By Frank Perry
In 1875—150 years ago—the IXL Lime Company in Felton produced its first batch of lime. The company’s works was situated along Fall Creek where historic lime kilns can still be seen. For over twenty years IXL competed with Henry Cowell and several other lime companies in central California.
Although the IXL company manufactured the lime near Felton, the company headquarters was in San Francisco. This was true for quite a few other Santa Cruz County manufacturing businesses at that time, including The California Powder Works (now the site of Paradise Park), Porter’s Tannery in Soquel, and the Holmes, Santa Cruz, and Davis and Cowell lime companies.
Although lime production began in 1875, the IXL company was incorporated in 1874. Several San Francisco and Santa Cruz businessmen were the stockholders. Two other lime companies were already operating near Felton: one on Bull Creek and one on Bennett Creek. No doubt the success of these companies inspired formation of the IXL company. The limerock in that area was almost pure calcium carbonate, ideal for making high-quality lime. There were also plenty of trees that could be cut to provide fuel for the kilns.
It is no coincidence that the company started up at the same time that a railroad—The Santa Cruz and Felton—was being constructed up through the San Lorenzo Valley. The new railroad would provide much easier access to the wharves in Santa Cruz, which were essential for getting the lime to the principal market: San Francisco.
In October, 1876, a newspaper reporter from the Santa Cruz Courier visited the kilns: “On interviewing Mr. A. McDonald, the foreman of these works, he informed us that he is now working twenty-five men and running two kilns, one of 850 and one of 1,150 barrels capacity per week, fired alternately.” Altogether, about 4,000 barrels per month were being produced. The lime sold at $1.50 per barrel wholesale, $2.00 retail.
The company operated for about twenty years with varying degrees of success. There were certainly challenges. These included fires, accidents, slumps in the market, and fights among workers.
By the mid 1890s the company was not doing so well and was being sued by creditors. In the fall of 1900, Henry Cowell purchased the IXL facility, including, 2,300 acres of land. “In all probability the ownership of these works will never change hands while Henry lives, for he buys for keeps,” said the paper.
The following year Cowell was busy renovating the lime works in preparation for renewing production. As mentioned, the plant originally had two kilns, one large and one small. Today, there are three large kilns, all the same size. These no doubt date from the 1901 renovation.
By 1915, lime production had shifted to new oil-fueled kilns at Rincon. However, the parts for the wooden barrels to ship the lime were made at Fall Creek. S. H. Cowell, by that time in charge of the company, was proud to show off the new barrel mill, as described by a Santa Cruz Surf reporter: “A portion of the flowing waters of Fall Creek are diverted into a flume and brought out along the hillside until a drop of a hundred feet is secured; then the water is let loose into an inch pipe and comes down with a velocity equal to sixty horse power, sets a Pelton wheel in motion, which in turn makes the saws hum. [With] one motion of the hand, the machinery moves, never stops, never varies. . . . Power [is] always ready, willing to work, any time or all the time; willing to rest and not rust, and the water runs again into the stream as if nothing had happened to it, entirely unfatigued by the exercise . . . . “
The barrel mill made redwood staves and heads. A specialized saw was used to make the staves, as they had to curve slightly to fit around the barrel. At Rincon, coopers did the final trimming and assembly the staves and heads into barrels. By this time, iron hoops had replaced the traditional wooden hoops fashioned from split hazelnut wands.
To learn more about the IXL lime company, watch the free online lecture Saturday morning, November 8th (see earlier post).
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This was one of the stories included in the Fall 2025/Winter 2026 issue of our Lime Kiln Chronicles newsletter. To see the entire issue, please go here.