Volume 023-1 - January 1969 (4 pages)

The first switchboard consisted of open-air , automatic circuit breakers. They were supposed to break the circuit but they sometimes failed and provided fine displays of fireworks. From the switchboard the two phase lines were carried out through the end of the powerhouse to an eight mile pole line ending at Grass Valley and having a midway branch to Nevada City. This line ran in a cleared right-ofway 60 feet wide. Poles cut from the right-of-way and rising 30 feet above the ground were used. On them were crossarms with triplepetticoat white porcelain insulators man~ ufactured by the Locke Company. While the plant was being built, Grass Valley and Nevada City were lighted by a system owned by Kaskill Casper, a Nevada City clothing merchant whose business was on Pine Street. In 1892 Casper began operating a small water powered generator to serve Nevada City. He later sold it to John Glasson, head of an older gas and electric company. A larger hydroelectric plant was built on Deer Creek to meet the growing demand for electricity. In 1896 the Nevada County Power Company purchased the plant and operated it for three years. Even more capacity was needed. On March 1, 1898, a crib dam 54 feet high and 327 feet across was started in Rock Creek to flood a partially excavated basin that had been the scene of hydraulic diggings. It was completed November 27th. This reservoir area of approximately 42 acres was named Lake Vera for one of de Sabla Jrs. daughters. A viaduct was built to convey the lakes water a distance of 2 3/4 miles to a small forebay on the hillside above the Nevada Powerhouse. From the forebay water shot down a 20 inch steel pipe to additional impulse wheels installed in the original plant. On April 2, 1905, a part of the dam on Lake Vera gave way. After its repair the dam was about 12 feet lower and the capacity of the lake dropped. The cntract for the construction of the dam on the South Yuba, the flume and ‘‘Rome’’ Plant was given to John Martin, California agent for the Stanley Flectrical Manufacturing Company. The actuai supervision of the construction of the dam and flume was left to Alfred Tregidgowho was the company’s first operating supintendent. Meanwhile de Sabla Jr. was canvassing the area for customers. The WYOD, THE Homeward Bound and the Gold Hill mines in the Nevada district were the first to use the power. They were followed by the Pennsylvania, the Brunswick, the Allison Ranch and the North Star in the Grass Valley district and then by the Mountaineer in the Nevada district. No mine that installed a motor to take electric power ever abandoned its use unless the mine itself closed for some other reason. On September 1, 1900 the Nevada County Power Company combined with the Yuba Power Company to form the beginning of the Bay Counties Power Company. A historically significant sidelight concerns the Colgate Power Plant of the Yuba Electric Company that was placed in operation September 5, 1899, It was the first powerhouse to serve San Francisco Bay Area with hydroelectric power. The Colgate plant was damaged by fire in 1946 and replaced in 1949, It was abandoned during 1968 as a result of an agreement signed two years previously with the Yuba County Water Agency and the Bullards Bar Project. The Bay Counties Power Company formed by thecombinedNevada and Yuba county companies in 1901 grew until March 1, 1903 when its possessions with others were merged into the California Gas and Electric Corporation, On January 2, 1906 this corporation came under the control of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The Nevada Power Plant was retired from service in 1910, having become obsolete. For the entire fascinating story of Nevada County's contribution to the development of hydroelectric power read P.G.&E, of California: The Centennial story of Pacific Gas and Electric Company by Charles M. Coleman, McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc, 1952, Among the many worthy euterprises inatguNEVADA COUNTY rated in Nevada County duriny the year, none ELECTRIC POWER CO. is more worthy of consideratiun at the hands of mining men than that being pushed forward by the above-named corporation. This company was incorporated September 20, 1892, and among its stockholders are some of the best known citizens of San Francisco. The works of the company are located near Purdon’s crossing of the South Yuba River, six miles above Nevada City, on the North San Juan Road. The object of the company isto divert the waters of the South Yuba for the purpose of generating electricity to be transmitted to Nevada City and Grass Valley, there to be used for power and lighting purposes. The company has had a very large force of men at work building the dam and flume, and will be ready to furnish power at about one-half the cost of steain power, some time before the first of November. The flume will be 18,4co feet in length, six feet wide and five feet deep, capable of carrying 6,000 inches of water, which with the fall the company will have, will enable them to generate and transmit about 3,000 horse-power. The power house will be located on the river, below the lower end of the flume, where a fall of over 200 feet can be obtained. Two five-hundred-horse-power genenitors will be installed immediately, and these will be added to at such times as nay be found necessary, ‘She directors of the company are: C. A. Grow, D. B Davidson, Wm. M. Pierson and FE. J. de Sabla, Jr., of San Francisco, and Alf, Tregidgo, of Nevada County, the latter being the eficient superintendent. Wai. M. Pierson is president, C. A. Grow, treasurer and secretary and EK. J. de Sablo, Jr., vice-president and general manager, to whom application should be made for contracts for the furnishing of power, or for any business connected with the company, At the present writing (September 6, 1895) the work has progressed to such a point as to insure the completion of the entire plant during the month of October. The dam is well under way and the flume is over two-thirds built. Both of the generators have been shipped from the Stanley Electric Works, at Pittsfield, Mass., and are daily expected. The pole line construction is also being rapidly completed, all the wire, about Gventy tans, now being on the ground The works have an elevation of 1,7Q@0 fect al the dam and 1 4oe feat at the power house, which, being well below the snow line, is 3 Quarantee that, coupled with the very substantial works that are being, put in, a perpetual power can be obtained and supplicd to the inines during all seasons, and will not be affected by the severe winters which have compelled our mines to shut down in former years. The engineers of construction are Messrs. W. F. C. Hasson, Audrew M. Hunt and W. R. Eckart, of San Francisco. Applications for power can be made at once and a guarantee will be given that all contracts will be fulfilled, NEVADA COUNTY ANINING REVIEW The above documentation was taken from the Nevada County Mining Review published in 1895 by W. F. Prisk and the pictures were reproduced from the Centenial Story of the P.G.&E. published in 1952. The site of the Rome Powerhouse was three miles northwesterly from Lake Vera, now a recreational] area a few miles north of Nevada City. Access to the power house site now abandoned is via the Cement Hill road or by hiking upstream from the South Yuba Bridge on Highway 49. The location is historically referred to as between Hoyt’s Crossing and Purdon Crossing on the South Yuba River. C. H. Lee, Editor.

The first switchboard consisted of open-air , automatic circuit breakers. They were supposed to break the circuit but they sometimes failed and provided fine displays of fireworks. From the switchboard the two phase lines were carried out through the end of the powerhouse to an eight mile pole line ending at Grass Valley and having a midway branch to Nevada City. This line ran in a cleared right-ofway 60 feet wide. Poles cut from the right-of-way and rising 30 feet above the ground were used. On them were crossarms with triplepetticoat white porcelain insulators man~ ufactured by the Locke Company. While the plant was being built, Grass Valley and Nevada City were lighted by a system owned by Kaskill Casper, a Nevada City clothing merchant whose business was on Pine Street. In 1892 Casper began operating a small water powered generator to serve Nevada City. He later sold it to John Glasson, head of an older gas and electric company. A larger hydroelectric plant was built on Deer Creek to meet the growing demand for electricity. In 1896 the Nevada County Power Company purchased the plant and operated it for three years. Even more capacity was needed. On March 1, 1898, a crib dam 54 feet high and 327 feet across was started in Rock Creek to flood a partially excavated basin that had been the scene of hydraulic diggings. It was completed November 27th. This reservoir area of approximately 42 acres was named Lake Vera for one of de Sabla Jrs. daughters. A viaduct was built to convey the lakes water a distance of 2 3/4 miles to a small forebay on the hillside above the Nevada Powerhouse. From the forebay water shot down a 20 inch steel pipe to additional impulse wheels installed in the original plant. On April 2, 1905, a part of the dam on Lake Vera gave way. After its repair the dam was about 12 feet lower and the capacity of the lake dropped. The cntract for the construction of the dam on the South Yuba, the flume and ‘‘Rome’’ Plant was given to John Martin, California agent for the Stanley Flectrical Manufacturing Company. The actuai supervision of the construction of the dam and flume was left to Alfred Tregidgowho was the company’s first operating supintendent. Meanwhile de Sabla Jr. was canvassing the area for customers. The WYOD, THE Homeward Bound and the Gold Hill mines in the Nevada district were the first to use the power. They were followed by the Pennsylvania, the Brunswick, the Allison Ranch and the North Star in the Grass Valley district and then by the Mountaineer in the Nevada district. No mine that installed a motor to take electric power ever abandoned its use unless the mine itself closed for some other reason. On September 1, 1900 the Nevada County Power Company combined with the Yuba Power Company to form the beginning of the Bay Counties Power Company. A historically significant sidelight concerns the Colgate Power Plant of the Yuba Electric Company that was placed in operation September 5, 1899, It was the first powerhouse to serve San Francisco Bay Area with hydroelectric power.

The Colgate plant was damaged by fire in 1946 and replaced in 1949, It was abandoned during 1968 as a result of an agreement signed two years previously with the Yuba County Water Agency and the Bullards Bar Project. The Bay Counties Power Company formed by thecombinedNevada and Yuba county companies in 1901 grew until March 1, 1903 when its possessions with others were merged into the California Gas and Electric Corporation, On January 2, 1906 this corporation came under the control of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. The Nevada Power Plant was retired from service in 1910, having become obsolete. For the entire fascinating story of Nevada County's contribution to the development of hydroelectric power read P.G.&E, of California: The Centennial story of Pacific Gas and Electric Company by Charles M. Coleman, McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc, 1952, Among the many worthy euterprises inatguNEVADA COUNTY rated in Nevada County duriny the year, none ELECTRIC POWER CO. is more worthy of consideratiun at the hands of mining men than that being pushed forward by the above-named corporation. This company was incorporated September 20, 1892, and among its stockholders are some of the best known citizens of San Francisco. The works of the company are located near Purdon’s crossing of the South Yuba River, six miles above Nevada City, on the North San Juan Road. The object of the company isto divert the waters of the South Yuba for the purpose of generating electricity to be transmitted to Nevada City and Grass Valley, there to be used for power and lighting purposes. The company has had a very large force of men at work building the dam and flume, and will be ready to furnish power at about one-half the cost of steain power, some time before the first of November. The flume will be 18,4co feet in length, six feet wide and five feet deep, capable of carrying 6,000 inches of water, which with the fall the company will have, will enable them to generate and transmit about 3,000 horse-power. The power house will be located on the river, below the lower end of the flume, where a fall of over 200 feet can be obtained. Two five-hundred-horse-power genenitors will be installed immediately, and these will be added to at such times as nay be found necessary, ‘She directors of the company are: C. A. Grow, D. B Davidson, Wm. M. Pierson and FE. J. de Sabla, Jr., of San Francisco, and Alf, Tregidgo, of Nevada County, the latter being the eficient superintendent. Wai. M. Pierson is president, C. A. Grow, treasurer and secretary and EK. J. de Sablo, Jr., vice-president and general manager, to whom application should be made for contracts for the furnishing of power, or for any business connected with the company, At the present writing (September 6, 1895) the work has progressed to such a point as to insure the completion of the entire plant during the month of October. The dam is well under way and the flume is over two-thirds built. Both of the generators have been shipped from the Stanley Electric Works, at Pittsfield, Mass., and are daily expected. The pole line construction is also being rapidly completed, all the wire, about Gventy tans, now being on the ground The works have an elevation of 1,7Q@0 fect al the dam and 1 4oe feat at the power house, which, being well below the snow line, is 3 Quarantee that, coupled with the very substantial works that are being, put in, a perpetual power can be obtained and supplicd to the inines during all seasons, and will not be affected by the severe winters which have compelled our mines to shut down in former years. The engineers of construction are Messrs. W. F. C. Hasson, Audrew M. Hunt and W. R. Eckart, of San Francisco. Applications for power can be made at once and a guarantee will be given that all contracts will be fulfilled, NEVADA COUNTY ANINING REVIEW The above documentation was taken from the Nevada County Mining Review published in 1895 by W. F. Prisk and the pictures were reproduced from the Centenial Story of the P.G.&E. published in 1952. The site of the Rome Powerhouse was three miles northwesterly from Lake Vera, now a recreational] area a few miles north of Nevada City. Access to the power house site now abandoned is via the Cement Hill road or by hiking upstream from the South Yuba Bridge on Highway 49. The location is historically referred to as between Hoyt’s Crossing and Purdon Crossing on the South Yuba River. C. H. Lee, Editor.