tonnage relatively easy. From Wildwood Station, granite from Griffith's quarry would be loaded onto train cars and taken to Folsom, where it would be transferred to the train cars of the Sacramento Valley Railroad. The train would then travel to Sacramento, and there the granite would be transferred onto barges or boats for the final leg of the journey to the San Francisco Bay Area. This was quite a laborious process, but a profitable one for Griffith, who supplied rough granite between 1862 and 1864. The railroad was largely responsible for the success of the Wildwood Quarry, but with the passage of the Pacific Railroad Act in June 1862 and the subsequent construction of the Central Pacific Railroad across the Sierra and eastward, much of the usefulness of the Sacramento, Placer, and Nevada Railroad was over. It continued business sporadically until June 1864 when the Central Pacific Railroad was finally completed up to Newcastle. Abruptly, the rails were taken up and the bankrupt Sacramento Valley and Sacramento, Placer, and Nevada railroads were no more. To continue in the quarry business, Griffith would have to find another granite site closer to the Central Pacific Railroad. Penryn Granite Works Griffith was most fortunate to find a new granite outcropping north of Rocklin and south of Newcastle. He named his site Penryn after the Penrhyn Quarry in Wales. Small houses, a stone office, and a barn were erected. A rail linking the quarry to the Central Pacific Railroad a mile and a half away enabled loaded cars from the quarry to be sent down to the station by gravity. Then, teams of oxen hauled up the empty flat cars. This crucial rail extension, along with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, opened the entire United States for Griffith Griffith's granite business. Penryn Granite The Penryn granite was so pure because the location was nearly in the center of the granite belt, making the stone a "superior" quality—meaning it was entirely free of iron. Without iron, granite never changes color from atmospheric effects, or even when polished, does not corrode its perfect surface. It was mottled in white and black in equal proportions, with larger spots than that of granite from quarries nearer to the edges of the granite zone. There were other types of granite at the quarry. "One of these was a beautiful black granite. When polished, the granite served as beautiful