walking along
25 and 100 years ago
My son-in-law remembers traveling between Fairfield and Vacaville on weekends, about 25 years ago, to visit the grand parents, and seeing this "Castle". He had always wanted to go there. Well......early on, after the marriage to my daughter, we decided to hike to it. Walking and talking along is a great way to get to know someone. Without revealing the illegal access, as it's on private property, we found an easy way to end up here.
Here we see the remnants of of Cement City, this structure was probably the support for the limestone crushers (?). Cement City was important in the early 1900's, about 100 years ago, as it was built to mine an enormous limestone deposit (an entire hill), the remains of which I'm standing on. The limestone was crushed and then fired in an enormous kiln to create the major component of cement, ( along with gypsum and sand), and then easily and cheaply transported by rail to the more central bay area. (The formula for the production of Portland cement was worked out only in the late 1800's.) Limestone deposits are otherwise nonexistent anywhere in the area, so cement could only be brought to the Bay Area otherwise only by rail or ship from a long way off. The importance of Cement City was revealed especially after the '06 earthquake for the rebuilding effort.
25 and 100 years ago
My son-in-law remembers traveling between Fairfield and Vacaville on weekends, about 25 years ago, to visit the grand parents, and seeing this "Castle". He had always wanted to go there. Well......early on, after the marriage to my daughter, we decided to hike to it. Walking and talking along is a great way to get to know someone. Without revealing the illegal access, as it's on private property, we found an easy way to end up here.
Here we see the remnants of of Cement City, this structure was probably the support for the limestone crushers (?). Cement City was important in the early 1900's, about 100 years ago, as it was built to mine an enormous limestone deposit (an entire hill), the remains of which I'm standing on. The limestone was crushed and then fired in an enormous kiln to create the major component of cement, ( along with gypsum and sand), and then easily and cheaply transported by rail to the more central bay area. (The formula for the production of Portland cement was worked out only in the late 1800's.) Limestone deposits are otherwise nonexistent anywhere in the area, so cement could only be brought to the Bay Area otherwise only by rail or ship from a long way off. The importance of Cement City was revealed especially after the '06 earthquake for the rebuilding effort.