Tour A - Over the Hill - Tour Guide

Folks in Silicon Valley refer to Santa Cruz as being "over the hill", as one must cross over the Santa Cruz mountains to get there , though the summit is only about 1,800 feet  above sea level.  We'll visit the following sites:

Roaring Camp and Big Trees Railroad. This former narrow guage logging railroad  operates steam locomotives (usually one of two Shays, but occasionally their Heisler) through second growth stands of majestic redwoods. A few trees are old growth, and first sprouted as much as 2,000 years ago. We'll have a tour of the shops and ample time to look around at the remains of a steam powered saw mill.  Adjacent to the railroad is Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, which has an excellent, recently re-done visitor center.  There will be enough time for a visit, but don't miss the train or the bus! One of the exhibits describes the lime industry, a later stop.

Next, we'll travel over to the coast via Highway 9 along the San Lorenzo River, with commentary on some of the historic industries along the way. We won't be making any stops, so we can be on time to visit the CEMEX cement plant in Davenport.   The plant was originally constructed in 1906, and over the years has been completely modernized, and is now one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly cement plants in the US.  Knight Chapter member Bob Piwarzyk is co-author of Davenport Cement Centennial, which will be available for $20, with the proceeds benefiting the Davenport Jail Restoration Fund.

The final stop will be the Cowell Lime Works Historic District on the campus of the University of California Santa Cruz. Recently added to the National Register of Historic Places, the site is the remains of a vertically integrated, self supporting lime works.  One can see the evolution of the process of lime production from the early batch kilns to a continuous kiln.  Bob Piwarzyk is also a co-author of the recently published Lime Kiln Legacies which includes details of the historic district  as well as a wealth of information about the industry.