Monolith, California

Unincorporated community in California, United States

35°07′12″N 118°22′27″W / 35.12000°N 118.37417°W / 35.12000; -118.37417CountryUnited StatesStateCaliforniaCountyKern CountyElevation

^[1]

3,966 ft (1,209 m)

Monolith (formerly, Aqueduct)^[2] is an unincorporated community in the Tehachapi Valley, in Kern County, California.^[1]

The community is located 4.5 miles (7.2 km) east of Tehachapi,^[2] at an elevation of 3,966 feet (1,209 m) in the southern Sierra Nevada and eastern Tehachapi Pass areas.^[1]

History

The Aqueduct post office opened in 1908, and changed its name to Monolith in 1910.^[2]

Aqueduct−Monolith began as a camp for workers at a cement plant for the Owens Valley aqueduct project, supplying materials for the construction of concrete structures.^[2] William Mulholland bestowed the name change, due to a huge limestone deposit.^[2] At Monolith Substation in 2014, Southern California Edison commissioned the Tehachapi Energy Storage Project, which was the largest lithium-ion battery system operating in North America at the time of commissioning and one of the largest in the world.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Monolith, California
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 1074. ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
^ International, Edison. "SCE Unveils Largest Battery Energy Storage Project in North America". Edison International. Retrieved July 11, 2020.