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New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company Records
MSS 0828
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla 92093-0175
Title: New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company Records
Creator:
New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company
Identifier/Call Number: MSS 0828
Physical Description:
.25 Linear feet
(1 archives box, 1 map case folder)
Date (inclusive): 1892-1937
Abstract: Correspondence, reports, and maps of the New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company, an American firm which mined onyx marble in Baja
California, Mexico from 1893-1958.
Languages:
English
, Spanish; Castilian
.
Scope and Content of Collection
Records of the New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company, an American firm which mined onyx marble in Baja California from 1893-1958.
The collection includes correspondence, reports, maps, and ephemera regarding the establishment and operations of the company.
The New Pedrara Onyx Company of New York and Chicago began prospecting for onyx marble in northern Baja California in 1892.
Onyx marble, also known as banded calcite or Mexican onyx, is used in building construction and decorative arts. Company president
Samuel Franklin Emmons (1841-1911) dispatched George Foster and William Denton (1828-1907) to survey mineral deposits in Baja
California. After exploring the Punta Final region, they discovered the El Mármol site with rich deposits of onyx marble.
The New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company was established in San Diego and began quarrying onyx marble at El Mármol in 1893. The
slabs were shipped 50 miles overland on a wagon road to Puerto Santa Catarina, where they were barged to ships offshore for
transport to San Diego. The onyx marble was cut and polished at the waterfront plant on 23rd Street; both raw and finished
onyx were shipped to buyers worldwide. In 1910, the
San Diego Union and Daily Bee described the New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company as the "largest producers and shippers of onyx in the world." New Pedrara
onyx marble was featured in the construction of the grand lobby of the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego in 1912.
The New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company was incorporated in San Diego in 1906. In 1915, it was reorganized into the Lyman-Mills
Onyx and Marble Company under Leslie B. Mills, and 1921 it became the Southwest Onyx and Marble Company. Demand for onyx marble
declined during the 1930s and 1940s, and the quarry closed in 1958.
New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company Records. MSS 828. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego.
Acquired 2021
Digital copies of this material are intended to support research, teaching, and private study. This work may be used without
prior permission. The original manuscripts for this collection are held by Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Onyx marble -- Mexico -- Baja California (Peninsula)
Maps -- Mexico -- Baja California -- 19th century
Baja California (Mexico : Peninsula) -- Maps
New Pedrara Mexican Onyx Company -- Archives
Denton, William, 1828-1907