Tehachapi has had a long association with limestone and cement due to the naturally occurring limestone deposits in the region. As early as 1877 a kiln in Antelope Canyon was producing 400 to 500 barrels of lime. Throughout the area there is evidence of past production of lime. Pot kilns are scattered throughout the Tehachapi area to the north and south of the valley.

From the mid-1880s until 1929, a corporation based in San Francisco operated a small company town in Antelope Canyon to produce limestone and was eventually brought under the control and ownership of the Wyman family.

In January 1909 the City of Los Angeles began production of cement at its new plant near White Rock Creek (later called Monolith). The plant was built to provide cement for the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct to carry water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles. In 1920 the City of Los Angeles signed a five-year lease with the U.S. Potash Company for the facility. Later that year they produced 43,767 barrels of a newly formulated waterproof plastic cement. In 1921 the plant name was changed to Monolith Portland Cement Company and the land and mill were subsequently purchased from the City of Los Angeles.

Adjacent to the plant, the company town of Monolith provided housing for the workers as well as a railroad depot, a company store,



U.S. Post Office, a school and a café. The town is gone but the plant still produces cement and has had a succession of owners. As of 2015 the plant still produces cement and has had a succession of owners. As of 2015 the plant is owned and operated by Lehigh SouthWest Cement Company but many residents still refer to the plant as Monolith due to its importance to the people of history in Tehachapi.

In 1955 the California Portland Cement Company built its plant twenty miles southeast of Tehachapi. It is one of three plants operated by the company and still employs many Tehachapi residents. Cal Portland has many years' supply of limestone still in the ground.

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Beekay Theatre
Tehachapi's Founding Fathers And Incorporation in 1909
The Railroad and the Tehachapi Loop
Site of the Kessing Building
Site of Bank of Tehachapi
The Women's Prison in Tehachapi - 1932
Early Settlements in The Tehachapi Area
Tehachapi Airport and Gliderport
Monolith
Tehachapi Depot

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