The flu and Wikipedia have kept me away from Santa Cruz history for most of the past month. Sadly, I missed the RA meeting on April 10. I did, however, make it up to UCSC on Sunday for a tour of the Cowell Lime Works Historic District, ably led by Frank Perry (there's a link to the non-profit Friends of the Cowell Lime Works Historic District in the sidebar to the left).
There's a tie-in between the tour and my interest in the bituminous rock mining industry. In addition to the lime operations, the Cowell ranch also contained a small bituminous rock mining quarry. One of the few surviving local examples of bituminous rock paving is at the Cooperage building in the Lime Works complex (thanks to Frank for pointing it out).
