User:Matthewedwards/Sandbox/Antelope Valley, Glenn and Colusa Counties, California

Antelope Valley is a narrow valley in the North Coast Ranges of the U.S. state of California, It extends south–north from western Colusa County into Glenn County, at an elevation of 364 ft.

Description
The valley is approximately 14 miles long. The majority of the valley is in in Colusa County. The southern end is traversed by California State Route 20 as it heads east through Salt Canyon into the Sacramento Valley, to which the Antelope Valley lies parallel. The two valleys are separated by a series of mountains and ridges including Logan Ridge and Cortina Ridge, Mountain House, Three Sisters and Whiskey Hill. The northern end of the valley is at lat. 39deg23'05" N, long 122deg21'30" W.

The valley sits on a bed of brownstone and saltwater creeks run through the valley. The valley floor is covered in grass, and the hillsides surrounding it are dotted with oak trees. There are some native herbs in the valley, such as Plagiobothrys infectivus and Cryptantha nemaclada.

The western side of the valley lies adjascent to Oat Hills and Bald Hill and the valleys of Boxer and Blanchard, before the elevation rises with another range of mountains that includes Pence Mountain, Sugarloaf, Greasewood Mountain, Black Mountain and High Peak. West of these features is Bear Valley and the towns of Lodoga, Leesville, and Wilbur Springs.

Communities
Sites and Mountain House are the only two communities that lie within the valley. Cortina, now a ghost town, was located in the mountains east of the Antelope Valley. In 2007, it was proposed that a reservoir and dam would be built at Sites and in the Antelope Valley to provide water to California as a whole.

History
Colusa County states that when the first settlers to the valley arrived, it was "lush with wild grasses of oats and clovers, so tall an antelope could hide in it." Most of the settlers began farming, and kept cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, and grew wheat and barley in large quantities, and also fruits and vegetables.

Oil companies such as Standard Oil drilled the valley in the early 1900s and discovered large quantities of brine and inflammable gas as well as oil. The Antelope Crystal Salt Company was the primary producer of salt in the valley by evaporating the brine with sunlight. One spring was also found to produce a considerable amount of iodine within the brine.

Brownstone
The Antelope Valley is made of beds of brownstone. The majority of the sandstone extends 8 miles north and south of Sites, at a width of aproximately half a mile. In various places the strata are 18 feet deep. The sandstone extends about twenty miles in total, but is much smaller further away from Sites. The Colusa Sandstone Mining Company began mining operations in the valley in 1891, and the McGilvray Stone Company opened a quarry immediately south of Colusa's in 1900.

The brownstone from the valley has a uniformed blue-gray color, and is evenly grained. Tests carried out by Thomas Price & Son on the rock showed that when it is heated to red hot and submerged in water, the stone neither splinters or cracks. It can withstand white heat without fusion or dulling of the sharp edges of the stone. When introduced to water from this temperature, it changes color to a light brown. This high quality made it perfect for use in construction material.

Initially, the quarries dressed the stone on-site, but that practice soon ended for practical reasons. Sites was the terminus of the narrow gauge Colusa and Lake Railroad, so the carved rock had to be tranferred to cars on the standard guage Southern Pacific line at Colusa Junction, where it was then shipped to San Francisco. During the transfer between cars, the stone would spall, so the two companies decided to dress the rock in San Francisco. Spoil from the quarries has been used in the production of macadam.

Many San Fransiscan buildings constructed in the late 1800s and early 1900s were built using the Antelope Valley-sourced brownstone. San Francisco Ferry Building, constructed in 1896, was one of the earliest buildings to use it. The former French American Bank on Sutter Street, the Monadnock Building, the Merchants National Bank (in front of the old Federal Reserve Bank Building), the Kohl Building, the Sherith Israel Synagogue, the Flood Building, The Emporium, the original wings of the Westin St. Francis, and the Spreckles band stand at Golden Gate Park were all built using the Antelope Valley brownstone. Other cities to feature buildings made from the rock include Sacramento (Thomas Clunie Building), San Jose (Garden City Bank), and Monterey (First National Bank). The Santa Cruz County Bank Building received four monolithic columns measuring 22 ft high by 4 ft square at the base, and tapering to 3 ft square at the top.

By 1921 both quarries had closed down and the railroad from Sites to Colusa Junction had been ripped up. The quarries are now owned by The Brownstone Quarry and are in operation.

Transport
Four roads travel through the Antelope Valley. California State Route 20 enters the valley's southern tip after the junction with SR 16 near Wilbur Springs. It heads north and then east through the valley, leaving it through Salt Canyon towards Williams. The intersection of SR 20 and Leesville Road outside Williams provides access back to the central and northern parts of Antelope Valley as Leesville Road makes it way west through Freshwater Creek near Mountain House, and crosses through the valley as it heads out towards Leesville via Windy Point. At Leesville, Huffmaster Road travels in a northeasterly direction and passes through Blanchard Valley and Boxer Valley towards Sites, where it parallels Antelope Creek. Sites-Lodoga Road crosses the northern end of the valley to connect those two communities.

Antelope Valley Ranch Airport (IATA 4CL3), a privately-owned, single 15/30 grass-surfaced runway measuring 2384 ft long and 60 ft wide, lies within the southern portion of Antelope Valley just south of Leesville Road, approximately 20 mi west of Williams. The airport is at an elevation of between 502 ft}}. and 530 ft.