Phoenix, and much of Arizona, has a remarkable amount of concrete block buildings, due largely to Superlite, the local concrete block manufacturing company which rose to prominence during the postwar housing boom. By 1955, 75 percent of all new buildings were constructed with Superlite concrete block, and in 1965, it accounted for a whopping 80 percent of all wall construction, which helps explain the cityscape of block buildings we see today.
One place volcanic scoria occurs naturally is Winona, about thirteen miles (21 km) east of Flagstaff AZ, where Superlite has had a mine since 1959.
Switching cars at this industry is BNSF local L-SWE0071-06I, with ES44DC 7487 and ES44C4 7058 shoving tank cars into a spur that serves this mine. In the foreground are some containers on a BNSF freight (Z-ALTLAC5-05A) on the mainline.
