The ornate pool was transformed from a rock quarry in 1923, and includes decorative canals, fountains, waterfalls and coral caves, while palm trees and porticos provide some welcome shade.

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Sure, it had its moments--like shooting pool at the smoky Green Room, swimming with cute co-eds in the nearby rock quarry and even playing pick-up basketball with legendary point guard Bobby Hurley.

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Besides being home of a prison for women, Chowchilla is known for a bizarre 1976 incident in which a kidnapped bus with 26 children and their driver was buried in a local rock quarry.

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Part of an outdoor art installation called Levitated Mass, this unlikely local celebrity has unified Southern California, from its humble beginnings in a rock quarry to its final placement at the museum, with a much-buzzed-about unveiling in June.

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It follows a major rock fall at the quarry in April 2012 that saw half a million tonnes of rock cover the quarry floor and hamper operations at the site.

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Like Jim Michaels, Peale was a small man with a rock-quarry voice and the moral authority of Moses.

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Ample evidence is left of how they were carved from softer volcanic rock in a central quarry, but it is still a mystery how exactly they were then moved, despite weighing countless tons, over distances of miles with no mechanical propulsion (or even the wheel).

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