Permanente Quarry
The Permanente Quarry and cement plant is in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County, California, just west of Cupertino. The limestone and aggregate mining operation and cement plant is owned by Lehigh Southwest Cement, a subsidiary of Heidelberg Cement. Limestone was mined beginning in 1902 but remained a small operation until 1939 when it was purchased by Henry J. Kaiser to supply the 5.5 million barrels of cement to build Shasta Dam. With increased production Kaiser supplied all of the cement used by the Navy in the Pacific Theater of World War 2. At 7 million barrels, it was more cement than the Shasta Dam project. Roughly 70 percent of the cement used in the communities of Santa Clara County was acquired from the cement plant.
Located in the foothills above Cupertino on the northeast slopes of Black Mountain, the quarry runs east–west parallel to the upper watershed of Permanente Creek to the south and to Permanente Ridge and Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve to the north.
The limestone rock found in the Permanente Creek valley and on the summit of Black Mountain is relatively unique in the Bay Area. Microfossils in the limestone deposits suggest that the mountain originated as a seamount at 22 degrees north in the tropical Pacific about 100 million years ago and was transported to Los Altos by the Pacific Plate. These rocks occur as jagged gray boulders and outcrops just southwest of the radio towers on the summit of Black Mountain, as well as in the Permanente Quarry.
Initial operations
In the 1890s, R. A Swayne purchased 160 acres of land at the headwaters of Permanente Creek. He planted vineyards, built a winery and other buildings, expending about $25,000 in the process. When that venture failed, Swayne sold the property for $1500. Granite Rock Company of Watsonville bought it from the subsequent owner for $2500 to mine the limestone. In 1902 the Alvarado Sugar Company contracted with Granite Rock to produce 5,000 tons of limestone to be shipped at the rate of two carloads per day. The Alvarado plant was the first sugar beet factory in the country.A state mining report in 1906 lists it as the El Dorado Sugar Company Quarry, located in Section 18 of Township 7 S, Range 2 W. That location is approximately 1.8 miles west of the end of Stevens Creek Blvd. The rock was transported nine miles by wagon to Mountain View, where it was then loaded onto Southern Pacific Railroad trains at a rate of 30-60 tons per day in the dry season. The rock was taken to the sugar factory in Alviso where it was burned into quicklime and used to refine sugar. The stone was described as, "being good road material as it was in small pieces that would not require further grinding".
In 1906 the sugar refining industry was using much of the limestone quarried in California and only a small amount was used in road construction. Large amounts were also used for the manufacture of Portland cement.
In 1908 Southern Pacific Railroad completed the Mayfield Cutoff which ran from Mayfield, along the west side of the Santa Clara Valley to Los Gatos. There was a stop at Monta Vista where the tracks crossed Stevens Creek Road. This eliminated the nine-mile wagon journey between the quarry and the railroad.
The operation continued intermittently until 1934.
Early Kaiser Era
Cement
When the two bids to build Shasta Dam were opened in June 1938, they were only $262,000 apart on the $35 million project. The winning bid went to Pacific Constructors Inc. of Los Angeles, a consortium of twelve companies. The losing bid was entered by the Shasta Construction Company, a consortium of nine companies including Kaiser-Bechtel.After losing the bid to build Shasta Dam, Henry J. Kaiser bid on supplying the cement, and another bid to provide the aggregate and sand to mix with the cement, to produce the 15 million tons of concrete used to build what would then be the second most massive dam in the world.
On June 5, 1939, the Columbia Construction Company, one of Henry Kaiser's many companies, won the bid to provide the 7.6 million tons of aggregate and 2.8 tons of sand required for the construction of Shasta Dam. Twenty years earlier, when Kaiser was building roads in the area, he purchased rights to a gravel bank in the area east of Redding, approximately nine miles from the Shasta Dam construction site. Southern Pacific Railroad wanted $.27/ton to move the material to the construction site. The gravel was miles from the Southern Pacific railhead which required the construction of a conveyor belt between the pit and the railroad. At the suggestion of one of Kaiser's engineers, a 9.6-mile conveyor belt system was built, completely bypassing the railroad, and delivering the aggregate at $.18/ton.
In 1938 Henry Kaiser signed a three-year lease for 1000 acres along Arroyo Permanente, from the Santa Clara Holding Co. Ltd., at a cost of $12,000/year. On July 14, 1939, a deed recording revealed that the Permanente Corp bought the land for $235/acre.
As with many of Kaiser's entities the Permanente operation was a web of bank loans and partnerships with the other construction companies. Bank of America loaned $7 million for the cement plant and another $3.5 million was capitalized with investments from the other members of Six Companies, Kaiser's partners in the construction of Boulder Dam. Kaiser had 25.5%; Utah Company, J.F. Shea and General Construction had 13.5% each and the others varied from 1.5% for Pacific Bridge to 10.4% for MacDonald & Kahn. No government money was involved. Within a few years, it generated an annual profit of $2–3 million.
Two days before the cement supply bids for Shasta Dam were opened on April 31, 1939, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to permit the construction of a $4,000,000 cement plant at Permanente.
Kaiser offered to deliver 5.58 million barrels of low-heat Portland cement at $1.90/barrel for a total cost of a little over $11 million. The Bureau of Reclamation rejected the second bid tendered by the Portland Cement Institute which was $1.6 million higher than Kaiser. The Institute bid came from a consortium the Beaver Portland Cement Company, the Calaveras Portland Cement Company, the Monolith Portland Cement Company, the Pacific Portland Cement Company, the Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company, and the Yosemite Portland Cement Company, which had often been the only bid on other large Bureau of Reclamation projects. After the bids were opened, the Institute offered to beat the Kaiser bid and they claimed that Kaiser's lack of a cement plant, and experience, would make it impossible for him to meet the contract. Ignoring their offer and protests, the Bureau awarded the contract to the Permanente Corp.
The cement plant was founded by Kaiser as the Kaiser Permanente Cement Plant in 1939, taking the name of the business from the Permanente Creek in whose valley it lies. Kaiser intended to use the quarry to provide the majority of the cement used in the construction of the Shasta Dam, supplying the of cement. Additionally, Kaiser Cement Company built Highway 101, Highway 85 and other major Northern California landmarks from the quarry.
Permanente is south of Shasta Dam, requiring the cement to be moved by rail. Southern Pacific built a 1.9-mile spur from the Los Altos Branch line to the plant site. That line required a wye at the Simla Junction. On October 1, 1939, Permanente became a Class A, non-agency station on the Los Altos Branch of Southern Pacific.
From the outset objections to the plant were lodged by neighboring farmers who were afraid that cement dust would adversely affect their wine grapes, apricot, cherry, and prune trees. A lawsuit was filed by 290 residents. There was a suspicion that the objections were raised by the cement industry consortium which was trying to stop Kaiser any way they could. A Cottrell precipitator collected dust from smokestacks on electrodes and trapped it into bins to be used for the manufacture of by- products. A consultant for the company argued that precipitators would remove 99% of the cement dust.
The Calera limestone quarry, at an elevation of 1850-feet, lies between the San Andreas Fault and a branch fault known as the Black Mountain Fault. 5-cubic yard Bucyrus-Erie electric shovels put the limestone into diesel-powered Caterpillar-Le Tourneau rubber-tired 20-ton buggies and then onto four miles of gravity flow conveyor belts at the rate of 1000 tons per hour. As the gravity conveyor belt moved the rock one mile to the cement plant, energy was recovered from the brakes and used to power the electric shovels. There was a 1200-foot difference in elevation between the quarry and the cement plant
The cement operation began with two 12-by 363-foot kilns, four Fuller coolers, 100-foot silos, crushing equipment and packing equipment. The plant employed many revolutionary production methods in order to produce the 7,000 barrels of cement each day needed for the Shasta Dam project.
Construction on the quarry and cement plant began in June 1939 and the first cement was shipped in December, even before it was needed at Shasta.
There were different grades of limestone within the Permanente Quarry. As lower grades of limestone were used for cement, a high-grade limestone was sold to the Spreckels Sugar Company plant in Salinas, CA to be used to purify beet sugar, a product which was enjoying a boom during the War. A deposit of low-alkali clay was also found in the quarry and was used for a high-strength cement.
The country was still in the Depression, so it was no surprise when hundreds of men showed up at the construction gate looking for work. They were turned away as it was a union job site. Out of state workers who showed up at the Labor Temple of San Jose of Local 270 of the Laborer's Union were turned away as there weren't enough jobs for local residents. Those who wanted to work had to pay $31.50 to join the union and then pay $1.50 a month for dues.
Another kiln was added in 1940 to boost output to 12,000 barrels/day. Even before production was a full capacity for Shasta, Permanente Cement Co. had contracts for a half million barrels each, from the Navy for dry docks and air bases in the Hawaiian Islands, and from the ready-Mix Concrete Company of Honolulu. At the time these contracts were announced in February 1940, Henry J. Kaiser Jr. the plant manager, said the dust control apparatus was functioning perfectly and capturing 70-100 tons of cement dust a day which was used over again.
In order to fulfill the overseas contracts, Kaiser bought the SS Ancon and her sister ship, the SS Cristobal, which had been used in the construction of the Panama Canal. The ships were converted into bulk carriers, with a capacity of 40,000 barrels each, at the Todd Shipyard in Seattle. These ships, renamed SS Permanente and SS Philippa, respectively, were operated by the Matson Navigation Company.
In June 1940 Permanente Cement signed a lease with the Port of Redwood City for four acres of land for 20 years for spur tracks, storage silos and bulk ship loading equipment. Cement was brought by rail and truck from the Permanente plant and loaded into the two ships. The port facility made it possible to fulfill the Navy contracts which by November 1941 included construction projects at Midway, Guam, Wake, and other American-owned Pacific islands.
Henry Kaiser's first experience with ships prompted him to form the Todd-California Shipbuilding Corporation, and then winning a bid from the British to build thirty cargo ships. He started by building a shipyard in Richmond, California, later adding three more there, and three along the Columbia River in Portland and Vancouver, WA. After the British ships were built, Todd pulled out of the partnership to focus on their own shipbuilding business. These seven shipyards produced about 25% of the total U.S. production of ships during World War 2.
When Henry Kaiser purchased the quarry land, he also got a stone-and-redwood building high in the hills at the headwaters of Permanente Creek. According to legend, the house, served by only one road, had been a speakeasy. Kaiser converted it to a lodge and he, and his wife, Bess, spent time in the quiet surroundings. Rio Permanente or sometimes, Arroyo Permanente, was discovered in 1776 by Col. Juan Bautista de Anza as he explored Alta California, for the King of Spain. Rio Permanente was so named, as it continued to flow all year, unlike most streams in California which dry up in the summer. Bess Kaiser suggested the name for the medical program at the shipyards, which after the War were made available to the public, becoming the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan. The shipyards, steel plant in Fontana, CA and magnesium productions facilities operated as the Permanente Metal Corp. after Todd left Todd-California Shipbuilding Corp.