San Benito County History

This section is excerpted from A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California by Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, and published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1893.

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The Cienega Lime Kilns

were started in 1885, by J. J. Burt; he took out the first load of lime on the 1st day of January, 1886, from a forty-barrel kiln. The lime ledge proper was bought from the Government under an Act of Congress, which provides for the development of stone quarries and timber tracts. There are now four large kilns in operation with a capacity of 6,000 barrels of lime per month. There is an abundance of wood for fuel near by - pine, white oak, live-oak, etc. A large number of men are employed in connection with these works.

The lime rock is hard and white; in fact, is marble rock, and carries about ninety-nine per cent of lime and contains no flint. It brings the highest market price in San José, Stockton, Oakland and San Francisco.

A large quarry of white building marble will soon be developed on the property. Abundance of water is piped to the works from springs on the mountain side three-quarters of a mile distant. A motor railway has been constructed from Tres Pinos, the terminus of the Hollister branch of the Southern Pacific line, a. distance of twelve miles, to these works, in order to facilitate transportation of lime and stone to market. This road was built and is owned by the proprietor of the lime works, Mr. Burt.

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This section is excerpted from A Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California by Henry D. Barrows and Luther A. Ingersoll, and published by The Lewis Publishing Company in 1893.