Fairmont Butte is a

butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...

of volcanic origins in the

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is located in northern Los Angeles County, California, and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated between the Tehachapi, Sierra Pelona, and the ...

just west of the City of

Lancaster, California Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 173,51 ...

in Los Angeles County. Summit elevation is 3,130 feet above sea level. Parts of Fairmont Butte are situated within the boundaries of

Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is a state-protected reserve of California, United States, harboring the most consistent blooms of California poppies, the state flower. The reserve is located in the rural west side of Antelope Valley in ...

. During construction of the

Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley ...

, the City of Los Angeles found deposits of

Tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

at Fairmont Butte that closely resembled German

Trass Trass is the local name of a volcanic tuff occurring in the Eifel, where it is worked for hydraulic mortar. It is a grey or cream-coloured fragmental rock, largely composed of pumiceous dust, and may be regarded as a trachytic tuff. It much resem ...

and Italian

Pozzolana Pozzolana or pozzuolana ( , ), also known as pozzolanic ash ( la, pulvis puteolanus), is a natural siliceous or siliceous- aluminous material which reacts with calcium hydroxide in the presence of water at room temperature (cf. pozzolanic reactio ...

and was an ideal ingredient to blend and use in the production of cement. The City constructed a quarry and regrinding plant at the base of Fairmont Butte to excavate the tuff, grind and blend it with Portland cement which was used in the construction of the aqueduct's Mojave conduit. p.98-110

References

Gallery

File:Fairmont Mill.jpg, Fairmont Mill ruins on the east side of Fairmont Butte. This mill was one of three that the city ran to produce cement for the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Antelope Valley Geography of Palmdale, California Landforms of Kern County, California Buttes of California {{LosAngelesCountyCA-geo-stub

See also

References

Gallery