Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Visual Materials
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Visual Materials
Early construction photographs of Big Creek, including grading for hoist line, sawmill, railway grade construction, gravel washer, reservoir from Dam 1 [Huntington Lake], east portal Tunnel No. 3, logging; Big Creek Dam 2 and Dam site 3; Big Creek Camp 1, gravel pit, gravel washer; Big Creek crossing at foot of incline [Powerhouse No. 1 site]; Train No. 103 at Cascada; Train leaving for El Prado; Cascada Falls on Pitman Creek; Cascada yards; Hoist No. 2; Warehouse, planning mill, and lumber yards. Photographs by Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation.
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Construction of Big Creek Powerhouse 1 and 2: Sluicing construction sites; Camp 2 Warehouse; Meat storage and butchers; Concrete mixers; Camps 3, 6, and 7; Adit 2, and 3; Cascada yards; Transmission line construction; Excavation and construction at Dams 1, 2, 3, and 4, flowline, penstocks, surge shaft; Incline railway; Tunnels 1, and 2; Huntington Lake. Photographer: Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation.
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A set of 52 card photographs by photographer William Henry Hill documenting the construction, opening, and early years of the Mount Lowe Railroad in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, California, in the 1890s. Views include mountain scenery and waterfalls; the building of the incline and other portions of the railway, with images of construction workers; people at building sites on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe prior to and during construction; groups of people at camps or on trails in the mountains, sometimes on horses or mules and on snow-covered ground; winding machinery and cable; decorated electric cars filled with passengers at the opening ceremony, July 4, 1893; the first passenger cars leaving Mountain Junction in Altadena for Rubio Canyon and ascending the great incline; Rubio Canyon and Rubio Glen, Castle Rock, Castle Canyon, Eaton Canyon, and Grand Canyon; a hotel annex on Echo Mountain; the original mule corral on Echo Mountain; a reception of the California Press and Editorial Association at the residence of Professor Thaddeus Lowe; and the Pasadena Board of Trade Directors arriving at the top of a snowy Mount Lowe in January, 1897. Also included are photographic reproductions of a drawing of the Echo Mountain Hotel, of a mechanical drawing showing the arrangement of winding gear on an incline, and of a map of the site and environs. People of regional and national significance who appear in various pictures include Professor Thaddeus Lowe; chief engineer David J. Macpherson; Theodore Parker Lukens; Judge Benjamin Eaton; George Wharton James; Clarence S. Martin; and Harvard College president Charles William Eliot and party, on occasion of Eliot's visit to Pasadena and Mount Wilson, April 7-8, 1892. Notably, there are at least two photographs that include images of Jason Brown, a son of abolitionist John Brown (Items 19 and 19A). Many photographs have photograph numbers and typed or handwritten captions on the image from the original negative.
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Visual Materials
One of six very early model Caterpillar tractors used to haul materials to the Rush Creek plant site from the Benton Railroad Station 56 miles away.
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Visual Materials
This very rare photo shows a construction train on the S. J. & E. in the spring of 1912. By this time, the railroad had been built far into the rugged fastness of the High Sierra, and was nearing the future site of the town of Cascada (Big Creek). The exact location of the "head of steel" is uncertain. Pg. 26. [THIS PHOTO IS NOT AN EDISON PHOTO! DO NOT USE THIS NEG W/OUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM WILLIAM A. MYERS!]
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Visual Materials
This view of Camp #2, later the town of Cascada (now Big Creek), was taken from the south side of Big Creek Canyon on February 16, 1913. The absence of snow is unusual for the time of year, but it did enable the work to go faster. The penstock for Powerhouse #1 is in the early stages of construction, at upper right.
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