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Home > California > CA - Quarry Links and Photographs > Tuolumne County >List of Stone Quarries
(* Please note this list does not include sand or gravel quarries.)
Columbia, Tuolumne County, California - Marble Quarry & Mill Owned and Operated by Devine & Bro. (of Sacramento, California) (The following quotation was transcribed by Dee Sardoch and posted on the Norcal email list February 3, 2007.)
The following newspaper article is from the Stockton Daily Argus, Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, July 15-20 1861.
“MARBLE in TUOLUMNE -- We have observed recently upon our wharf, blocks of superior quality of marble, from the extensive marble quarries in Columbia. We are informed that these specimens, which have been shipped to Sacramento, are from the quarry of Messrs. DEVINE & Bro., which is a mile and a half long, and a broad rich vein. They are now erecting a mill that will run 300 saws, and turn out marble better and cheaper than can be imported, and thus stop all foreign competitors.”
Columbia, Tuolumne County, California - Marble Quarry & Mill Owned and Operated by Devine & Bro. (of Sacramento, California) (The following quotation was transcribed by Dee Sardoch and posted on the Norcal email list May 24, 2007.)
The following newspaper article is from the Stockton Daily Independent, Stockton, San Joaquin County, California, October 22, 1862.
“COLUMBIA Marble -- Having seen a great deal of marble on the wharf at Stockton from the celebrated Columbia quarry, I was anxious to see it, and started from Columbia early this morning, in company with Mr. Devine, one of the proprietors, to see the quarry and the large mill erected for the purpose of sawing the rock into slabs. They have expended a large sum of money in making improvements and opening the quarry, and as they are enterprising, energetic men, hope to make their investment pay as soon as facilities for shipping to Stockton are improved. Freight is so high to Stockton that they are now barely able to compete with importers. I am informed that the ‘quality’ of this marble is almost equal to the finest Italian. When the Copperopolis railroad is completed, they will be enabled to do a large and profitable business. The quarry is inexhaustible. I saw at the mill 4 large slabs for the Broderick monument, the freight on which to San Francisco will amount to about ‘$700.’ This should not be the case. Railroads should be built where it is practicable and good wagon roads should course through our mountains and then an enterprising people would be encouraged to develop the resources [rest cut off]....”
“Baxter Marble Quarry is 3 miles northwest of Columbia, to the south of the north fork of the Stanislaus River . Two quarries have been opened on this property, showing a good grade of marble. Idle. D. F. Baxter, of San Francisco, owner.”
“Baxter marble quarry was 3 miles northwest of Sonora. It has not been active during the past 30 years.”
| New quarry being opened up by the Bell Marble Company, near Columbia, Tuolumne County. |  |
“New Companies – The Bell Marble Co., San Francisco, $20,000.”
“Bell Columbia marble quarry, in the town of Columbia is assessed to Equipment Sales Company, 679 Bryant Street, San Francisco. Marble was produced from 1918 to 1926 and shipped in blocks weighing 6 to 14 tons to firms in Oakland and San Francisco. The stone varies from pure white to dark blue-veined, and from fine to medium coarse crystals size. The content of silica, alumina, and iron oxide is very low for a marble and carries from 2 to 14 percent MgO. The compressive strength is from 22,000 to 24,890 pounds per square inch. This marble was used in the interiors of several large buildings in San Francisco. The quarry is 5 miles by paved highway north of the Sierra Railway station at Sonora. Electric power is available. All equipment has been removed.
“Quarrying of marble on this land was started in December 1918 and continued at intervals for over 8 years. Although the equipment and improvements were substantial, having an assessed valuation of $38,000 the operations were hampered by lack of marble saws and a polishing plant. An effort was made to finance the erection of such a plant in Alameda County by the sale of stock, but this did not meet with success.
“Rough blocks of marble weighing 6 to 14 tons each were broken out by jackhammers and plugs and feathers and were shipped to San Francisco and Oakland firms. The product varied from pure white to dark blue-veined, and from fine to medium-coarse crystal size. The series of analyses which follow showed very low contents of silica, alumina, and iron oxide for a marble, and a magnesia content ranging from a trace to about 16 percent. The weight is 169 pounds per cubic foot and the compressive strength is claimed to be about 50 percent greater than that of Alaska, Vermont, and Italian marbles. In 1920, the known area of marble in this deposit was claimed to be 350 by 700 feet but later operators claimed more. The depth is probably several hundred feet and much greater than it would be practicable to work. So far, the pit is about 40 feet deep (circa 1947).
“This marble was used before 1928 in San Francisco in the interior of the 22-story Standard Oil Building, in the Golden Gate Theater, Loews Warfield Theater, and the Metropolitan Life Building .
“The quarry is 5 miles by paved highway from the Sierra Railway at Sonora. Electric power is available. The following analyses were reported by the company as having been made in 1923 by the George A. James Company:
“The writer took a sample across a width of 300 feet of medium-coarse crystalline light-gray marble of uniform appearance and the report of analysis made by Abbot A. Hanks, Inc., on this was as follows:”
Insoluble, 0.40 percent
Fe and Al oxides, 0.37 percent
CaCO3, 94.7 percent
MgCO3, 4.1 percent
“Bell Columbia Marble Quarry. The quarry property and equipment upon it, in the town of Columbia, were purchased several years ago by Equipment Sales Company, 679 Bryant Street, San Francisco. All equipment and machinery have been removed.”
Bell Marble Works in Marble Quarry RV Resort, P. O. Box 850, 11551 Yankee Hill Road, Columbia, CA 95310-0850; (209) 532-9539….”
“The marble quarry is on private property, but is accessible via a train within, or through, the RV park. Little or no equipment remains.
“The Bell Marble Works were established by Ed Hill in 1918, and operated until 1932. Marble for the quarry was used for the Tuolumne County Courthouse.
“The larger Columbia Marble Quarry that supplied dimension marble for Columbia and San Francisco is (or at least was until recently) still in use, but only for crushed rock….”
| Postcard photograph B8432, m. l. Zercher, Topeka, Kans.; unmailed, early 1900s |  |
Click here for an account of our visit. At the R.V. Marble Quarry office, you can obtain the Marble Quarry RV Park Nature Trail Guide, which guides you to the quarry and provides historical information and photographs. (Guides are available at the store.)
| Photographs of Bell Marble Works (c. 1998) | |
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Mine name: Blue Mountain Minerals; Operator: Blue Mountain Minerals; Address & County: P. O. Box 1492, Columbia 95310, Tuolumne County; Phone: (209) 533-0127; Latitude: 38.07, Longitude: -120.42, and Mine location number: Map No. 881; Mineral commodity: Limestone.
Commercial use of material within this site is strictly prohibited. It is not to be captured, reworked, and placed inside another web site. © . All rights reserved. Peggy B. and George (Pat) Perazzo.