buster simpson - the monolith

1 © 2 0 0 5 B u s t e r S i m p s o n 9 0 1 Y a k i m a A v e n u e S o u t h , S e a t t l e , W A 9 8 1 4 4 2 0 6 . 3 2 8 . 6 2 1 2 t e l & f a x b u s t e r @ b u s t e r s i m p s o n . n e t w w w . b u s t e r s i m p s o n . n e t

THE MONOLITHAggregate PlantTurtle Bay Exploration ParkRedding, California

Buster Simpson

© 2 0 0 5 B u s t e r S i m p s o n 9 0 1 Y a k i m a A v e n u e S o u t h , S e a t t l e , W A 9 8 1 4 4 2 0 6 . 3 2 8 . 6 2 1 2 t e l & f a x b u s t e r @ b u s t e r s i m p s o n . n e t w w w . b u s t e r s i m p s o n . n e t 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PIER MONUMENT: THE STARTING POINT 2

SITEMAP: HARDSCAPE / LANDSCAPE 3

FOREWORD BY ROBYN PETERSON 4

ARTIST STATEMENT BY BUSTER SIMPSON 4

THE SHASTA DAM / MONOLITH HISTORICAL CONNECTION 5

TURTLE BAY AND THE MONOLITH 6

FLOOD OF 1940 HIGH WATER MARK 7

DOORS OF AGGREGATION 8

GEOLOGIC WATERSHED 10

ONE CUBIC YARD ROOM 11

POST-AGGREGATE PLANT HISTORY 12

DREDGER PILE 13

EXTRACTION PROCESS, THEN AND NOW 14

ROCK CRUSHER MISTER AND ROCK PIT / DETENTION BASIN 16

BELTLINE ALIGNMENT 18

LABORERS’ OFFERING TO THE WATER SAFE 20

SWALLOW MUD BOWL 22

VISITORS TO THE MONOLITH 23

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 24

PHASE TWO PROPOSALS

SOLAR SHASTA DAM 25

MONOLITH LUMINARY 25

WORKING THE STONE INTO GRAVEL 26

SOUNDS OF THE MONOLITH 26

KUTRAS TRACT FARM 27

BASALT CAMPANILE 28

LUNCH BOX (PICNIC AREA) 29

PIER MONUMENT: THE STARTING POINT

Positioned at the entry walkway of today’s Monolith, the Pier Monument sets reference points in time and establishes the significance of this site. A bronze scale model of the site’s former mill building and adjacent stockpiles of aggregate (c. 1942) sits atop a capstone mounted upon an original concrete pier. Text sandblasted into the capstone has been gold-leafed and reads “Kutras Tract Aggregate Plant 1938-1944.” The other side of the capstone text reads “Turtle Bay – 1942. At this oxbow of the Sacramento River, velocities slow, gravel gathers. Twelve yard buckets amass to dam the relentless aggregation.” Attached to the concrete pier are three porcelain-enamel panels created from historic Fairchild aerial photographs. The images capture the changes made to the landscape during the years prior to and during the aggregate plant’s gravel extraction from the Sacramento River for the construction of Shasta Dam. Additionally, a drawing, also reproduced in porcelain-enamel, depicts the 9.5-mile conveyor beltline from the plant to the dam site. The pier provides a location for present and future donor plaques honoring those who have given their support.

“...An active teller of its own tale.” - R. Peterson

Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe

Pier Monument


The Monolith site

Vicinity map

SITEMAP: HARDSCAPE / LANDSCAPE

The hardscape consists of various sizes of aggregate spread out and in aggregate piles, decomposed granite, concrete walkways, and railings (ADA-compliant). Landscaping includes indigenous and volunteer grasses, an irrigated crop circle, California native oaks, manzanita, redbud, and volunteer cottonwoods. The start of the Beltline Alignment, which traces the path of the aggregate conveyor beltline to the construction site of Shasta Dam, is delineated with Italian cypresses and eventually infill to become a volunteer hedgerow.


FOREWORD

Buster Simpson’s transformation of the “Monolith” at Turtle Bay Exploration Park took place from 1999-2005 in Redding, California, a growing city of about 80,000 at the northern end of the central valley. Redding came into existence as a result of timber, mining, and the construction (in the late 1930s and 1940s) of Shasta Dam. The Monolith is the most visible remaining evidence of the extensive construction infrastructure necessary to build the dam.

Locally The Monolith evokes strong passions, which Buster Simpson’s creative process brought to the fore. A request for qualifi cations in 1999 resulted in the selection of Simpson for the project. In 2000, Simpson prepared an extensive proposal that built upon local focus groups, presentations, and interviews with individuals who had worked on the dam and at the aggregate plant. Simpson laid himself and his partially formulated ideas open for public scrutiny and critique at every step, a process unconventional in most U.S. cities for any publicly-sited art installation.

Public feedback via the newspaper, web site, on-site comment books, and in person ran the gamut. Some demanded that The Monolith not be touched, and others voiced support for conventional artistic work such as murals and bronze monuments. Many others supported Simpson’s proposal in whole or in part. The selection committee concluded that a conventional artistic intervention or a small scale historic installation would bring neither credit nor attention to the chapter of Redding’s history that is of greatest signifi cance, and a modifi ed and phased approach to Simpson’s proposal was accepted.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The concrete structure of The Monolith – all that remains of the Kutras Tract Aggregate Plant – was “recycled” in 2000 to become the armature for a public art commission. My approach was to tell the story of this historic site, which served as the source of aggregate for constructing Shasta Dam. The remaining concrete mill building is beautiful in its honesty and strength, and illustrates what I call “Poetic Utility.” The Monolith serves as a signifi cant counterbalance to the elegant dam it helped to build. Telling the story of this place aesthetically allows a process of discovery and investigation for visitors that complements the experience of the space.

After the aggregate plant ceased operation in 1945, the site was stripped of machinery and metal building parts, leaving the concrete relic that eventually became known locally as “The Monolith.” This structure served as an informal, ad hoc social gathering place for years. Perhaps its attraction was the rich geometry of the solar shadow plays, the classical sense of proportion in its architecture, or the refuge its massive concrete walls provided from summer heat. This public appreciation infl uenced my concepts on how this site could continue to facilitate public engagement, either individually or as a gathering place.

My fi rst task was to be both historian and archeologist, researching and then uncovering years of fi ll to re-expose the mill building’s original fl oor and, with it, a number of unanticipated opportunities. The project became a dynamic process, revealing in the ensuing years its hidden story and my response to it. This project has balanced the honoring of the workers at the plant with that of the Sacramento River. The support of Turtle Bay Exploration Park in allowing this process to move forward over the past fi ve years is commendable. This process has enabled me time to create meaningful, site-specifi c art work with an aesthetic that is unique to this place and its story. Phase One is complete, including unanticipated structural and code compliance issues, and the site is now ready for Phase Two.

Sustainability is a guiding principle of Turtle Bay Exploration Park and The Monolith Project. The balance between man’s intervention and nature’s determination is key to the story being told. For example, by returning the landscape to one that was reminiscent of an aggregate plant the site no longer required heavy irrigation, fertilization, or mowing of grass. The water features are part of a detention and future recirculation system. The Solar Shasta Dam, proposed in 2000, exemplifi es the poetic utility approach by being capable of producing a signifi cant amount of electrical power. The commanding scale of the solar array provides presence and visual balance to The Monolith and surrounding park features, complementing another engineering achievement, the nearby Sundial Bridge by Santiago Calatrava.

Buster SimpsonArtist

Phase I began in May 2001. It included restoration of the site to its historic ground plane, installation of infrastructure to support water features, and elements that would tell through aesthetic means the historic story of the aggregate plant’s operation. Simpson’s intention from the start was to honor the workers involved. The committee wished the project to make explicit the continuity from past through present to the future. Another goal was to clarify that The Monolith was only a single node of the dam-building operation and make visual the connection to the wider region. Finally, the energy story had to be part of the mix: elements linked The Monolith to the dam-building effort’s two-fold goals of providing both electric power and control of the water supplies.

As it true of many one-of-a-kind public art projects, construction was affected by unanticipated engineering requirements, rising costs, delays to secure additional funding, and design modifi cations. After surmounting these obstacles, Phase I was completed in June 2005.

In its totality, Buster Simpson’s proposal is ambitious, exciting, and thought-provoking. It draws attention to the passage of time and its connection to the present, thus illustrating with impact that each moment becomes history. It does not obscure or merely decorate The Monolith, but makes of it an active teller of its own tale.

Robyn PetersonCurator, Turtle Bay Exploration Park

© 2 0 0 5 B u s t e r S i m p s o n 9 0 1 Y a k i m a A v e n u e S o u t h , S e a t t l e , W A 9 8 1 4 4 2 0 6 . 3 2 8 . 6 2 1 2 t e l & f a x b u s t e r @ b u s t e r s i m p s o n . n e t w w w . b u s t e r s i m p s o n . n e t

The Monolith, August 2005


Postcard of aggregate plant, c. 1940s, caption on reverse side reads: “The aggregate Processing Plant, is located at Redding, California. The raw stock is excavated from deposits along the Sacramento River, is washed and screened and converted into acceptable sand and various sizes of gravel. It is then carried to the mixing plants at the Shasta Dam, on the longest conveyor belt in the world, 12 miles in length. 10,000,000 tons of sand and gravel will be required in the manufacture of 6,000,000 cubic yards of concrete for Shasta Dam.”

Shasta Dam, c. 1970s, ”Shasta Dam today remains one of the world’s great engineering achievements. Tourists from many countries continue to visit and marvel at this massive concrete Monolith. Within the United States, only Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state is wider, and only Hoover (Boulder) Dam is taller. Set against the backdrop of majestic Mt. Shasta and beautiful Lake Shasta, Shasta Dam is truly one of America’s scenic and technological wonders.” America’s Shasta Dam, by Al M. Rocca, Ph.D.

“1st Millionth Yard,” porcelain-enamel door panel

Photo of aggregate plant ruins, c. 2000, with conventional grass landscaping. Photo taken prior to removal of three to four feet of indiscriminate fi ll. • Solar Shasta Proposal, c. 2000

Detail, One Cubic Yard text, cast concrete, 2003.

THE SHASTA DAM / MONOLITH HISTORICAL CONNECTION


Fairchild Aerial Photo 7-14-1940 showing first year of the aggregate plant in operation. Note the beltline and the silt plume in the Sacramento River.

“At this bend in the Sacramento velocities slow, gravel gathers twelve-yard buckets amass to dam the relentless aggregation.”

Aerial photograph taken in 2004. The site is now the location of Turtle Bay Exploration Park (www.turtlebay.org), which includes the McConnell Arboretum & Gardens, museums, and the Sundial Bridge. Calatrava’s Sundial Bridge runs parallel and 50 yards downriver

of where the beltline once crossed the Sacramento River on its way to the Shasta Dam construction site.

View of the north elevation with the pier monument in the foreground View of the southwest elevation 2005

TURTLE BAY AND THE MONOLITH


View of the Kutras gravel track and the processing plant during the great fl ood of 1940

Left: Flood of 1940 with the aggregate plant in the backgroundBelow center: The extent of the fl ood of 1940 photographed at the bend of the river looking west with the aggregate plant operation in the center right of the photo

Dan Cook surveying the high water mark

George Kutras’ recollection of the fl ood when he was 12 years old (proportions adjusted)

Low water level in reservoir showing detail of sediment now trapped behind Shasta Dam

FLOOD OF 1940 HIGH WATER MARK

The Kutras Tract gravel operation was located in the Sacramento River fl ood plain. Flooding was a common occurrence that made this site rich in sand and gravel buildup over thousands of years. A fl ood in 1940 inundated the site just as the plant was starting operations. This was the last unchecked major fl ooding event of the Sacramento River in Redding prior to the completion of Shasta

Dam. With the damming of the river, eons of gravel placement and sediment dispersal in the Sacramento valley ended. To acknowledge this profound event, a high water silt mark was re-established in 2003 using local red silt as a pigment in a “milk paint” wash, which was applied to the walls of The Monolith. The elevation of the high water mark was determined by a variety

of historical observations. The High Water Mark maintains a consistent elevation line around the entire Monolith, except on those surfaces modifi ed after the time of the fl ood. This sediment line serves as a reminder of the important ecological function that fl oods perform geologically, hydraulically, and geographically.

Jar of Sacramento silt pigment

Rain detention basin at the drop inlet serves as a sediment catchment for the mud swallows’ spring arrival and nest building


Door of Aggregation #1, Side One: Series of cubic yard milestones, rock samples, and artist cameo

Door of Aggregation #1, Side Two: Drag Line operation with 12-yard buckets

Installation of Door of Aggregation #1 in the One Cubic Yard Room

DOORS OF AGGREGATION

The Doors of Aggregation are based on embellished panel doors of cathedrals, banks, and government buildings, including many buildings constructed during the WPA at the same time the dam began construction. The four Doors of Aggregation serve as the prime historical reference point for the site. Each door represents an aspect of the aggregate operation. Two of the four doors presently have panels on both sides. Historic photos taken during the operation were selected from archives at Shasta Dam, meticulously cleaned and restored, then reproduced in durable porcelain-enamel. Each panel was face-mounted on a piece of rubber belt similar to the material used on the beltline. The doors were made of steel angle iron and woven wire grading mesh. The construction approach and materials palette for the doors, interior ramps, framed documents, and the bridge are historically consistent with the aggregate plant.


Door of Aggregation #2, Side One: Mill building processing machinery Door of Aggregation #4, Side Two: Beltline from aggregate plant to Shasta Dam construction site

Door of Aggregation #4, Side One: Aggregate stockpiles prior to transport on beltline.


GREENSTONEALTERED ANDESITEGRANITEWHITE QUARTZCHERT PEBBLE CONGLOMERATEFINE-GRAINED GRANITECHERT BRECCIA WITH QUARTZ AND EPIDOTE VEINSCONGLOMERATEANDESITEGREENSTONE WITH QUARTZ VEINSILICIFIED CHERT BRECCIADACITECHERT BRECCIACHERTCONCRETION IN SANDSTONESILICIFIED SILTSTONEBEDDED SANDSTONE AND SILTSTONESCORIAHORNBLENDE GABBRO

GEOLOGIC WATERSHED

By the time it fl ows into Redding, the Sacramento River has cut through the rocks of the Trinity complex, the Eastern Klamath Belt, and some overlying Cascade volcanics. Each of these bodies contributes a number of distinct rock types to the gravel found in Redding, which was subsequently used in the construction of Shasta Dam. A map illustrates the extent of the geologic watershed. The geologic map is reproduced in porcelain-enamel and framed with sliced and polished core samples gathered prior to construction by a geologist at the dam site to determine geologic structure. The top surface of the One Cubic Yard is an assortment of sliced rock types with their geologic names engraved in their polished surfaces.

Door of Aggregation #1, panel detail, rock samples

One Cubic Yard and porcelain enamel map

Geologic Watershed, porcelain-enamel, 26.75” x 32.25” panel

Shasta Gem Club identifi cation of rock samples for One Cubic Yard

Top of One Cubic Yard surface, showing geologic samples cut, polished, and identifi ed


ONE CUBIC YARD ROOM

The One Cubic Yard Room is now the formal entry into what was part of the aggregate plant building. In the center of the space sits one cubic yard of concrete, which helps contextualize the references made to the number of cubic yards of concrete poured at the dam and the mass of material it took to achieve that task. Each side of the cube has text cast into the concrete presenting historical and technical information. The top surface is a cross-section of the various sizes of aggregate and rock that has been cut, polished, and identifi ed. At the entry into #1 Chamber, the fi rst Door of Aggregation supports historic photo documents on both sides of the doors. Side One is a series of historical photos documenting the milestones in cubic yards of concrete poured, and Side Two holds documents showing aggregate extraction from the Sacramento River. Two documents are framed on opposing walls. One references a 16th-century aggregate operation and the other the geologic source of the gravel found at this site.

View of the One Cubic Yard Room with One Cubic Yard, one of the four Doors of Aggregation and a framed porcelain-enamel reproduction of an engraving depicting an aggregate operation in 16th-century Europe

View of the One Cubic Yard Room with a framed porcelain-enamel reproduction of a geologic map of the “Geologic Watershed”

Panels from Door #1 of the Doors of Aggregation. Detail of historic documents, pouring concrete at Shasta Dam, porcelain-enamel panels, steel doorway. All four doors are three feet wide, height varies between six and seven feet.

Form work for the casting on One Cubic Yard, 2003

Detail of one side of One Cubic Yard


POST-AGGREGATE PLANT HISTORY

Shortly after the closing of the aggregate plant all of the metal at the mill was scrapped. Vast amounts of sand and gravel remained and for a time a follow-up aggregate operation gleaned the remaining material from the site. It was during this time that walls and ceiling holes were busted out to accommodate the recovery of aggregate. The site was considered an eyesore by some who wished it destroyed, but to others, it was a valuable historic relic to be preserved. Eventually, its intrinsic worth and its historical significance were recognized and initiation of this project began in 1999. Three to four feet of fill within and around the perimeter of The Monolith required removal to return the structure to its original foundation, an excavation process that informed the direction of the project’s scope.

Excavation by Dan Cook and Perry Bennett of three to four feet of fill from the site during 2001-2003 to reveal the original floor and footings of the historic aggregate plant

The One Cubic Yard Room with the post-1945 penetrations


DREDGER PILE

Twelve-yard dragline buckets gathered vast amounts of dredged material out of the Sacramento River and surrounding area at Turtle Bay. The dredger material was then conveyed to the plant to be sorted, crushed, and washed prior to its journey to the Shasta Dam construction site. A nine-yard bucket sits atop a pile of Sacramento River dredger material to mark that aspect of the mining operation.

Detail of Door #1 panels showing dragline extracting material from the Sacramento River and the conveyance of that material to the mill for sorting, crushing, and washing

Above: A nine-yard bucket sits atop the dredger pile (unsorted material from the Sacramento River) Right: Sacramento River looking upstream from the Sundial Bridge at what is left of the beltline bridge footings

Salmon spawning shadow play projected through one of the ceiling penetrations. The source of the shadow: wind vane silhouettes fl oating above the aggregate grading mesh.


EXTRACTION PROCESS, THEN AND NOW

A 16th-century engraving of an aggregate sorting operation provides a contrast to the approach seen at this site in the 1940s. The porcelain-enamel reproduction is framed using cut and polished concrete core samples removed from Shasta Dam during a recent modifi cation. The aggregate in this concrete has now returned to its source at The Monolith. This framed document is opposite the Geologic Watershed document and the One Cubic Yard, creating a triptych out of the three related pieces.

The processing of aggregate seen in Doors of Aggregation #2 and #4 reveal the interior processing and exterior methods of grading and stockpiling of aggregates. Fundamentally little has changed in the past 500 years, as these documents reveal. Other than the machinery replacing manual labor, it is still a process of sorting, washing, and crushing.

Detail of Door #2 historic documents of interior plant operations

View of Door of Aggregation #2 looking out to the two water features: the Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe and the Rock Crusher Mister

16th-century engraving of an aggregate sorting operation of that time. The porcelain-enamel reproduction is framed, 39” x 27”


Detail of cone piles with nine-yard bucket on dredger material pile

Stockpiles in a bed of aggregate. In the foreground is a detail of the bronze model sited on top of the Pier Monument.

Monolith viewpoint to cone piles

Detail of interior panels from Door of Aggregation #4 showing sorting of aggregate ready for placement on the beltline to the Shasta Dam construction site


ROCK CRUSHER MISTER AND ROCK PIT / DETENTION BASIN

The large footing, battered on all four sides, once served as the foundation for the rock crusher. This machine reduced the large boulders into smaller, usable, crushed rock. A recently constructed bridge traverses the north face of the foundation where a misting system will nurture moss and lichens as a rich green wall landscape referencing the Mossbrae Falls on the Sacramento River. Lichens and mosses can live on bare surfaces and extract nutrients from minerals through ion exchange. This results in both mechanical and chemical alterations of the minerals: a rock crusher on a microscopic scale. The Rock Crusher Mister feature is intended to create its unique climate and ecology, nurtured by the ephemeral wisps of mist vapor. In time, a landscape of its own making will evolve.

Today, the Rock Crusher Pit serves as a detention pond for storm fl ooding as well as a cistern for present and future water features. In the case of the installation Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe, the water fl ows from the sculpture, through the interior chamber rooms of the mill building, and out a weir at the Rock Crusher Pit. The weir elevation allows for a two-way fl ow depending on water levels in the pit. Normal fl ows will be detained in the pit, but during high water, the fl ow will direct itself to the north side of The Monolith into the Swallow Mud Bowl and continue out through the drop inlet and into a bioswale fl owing eastward toward the larger Turtle Bay wetlands.

Rock Crusher, porcelain-enamel detail door panel

Insert of a rain event fi lling the Rock Crusher Pit

View of south face of The Monolith with Rock Crusher foundation in center, beyond is the Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe.

View of Rock Crusher and bridge over rock pit with sump to water table

Detail of rainbow created by Rock Crusher Mister Detail of concrete personnel sump cover


Mossbrae Falls on the Sacramento River

Walkway along pit to bridge and Rock Crusher MisterInterior of The Monolith looking out through recycled aggregate screening and shade scrim to the bridge and Rock Crusher Mister beyond

View of Rock Crusher and bridge

View of the mist plume at the base of the Shasta

Dam spillway


BELTLINE ALIGNMENT

A colonnade of Italian cypress delineates the beltline alignment as its trajectory leaves The Monolith to the southwest then turns abruptly north to Shasta Dam. The Monolith concrete walkway ramp mimics the beltline trajectory. The beltline path at Turtle Bay is now erased in some places by parking lots, but the Italian cypress will eventually punctuate the landscape, dramatically revealing the alignment. The selection of Italian cypress was prompted by the fact that Redding hosts a proliferation of Italian cypress, which appear to be around 60 years old and quite possibly represent a favored planting during the time of the dam’s construction. It is anticipated that, like any anomaly in the landscape, the Beltline Alignment will take on the look of a hedgerow, supporting a variety of native and introduced plants, perhaps providing a habitat corridor. As the alignment makes its way to Shasta Dam, the selection of material should favor the indigenous. Plaques have been struck to be placed at locations along the alignment.

Detail of Door of Aggregation #4 panels Door of Aggregation #4, showing both sides

Drawing reproduced on enamel mounted on the Pier Monument illustrating the beltline alignment from the aggregate plant to Shasta Dam


Inset photos: Locations of cypress along the alignment, where the opportunity allows

First Italian cypress site at The Monolith with a bronze plaque noting the beltline alignment

The city segment of the beltline alignment, planted with Italian cypress, could transition over time into a mixed

volunteer planting creating a hedgerow habitat


LABORERS’ OFFERING TO THE WATER SAFE

As a memorial to those who worked at the aggregate plant, Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe is a 30-foot high sculpture comprised of hardhats, a bucket, and an old safe.

The McDonald “T” hardhat (no longer manufactured) was the hardhat of choice worn by the workers at both Shasta Dam and the aggregate plant. An original McDonald “T” was use as a mold to cast the 30 hardhats out of recycled aluminum. The water pours from one hat to the next in a spiral descent of 30 feet. The fi nal hat empties into a stainless steel bucket with a gold-leafed interior. This bucket is secured inside an old abandoned safe recovered from the site, which is resting on its back, its door long ago ripped off its hinges. The installation is located in the south room of the mill building, on axis with the One Cubic Yard Room. The workers’ “bucket brigade” of cascading hats is a tribute to their efforts in the creation of Shasta Dam and to the sustaining value water plays in our lives.

Adjacent to the safe is an image of gold jigs reproduced in porcelain-enamel. This document is bolted to recycled, woven wire aggregate screening. This attachment approach is similar to how aggregate operations typically patch holes in the screen grating. Due to the scale of material processed, the gold extraction proved profi table. The gold-lined bucket and the old company safe suggest the relationship of water with value, in both commerce and ecology. The water feature creates an audible experience like a cascading river with bell overtones.

Installation of Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe Detail of hardhats, gold-leafed bucket, and abandoned company safeHard hat shadow play


Gathering and video recording of aggregate plant workers’ recollections in 2002 and 2005

Detail of water pail with gold-leafed interior

Hardhat of the Unknown Worker – in honor of those who labored here but remain nameless

Gold jig photo document reproduced in porcelain-enamel and mounted to recycled screen grating. To the right, in the background and on another screen mesh is an actual rubber patch, which came with the recycled screen.

Workers at aggregate plant installing conveyor belt, sporting the McDonald “T” hard hat

View from second doorway showing detail of Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe and the Rock Crusher Mister beyond


Nesting colony on the northwest ceiling of The Monolith, 2002

SWALLOW MUD BOWL

An analogy can be drawn between the “mud” (concrete) construction of Shasta Dam and that of the mud swallow nests, which now occupy The Monolith. In the past four years the population of the swallows has increased at The Monolith thus providing increased insect control, guano production, and the audible and visual phenomena of these mud dwellers.

During the recent years of site work, halted during nesting, it was observed that standing mud provided a handy source to be used by swallows for nest building. This prompted inclusion of the Swallow Mud Bowl as part of the site drainage system. Normal accumulations of silt and mud will collect into a detention basin adjacent the drop inlet and contribute a yearly layer to the Mud Bowl. The natural mud colors could be augmented yearly to track the building activity of swallows through “color coding.”

The harvesting of swallow guano presents a unique challenge as the population of swallows increases. One must avoid the washing it “down the drain” and into the mud bowl where its intensity could have adverse effects. Harvesting approaches will be developed in a future phase.

Will The Monolith become the Capistrano of Northern California, when the Basalt Bells call out the yearly return of the Mud Swallows?

Swallows gathering mud at The Monolith construction site, May 2002

Swallow Mud Bowl with Rock Crusher Pit detention outfall on left and drop inlet on right

Detail of nests where the swallow used two different mud sources (color) of mud

Hardhat Birdhouse DuplexGuano streaked wall with High Water Mark


VISITORS TO THE MONOLITH


Pier Monument with the accretion of donor plaques, 2005

The Monolith Dedication, November 2005

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Art in Public Places CommitteePerry BennettRichard BohnMelinda BrownJoe BurmeisterLois BusbyCalifornia Native Plant SocietyLes D. CainHershell CamaronDan CookJessica CookGene CurnowThe Curry GroupJohn DunlapPat FarleyCarol Fielding - In memory of Ted FieldingJim GilmoreRon GimlinJeffrey GluckChris GrayGen HayashidaEdward HerlihyLloyd HillAlice HovemanKathy JenkinsLouisiana-Pacifi c CorporationEd KernaghanThe Kutras FamilyTodd MettenRobert MiddletonRex MolavecKim NiemerNorth Valley BankGreg OttoTom PapowichRené-Joule PâtisserieRobyn PetersonAlice PorembskiJanice PowellTorri PrattWalt Proebstal

Steve PuderbaughLinda RagsdaleCity of ReddingRoss RichmondRich RojoJudy SalterSharrah, Dunlap, SawyerLee SimonsStaff at Shasta DamShasta Historical SocietyShasta Mineral ClubJack ShawJ.F. Shea CompanyJudy SmithMarilyn StephensJames TheimerTrustees and Staff at Turtle Bay Exploration ParkLynne Wonacott

First public meeting in September 2000 prior to excavation of site — wheelbarrows full and ready to talk


PHASE TWO PROPOSALS (PARTIAL) The first phase of this project dedicated resources to historical research, excavation, code compliance, and first phase elements illustrated in this report. The next phase proposes to direct attention primarily to the interior rooms of the mill building and to a major piece, the Solar Shasta Dam.

SOLAR SHASTA DAM (First proposed in 2000)

The juxtaposition of two elegant objects, The Monolith and Shasta Dam, appear at first to be unrelated until one considers their shared history and engineering principles. Both structures had specific jobs. The Monolith, with its two-foot-thick walls, supported massive amounts of machinery, while Shasta Dam was a buttress of concrete, a compression arch pushing into the Sacramento canyon wall. Shasta Dam harnessed the Sacramento River to make electrical power and irrigation water readily available to the valley below.

The Solar Shasta Dam proposed in 2000 exemplifies the shared historical and technological connection, in addition to reinforcing the sustainability mission at Turtle Bay by providing a significant amount of electrical power. The revenue generated would provide revenue for park operations, including The Monolith.

Solar Shasta Dam rests atop The Monolith, as if a gem on a plinth, providing a metaphorical and physical connection between these two structures. The commanding scale of the solar array provides a presence and visual balance to The Monolith and the surrounding park, and complements another engineering achievement, the nearby Sundial Bridge by Calatrava.

MONOLITH LUMINARY (First proposed in 2000)

Credits from “grid banking” during daytime solar power generation would be redirected into special nighttime illuminations. Programs would be driven by existing data streams monitoring the Sacramento River and Shasta Dam such as monitoring of water levels, flows, consumption, evaporation, crop irrigation, and weather. This data can provide an intelligent and dynamic light event. The light source would be the efficient and cost effective Light Emitting Diode (LED).

Image from the Shasta Solar Dam proposal presented in 2000. The ramps were a concept to provide access to the roof as a viewing platform.

Two structural studies of the bracing required to secure the solar array to the existing structure

Elevation of the solar array looking south. Dimensions are approximate. The structure would rest on two existing mounting piers

Grand Coulee Dam nighttime lighting event

Shasta Dam nighttime lighting during construction

Monitoring devices at Shasta Dam, a data source for Monolith Luminary

Image from The Monolith Luminary proposal presented in 2000

Shasta Dam


WORKING THE STONE INTO GRAVEL

Prior to the sand and gravel mining of Turtle Bay, the first manipulation of stone was accomplished by the first people making stone tools. It seems appropriate that the #1 Chamber honor this form of working with stone by creating a large arrow point and a large scraper that would be dramatically lit and suspended in the chamber space. Vitreous chips from the process of their making would lie as detritus upon the chamber floor. The point will take its cue from Wintu artifacts and Ishi, who, while in “residence” at the University of California archeology department, had used blue bottle glass to sculpt an elegant point, exemplifying adaptive reuse. The tribes of this region were very skillful at working with obsidian, which is essentially glass. This adaptability could be paralleled with today by using dichroic glass, a new high-tech glass used in missile guidance systems. The space will be lit with strategically placed sunlight ports naturally illuminating the objects. Because all three chambers are acoustically alive, sound will be an important component in each. In #1 Chamber, sounds will include the actual recording of chipping stone sounds while making the large scraper, overlaid with ethnographic recordings in the Wintu native tongue.

SOUNDS OF THE MONOLITH

The next chamber, #2 Chamber Room, will be a vessel of sounds simulating an aggregate plant with the overlay of voices recorded in 2003 and 2005 of workers’ recollections. This approach will incorporate reflections and sounds of gravel sorting. Just as with #1 Chamber, this space will be dramatically lit with strategically placed ports for sunlight in the ceiling. From this room the visitor walks out toward the Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe, providing a strong connection to the intent that The Monolith memorialize those who worked here.

Illustration of a Dichroic PointInset: Ishi point

View of #1 Chamber Room

Scraper tool in the collection of Turtle Bay Exploration Park

View of #2 Chamber Room


KUTRAS TRACT FARM

An installation will be developed that illustrates early agrarian land use and the customs of farming and ranching that took place on the Kutras Tract prior to the aggregate plant operation. This room exists between the room with Laborers’ Offering to the Water Safe and the #3 Chamber with the Basalt Campanile. This room with its agrarian pre-gravel operation has a southeast exposure and view to the Rock Crusher Mister.

Family portrait, taken by Simpson

Images from the Kutras family album

Life on the Kutras farm

Proposed space at The Monolith


BASALT CAMPANILE

The final room in the journey through the interior of the mill is #3 Chamber. In this room specially milled basalt, the material of Mt. Shasta, will be cut in such a way to allow the resonating frequency of the basalt to “ring,” thus creating the sounds of bells. The acoustically alive resonating chamber will amplify the sounds. The tower above this room resembles a mission bell tower, from which could emanate the campanile sound

Columnar basalt


LUNCH BOX (PICNIC AREA)

On the east side of The Monolith a inviting noon time shaded space, cooled by the Rock Crusher Mister, provides a likely picnic and gathering space. The programming and design approach are to be developed. One possibility would be lunch tables (one cubic yard in size) that provide a porcelain-enamel eating surface that graphically depicts different quadrants along the Sacramento Irrigation System and their associated crops.

THE IRRIGATED LANDSCAPE (To be developed)

Applied irrigation water in the Sacramento Basin

Tabletop detail showing cycles of Shasta Reservoir

water levels and the seasons of one of the crops

Above: Lunch tables with angle-iron legsInset: Aggregate plant worker eating lunch

Large irrigation siphon down river

Irrigation device

buster simpson - the monolith

Documents