906, pp. 126.  This book is available on Google Books.)
    

    Industrial.

    “The Allis-Chalmers Company has received from Dr. Irving A. Bachman, acting for the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, and for the Atlantic Portland Cement Company, the largest single order for cement machinery equipment ever placed by one man at one time.  Allis-Chalmers machinery, which was furnished in 1902 to the Standard Portland Cement Company at Napa Junction,* Cal. and which consisted of crushers, ball mills and tube mills, has been in continuous operation since then.  Dr. Bachman, in October, 1905, placed the initial order for the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company’s equipment....”

    (* Today Napa Junction is a part of American Canyon, Napa County, California.)

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company  (Excerpts from “Report on Production of Cement,” by E. C. Eckel, U.S. Department of the Interior,  in Cement World, Vol. 2, Cement World Co., 1908.  (This magazine is available on Google Books.)
    

    (pp. 206)  “...Present status of the Portland cement industry in the United States and location of plants: 

    “Dingee group:  Standard Portland Cement Company, Napa Junction, Cal.; Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, Santa Cruz, Cal.; Northwestern Portland Cement Company, Kendall, Wash.; Atlantic Portland Cement Company, Stockertown, Pa.; Northampton Portland Cement Company, Stockertown, Pa.”

    (pp. 409) “Engineering Work – California’s Immense Cement Plant” 

    “The largest cement plant on the Pacific coast, or, for that matter, west of the Missouri, is located at Davenport, in Santa Cruz County, California....”

    “It may be added that the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company owns a large interest in the Standard Portland Cement Company, which has a large cement plant located at Napa Junction, in Solano* county, Cal.  This latter factory has a daily capacity of 5,000 barrels.”(* This should be Napa County rather than Solano County.)

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company  (Excerpt from Industrial Progress, Vol. 1, E. J. Meisenheimer, 1909, pp. 411.  (This publication is available on Google Books.)
    

    Up-to-Date Character of Installations on the Pacific Coast

    “Every successful cement company on the Pacific Coast today, including Henry Cowell Lime & Cement Co.’s plant at Concord, Cal.; Standard Portland Cement Company, Napa Junc., Cal.; Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, Davenport, Cal.; California Portland Cement Company, Colton, Cal., and Golden State Portland Cement Company, Ore Grande, Cal.; was equipped to a greater or lesser extent by Allis-Chalmers Company, and the best cement manufactured on the coast is made in that company’s machines.”

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Corporation (Advertisement)  The following advertisement is from Our Navy:  The Standard Publication of the U.S. Navy, Vol. 3, January 1909, U. S. Naval Training Station, San Francisco, California, pp. 36.
    

    Santa Cruz Portland Cement Corporation & Standard Portland Cement Advertisement January 1909

    Cement  –  Cement  –  Cement
    Architects and Contractors
    For the Period January 1, to August 31, 1909, We Manufactured and Sold Over
    1,000,000 Barrels of Cement.
    Our cement is superior in quality to any other cement
    manufactured in the world.

    Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co. Standard Portland Cement Corporation
    Works at Davenport, Cal. –          General sales office    – Works at Napa Junction, Cal.
    Capacity, 8,000 bbls. Daily.       221 Crocker Bldg., S.F.    Capacity, 2,500 bbls. daily

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co. (Corporation) took over by the Standard Portland Cement Company located at Napa Junction, Napa County, California, from Concrete:  A Monthly Magazine of the Construction Field, Cement Mill Edition, Vol. 15, Concrete Publishing Corporation, August 1919, pp. 141.  (This book is available on Google Books.)
    

    Concrete – Men & Mills:  Notes From the Field

    “Cement Companies Consolidate

    “It is reported that the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co. is taking over the properties of the Standard Portland Cement Corporation.  A committee, comprising Andrew A. Moore, E. J. Schneider, Rudolph Herold, Jr., and A. F. Morrison, have recommended to their fellow stockholders that the offer of the Santa Cruz company of $22.50 a share for the stock of the Standard Portland Cement Corporation be accepted.  The purchasing corporation will assume the debt of the Standard Portland Cement Co. and will take over everything belonging to that concern, including the plant at Napa Junction, California, with the 100 acres of land owned there.  The capital stock of the Standard company amounts to 40,000, at a par value of $100, of which there are $3,383,200 in shares outstanding.  The outstanding bonded indebtedness is $65,000, assumed by the Santa Cruz company.”

    “The Standard Portland Cement Corporation was organized in 1907, taking over the properties of the Standard Portland Cement Co.  The Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co. was organized in 1905 and has an authorized and outstanding capital of $5,000,000 in par value of $100 shares.”

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Corporation Plant  (Excerpt from Mining in California, Vol. 18, California State Mining Bureau, 1922, pp. 46.  This book is available on Google Books.)
    

    “Napa County.

    “Standard Portland Cement Company:  Home office, Pacific Building, San Francisco, is reported to be dismantling its plant at Napa Junction, which formerly was a large producer of cement, but which has been idle since 1918.  It is understood that in the future this company’s operations will be confined to its plant at Davenport thirteen miles northwest of Santa Cruz.”

  • Napa Junction (near), Napa County, California – the Standard Portland Cement Company  (Excerpt from Bulletin, Issue 176, Bulletin, California State Mining Bureau, California Division of Mines, California Division of Mines and Geology, 1957, pp. 119.  (A snippet of this book is available on Google Books.)
    

    “1902-3.  Establishment of two plants, one near Napa, Napa County, by Standard Portland Cement Company and one at Cement, near Fairfield, Solano County, by Pacific Portland Cement.  The Napa plant closed in 1919 and the Fairfield plant in 1927, both because raw materials were exhausted.”

    “1906.  Opening of the plant at Davenport, Santa Cruz County, by Standard Portland Cement Company.”

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County – the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company/Corporation & the Standard Portland Cement Co.
    • “Cast in cement: American Canyon’s industrial past,” by Linda Luippold, Eagle Staff Writer, American Canyon Eagle, April 25, 2005.
      

      According to this article, in 1902 Augustus Watson, the owner of the property, sold land to  “an intermediary for the Standard Portland Cement Company.”  The author goes on to describe the cement plant, the worker’s boarding houses, etc.  Limestone and clay were quarried on the property until sometime before 1920.  Rebecca Yerger, a Napa County historian, wrote, “According to the parcel’s chain of title, the land was owned intermittently by the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, a sister plant of the original company.”

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company Records

    According to the Online Archive of California (OAC), the “Inventory of the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company Records” are located in the Special Collections and Archives at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company – “Industrial Development: Lumber, Lime and Cement, Fishing,” by Susan Lehmann, presented on the Santa Cruz Public Libraries web site.  (The Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company is mentioned in this article.)
  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company – “The Cement Plant and the Quarry Railroad, from Coast Dairies Property:  A Land Use History”
    (Excerpt from Coast Dairies Long-Term Resource Protection and Use Plan:  Draft Exiting Conditions Report for the Coast Dairies Property, Section 1.0)  (The quoted material below is a small portion of this article, which you can read at the link above.)
    

    “Meanwhile, as the Ocean Shore was building its railroad to the San Vicente, the cement plant was rising on the treeless terrace...Hauling granite from the creekbed and sand from the beach, the company made cement to build the factory....”

    “The 1906 earthquake may have been a problem for the Ocean Shore line, but it accelerated the demand for concrete construction.  Brick and mortar construction was rendered unacceptable by the earthquake, and wooden buildings by subsequent fires, driving most architects toward what became known as ‘fireproof’ concrete construction.  (William Jackson) Dingee* and his associates worked toward the completion of the cement plant secure in the knowledge that there would be a strong market for Portland cement (see Photo 1-5, and Photos 3 through 11, Appendix 1.3). By the end of 1906, the plant was ready to begin limited operation, and six months later was producing 3,000 barrels of cement per day (Surf 8/14/1907).”

    • * William J. Dingee, “Cement King” owner of the Standard Portland Cement Company – “The ‘Cement King, made Sequoia High’s Beautiful Gardens,” by Joan Levy, in The Spectrum:  Redwood City’s Monthly Magazine, May 2007, pp. 9
      

      According to this article, William Jackson Dingee was a California millionaire who was known as the ‘Cement King’ because “he owned the Standard Portland Cement Company and had plants in Napa, Washington state, Pennsylvania and finally in Santa Cruz.”  The gardens of his estate, Dingee Park, is a part of the present-day Sequoia High School campus in Redwood City.  Dingee’s house was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

    • William Jackson Dingee – Biography on the “Find A Grave” web site.
  • Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company – History of this company and some photographs are available in “Santa Cruz Cement,” by Robert W. Brown, “The Industrial Railway Record,” October 1968, No. 21, pp. 314-316.
• Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County, California – Side Hill Quarry, City Street Improvement Company (Quarry Photographs ca early 1900s) The following photographs are from the Twenty-Second Annual Report, Part 1, U. S. Geological Survey. (The date of publication is unknown.)

  Side Hill Quarry, City Street Improvement Company. Showing the main bed of bituminous sandstone and a dike of the same extending from bed upward into the Monterey shale.

• Wagner's Park, Santa Cruz (north of), Santa Cruz County, California – Portland Cement Manufacturer, Kilns, etc. (From The Structural and Industrial Materials of California, Bulletin No. 38, California, State Mining Bureau, San Francisco, California, 1906.)

  "Several years ago a Santa Cruz company was organized to manufacture Portland cement from material obtained in a little gulch at a place known as Wagner's Park, one mile north of Santa Cruz. A reverberatory furnace, Kiln, and the necessary grinding machinery were installed, and some cement was produced, which, reports say, was good; but as the price of imported cement had been reduced to a figure below the cost of local production, a cessation of operations resulted. The material used in the manufacture of this cement was taken from a bed of calcareous travertine (a deposit from springs), and was ground with some clayey material found in a neighboring bluff."

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