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  • San Francisco - City & County & San Francisco Bay

    • Angel Island State Park - Serpentine and Sandstone Quarries (The previous version of this site noted serpentine and sandstone quarries located within the state park. The present version does not mention them at all.)

    • San Pedro Point - China Camp State Park - Basalt Quarry. Basalt was quarried at San Pedro Point on the shores of San Francisco Bay. (The previous version of this site noted a basalt quarry located within the state park. The present version does not mention it at all.)

    • San Francisco - View in the Rock Quarry - Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California

    • (colorized postcard photograph; Pacific Novelty Co., San Francisco & Los Angeles; postmark July 12, 1928)

  • San Luis Obispo County

    • San Luis Obispo, California - Los Berros Yellow Sandstone Quarry & Bishop's Peak Granite ( photograph and history of the Library/Museum). The building, which is today the San Luis Obispo County Historical Museum, was originally the San Luis Obispo Carnegie Library. Part of the construction materials for the building were Los Berros Yellow Sandstone for the arch and window detailing and Bishop's Peak Granite was used for the foundation.

    • Morro Bay State Park - Morro Rock Quarry & Quarry at Bautista Ranch   (The original version of this web site mentioned these two quarries. In the new version, neither quarry is mentioned.)

  • San Mateo County

  • Santa Clara County

    • Campbell, Santa Clara County, California - the Greystone Sandstone Quarry, southeast of San Jose, and Palo Alto in today's town of Campbell, owned by Leland Stanford and used in the construction of Inner Quad of Stanford University located near Palo Alto in the Santa Clara Valley. This information, photographs and more history can be viewed on The City Rocks - Explore the Hidden World of Building Stone - Stanford's Sandstone by E. B. Keck.

    • San Jose, Santa Clara County - Oak Hill Quarry  (next to Oak Hill Cemetery) Minerals of Santa Clara County, presented by John Messina. This site mentions the quarry, although the type of stone is not stated. (This web site from which this information was obtained is no longer available.)
      <http://www.slip.net/~advisor/Minerals/scminerals.html>

    • San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area State Recreation - Stone Quarry (The previous version of this web site indicated there was a stone quarry in the area. The current version does not.)

  • Shasta County

  • Siskiyou County

  • Solano County

    • Building Stones of Solano County from California State Mining Bureau, Eighth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist for the year ending October 1, 1888, pg. 631, states the following:

      "Marble, Building Stones. Marbles of different kinds, some of them of rare beauty, are found in this county. In the hills near Suisun Valley is found a marble which, in the rough, bears a strong resemblance to resin. Being fine-grained and compact, it takes on a high polish, and is much esteemed for ornamental purposes. Located about four miles north of Fairfield, the county seat, is a bed of aragonite, popularly called onyx, and fully described by the State Mineralogist in the report of the year 1884. Stones suitable for structural purposes are met with in many pats of Solano, a great deal of serpentine and sandstone being quarried in the neighborhood of Benicia..."

    • Benicia, Solano County, California - Sandstone Quarry

      Patrick W. Dillon, a farmer and stone cutter born in County Tipperary, in Ireland, February 3, 1820, migrated eventually to Benicia in Solano County where he opened his stone quarry in 1851 on his fruit farm and opened a wharf on the Strait. At one time he owned about 400 acres of land.1 He "started the Pioneer Stone business in San Francisco, and among the contracts taken by him, is the St. Mary's Cathedral, at San Francisco; and many other buildings." 2 According to one historical map, Patrick Dillon's sandstone quarry was located on his land at Quarry Point, west of Southampton Bay. Today Quarry Point is known as Dillon Point. Patrick Dillon married Bertha G. Jordan in January 1856. He died in Benicia on April 19, 1896. Both he and his wife are buried in St. Dominic's Cemetery in Benicia.

      1 History of Solano County, 1879, pgs. 438-439.
      2 Great Expectations: The Story of Benicia, California, 1976, pgs. 56-58.

    • Cement, Solano County, California - Cement Hill. Echoes of Solano's Past by Kristin Delaplane - Cement Bonds Community with Work, Play (September 2, 1995) This article discusses the history of town of Cement which was created in 1902 and abandoned in 1927. Today the area is called Cement Hill, northeast of the city of Fairfield.

    • Tolenas Springs and Quarry north of Suisun City, Solano County, California

      (The 1966 edition of Historic Spots in California contains a description of Tolenas Springs under the city of Suisun. Tolenas Springs is not in the 1990 edition of this same book.) Tolenas Springs was said to be located in the hills about five miles north of Suisun, about 1 ½ miles west of the freeway. In 1966 Tolenas Springs was found to be on gated, private land. Water from the springs had been bottled in the past and was popular until about 1905. The area was called "Land of Healing Waters" by the local Indians in the past. In the 1880s onyx was quarried for use. In a 1966 article it was noted that the onyx ledge was "a quarry for crushed white rock used on dwelling roofs and in garden patios. There are two very interesting and informative articles in the online Echoes of Solano's Past column written by Kristin Delaplane in The Reporter.com in which the history of Tolenas Springs and Quarries history is fully covered. (Please see the links below.)

      At present time the exact location is not known, although it most certainly is on private land. If you have specific knowledge about the location of this quarry, I would like you to contact me. The Geologic Guidebook of the San Francisco Bay Counties: History, Landscape, Geology, Fossils, Minerals, Industry, and Routes to Travel, Bulletin 154, (a) notes:

      "About 4 miles north of Fairfield and 1 ½ miles west of Highway 40 is the Tolenas Springs region, reached by trail up Soda Springs Creek. Extensive deposits of calcite and aragonite have been precipitated as banded travertine from the spring water...The travertine or onyx marble is mostly light colored, but brown banding in some of it produces attractive stone for cutting..."

      (a) The Geologic Guidebook of the San Francisco Bay Counties: History, Landscape, Geology, Fossils, Minerals, Industry, and Routes to Travel, Bulletin 154, pg. 314.

    • Tolenas Spring and Quarry from Echoes of Solano's Past, by Kristin Delaplane.

      • Marble, Healing Water Spring from Tolenas Site (September 5, 1999).  This article describes the area around Tolenas Springs and quarry, the location and history of the springs and quarry.

      • May air of 1883 filled with picnics, rain (March 23, 1997) "...And yet another was the Solano Pioneers or 49ers Picnic at Tolenas Springs where only 300 people showed. The onyx quarry discovered in 1855 was still in operate at that location. That summer it would be reported that two carloads of the stone were shipped to market."

    • Solano County Communities Busy in 1884 (November 23, 1997) "Tolenas Springs news: The directors of a new corporation, the Tolenas Mineral Water and Onyx Co., were talking of building a steam works at the springs. This steam works would be set up to saw out the slabs of onyx at that location for shipment to New York, Boston and Cincinnati."

  • Sonoma County

  • Tulare

    • Porterville (Porteville ?), California, California Granite Co. Quarry and Works, Porteville, Cal. (postcard photograph; A. H. Brooks Foto; early 1900s; unmailed.)

    • Porterville (Porteville ?), California, California Granite Co. Quarry and Works, Porteville, Cal

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