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The prominent granite dome that towers over the site of Big Creek #1 Hydro Plant was named by John Eastwood for William G. Kerckhoff



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  • John Samuel Eastwood (1857-1924) was involved in civil engineering projects in the San Jaoquin Valley and the High Sierras

    John Samuel Eastwood (1857-1924) was involved in civil engineering projects in the San Jaoquin Valley and the High Sierras

    Visual Materials

    John Samuel Eastwood (1857-1924) was involved in civil engineering projects in the San Jaoquin Valley and the High Sierras for almost all of his career. In addition to the Big Creek Project, the invention of the multiple-arch dam is Eastwood's most enduring legacy.

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    Photographs of the site of Pacific Light and Power Company's San Joaquin River power plant

    Visual Materials

    An album with 79 amateur and commercial photographs of landscape views of the San Joaquin River area in Fresno County, California, showing sites related to development and early construction of the Pacific Light and Power Company's power plant. The photographs appear to document the promotion of the Mammoth Power Company and the Pacific Light & Power Company's Big Creek projects, along with views of engineers or survey parties in the field and scenic panoramas. The accompanying photograph legend identifies some of these as dam sites and reservoir sites. Local landmarks shown include San Joaquin Canyon, Kerckhoff Dome, several waterfalls along the river, Ray City camp, and Jackson's Bridge on Big Creek. Some of the photographs show landscapes covered with snow. There is one photograph of a Native American woman with a child.

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    Big Creek: streams, gauging stations, accidents, dam sites

    Visual Materials

    On spine of album: Streams, Gauging Stations, Dam Sites, Accidents, Miscellaneous Scenes. San Joaquin River, Blaney Meadows, Big Creek Lower Falls, Chiquito Creek, Granite Creek, Boggy Meadows, Gauge Houses, Banner and Ritter Peaks, Balloon Dome, Squaw Dome, Miller's Bridge, McClure Meadow, Sapphire Lake, Evolution Creek, Glaciers, Piute Creek, Pitman Creek Weir; Dam Sites: Mammoth Pool Reservoir, Forks Reservoir, Miller's Bridge Reservoir, Paradise Bar Reservoir, Wanda Lake, Desolation Lake, Stevenson Creek Test Dam, Shaver Lake; Stream gauging: recorders, stations, and field cabins for personnel; San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad accidents; miscellaneous Big Creek Powerhouses.

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  • Several of John Eastwood's original drawings for his proposed Big Creek plants still survive in Edison Company files

    Several of John Eastwood's original drawings for his proposed Big Creek plants still survive in Edison Company files

    Visual Materials

    Several of John Eastwood's original drawings for his proposed Big Creek plants still survive in Edison Company files. This drawing was prepared to show the relative strengths of, and quantities of materials required for, traditional gravity arch and rock filled dams, as compared with Eastwood's own innovative multiple arch dam design.

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  • An early John Eastwood drawing showing a multi-level power house to be located at the junction of Pitman Creek and Big Creek

    An early John Eastwood drawing showing a multi-level power house to be located at the junction of Pitman Creek and Big Creek

    Visual Materials

    An early John Eastwood drawing showing a multi-level power house to be located at the junction of Pitman Creek and Big Creek, the site where Power House #1 was later in fact built, although to a different architectural style.

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  • A long procession of earth-moving equipment carried on the process of building the earth-fill dam across the San Joaquin River

    A long procession of earth-moving equipment carried on the process of building the earth-fill dam across the San Joaquin River

    Visual Materials

    While the power tunnel was being driven through hard Sierra granite, a long procession of earth-moving equipment carried on the process of building the earth-fill dam across the San Joaquin River.

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