Aggregate mining on Mount Zion, Clayton, California

ABSTRACT Two construction aggregate companies, Cemex and Hanson Aggregates, operate respective crushed stone quarries on the east and west slopes of Mount Zion in Clayton, California. These sidehill quarries utilize a single highwall and mine Jurassic diabase of the Coast Range ophiolite that formed as a sheeted dike complex. Hydrothermal veins, some containing 20%–30% disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite, cut the diabase. The east quarry, operated by Cemex, was started by the Harrison-Birdwell Company in 1947. The west quarry, operated by Hanson, was started by the Henry J. Kaiser Sand and Gravel Company in 1954. The Cemex quarry highwall is visible as you come into the city of Clayton on Marsh Creek Road, with a height of ~280 m (920 ft). The height of the highwall at the Hanson quarry is ~215 m (700 ft). Both operations remove weathered diabase overburden to expose fresh diabase, which is drilled, blasted, and hauled to the plant for processing. To ensure aggregate is suitable for construction, quality assurance testing is conducted in accordance with the specifications of various agencies. These quarries supply the surrounding area with aggregate for hospitals, schools, highways, dams, and other buildings. Noteworthy projects supplied by the Clayton quarries include the Concord BART Station, Interstate-680, Interstate-580, Calaveras Dam, Sherman Island Levee, Highway 4, Highway 24, and Bay Bridge epoxy asphalt. Before aggregate was mined, Mount Zion was the site of a copper rush from 1862 to 1864. Gold and silver were also reported in various assays from the Clayton district. Although prospecting created excitement around Clayton, no productive orebodies were ever discovered.

Epilogue

The trouble started late on the evening of June 16, 1964, when members of the Ku Klux Klan set fire to a church outside of Philadelphia, Mississippi. Mount Zion Church was slated to host one of many new “freedom schools” across the state—grassroots institutions designed to empower and organize local black youth through an alternative curriculum focused on black history, civic education, and nonviolent resistance....

Eschatology in Isaiah

This chapter presupposes that the eschatological language of the book of Isaiah is a working rhetorical device for expressing something else underneath it rather than a straightforward description of one’s visionary experience of the afterlife or the end series of this world. Accordingly, it addresses the eschatologically addressed rhetorical discourses in Isaiah. Using adjectival consultation to define “eschatologically,” it argues that the language of these eschatological texts is strong enough to be universal (spatial fullness), ultimate (temporal fullness), and radical (fullness in degree). This strategy aims to rationalize the national crises, as well as to encourage readers to practice proper ethics during those critical and liminal periods. The book of Isaiah illustrates several dystopias and utopias in the eschatologically addressed discourses with the two fixed points—Jerusalem and the Remnants—to serve as witnesses through the ages. Overall, these discourses seek to reassure readers of all ages to understand the divine transformation plan and to join the Torah-based community on Mount Zion for the eternal hope in this world.

Reverend Edwards

This chapter talks about Rev. Dr. Alvin Edwards, pastor of Mount Zion First African Baptist Church in Charlottesville. After the Charleston murders, Edwards reflected on what religious groups in Charlottesville could do to prevent a similar event of racial hate. It describes how Edwards realized that the lack of interaction between the black and white clergy in Charlottesville symbolized a broader theme in American life, the difference between diversity and integration. Viewed statistically, Charlottesville's religious community was racially “diverse,” but the lack of meaningful interaction between black and white clergy exposed a lack of authentic integration. This chapter discusses how Edwards countered the habit of estrangement among race by forming the Charlottesville Clergy Collective. A God-centered faith community of prayer, solidarity, and impact within the Charlottesville-Albemarle Region of Central Virginia.

Church Is Where “I Acquired My Singing Tactics”

This chapter explores the influence of singing in Mount Zion Baptist Church on Armstrong’s development as a musician.Although we do not know exactly what Armstrong sang at his church there are transcriptions of the singing in New Hope Baptist Church just across the Mississippi River in Gretna. The transcriptions reveal a similar blues influenced tonality to the street songs and barbershop cadences sung elsewhere in New Orleans. This chapter explores the pentatonic tendency of melody in African American song; whereas the supporting lines tend to contain chromatic intervals and give rise to chromatic harmony.