San Bernardino
County
Biographies
THE NEVADA-CALIFORNIA ELECTRICAL CORPORATION
AND THE SOUTHERN SIERRAS POWER COMPANY
The
history of the development and growth of The Nevada-California Electric
Corporation and its group of subsidiary companies is typical of the romance of
the west. It was started as a small
$300,000 project on December 31, 1904, by a group of Denver capitalists who had
first expected to develop some mining properties in Nevada. The experts who made the investigation for
them, however, returned with the suggestion that, instead of entering the
mining business, they should develop hydro-electric power on Bishop Creek to
serve the mining camps at Tonopah and Goldfield. While the original estimate of the cost of
the enterprise was $250,000 to build to Goldfield and $300,000 including
Tonopah, a diversion to Silver Peak increased the total cost to $470,708 up to
December 31, 1905. Some of the increase
was also caused by enlarging operations as they were undertaken. As an indication of the small beginning of
this company, whose successor now has total assets of more than $61,000,000,
the report of the president, for the first year of operation, pointed out with
pride the fact that the gross earnings of the power company and the two
lighting companies for Tonopah and Goldfield for the month of December, 1905,
amounted to $14,423, “or at the rate of $161,000 per annum.”
The
next highlight in the operations of the system was the organization of The
Nevada-California Power Company, which on January 5, 1907, took over The Nevada
Power Mining and Milling Company with all of its properties, and the report of
that company showed a total expenditure for 1907 of $1,580,031. Construction expenditures for the year
amounted to $1,503,850. Extension of the
company’s lines was completed September 20, 1907, to Rhyolite. Lands were purchased from the Hillside Water
Company to the amount of 5,180 acres, together with its irrigation rights to
water of the Bishop Creek and also the principal reservoir site at South
Fork. The property has been operated by
the Associated Companies up to the present date.
The
organization of the Southern Sierras Power Company came in 1911 for the purpose
of reaching out into the rich agricultural territory of southern California to
supply electricity for pumping water for irrigation and to serve a variety of
industrial interests, such as the soda works on Owens Lake, large cement works,
numerous municipalities and many industries in Riverside, San Bernardino and
Imperial counties. In the list of
officers and directors of The Nevada-California Power Company at the time of
the organization of The Southern Sierras Power Company appear the names of L.
C. Phipps, Jr., as treasurer, an office which he still holds, and Arthur B.
West, attorney, who is now president of The Nevada-California Electric
Corporation. Among the trustees also
appears the name of W. E. Porter, who later became president of the
corporation.
In
December of 1914 was organized the $50,000,000 Nevada-California Electric Corporation,
taking over The Nevada-California Power Company, the Southern Sierras Power
Company, the Interstate Telegraph Company, organized to handle telephone and
telegraph service along the lines of the territory served, the Bishop Light and
Power Company, the Corona Gas and Electric Company and the Hillside Water Company. This corporation is the holding company which
continues to own the assets of these and other subsidiary companies of this
system with their many ramifications.
The
principal owners of this corporation in its early years of development are
still its controlling force. Their
vision and indomitable courage have resulted in the building of power plants
among the mountain peaks of the Sierras and the spanning of desert wastes and
granite cliffs with transmission lines.
They planned and constructed the longest line in the world for
transmission of hydro-electric power, opened up a great desert empire in the
Imperial Valley, extended service into old Mexico and Arizona, and built the
longest power line that has ever been constructed for a single construction
job, from San Bernardino, two hundred twenty-four miles to the site of Hoover
Dam, now being used to transmit power to the dam site and in the future destined
to bring electric power back to southern California from that project.
As
an indication of the manner in which the operations of the power companies
owned by The Nevada-California Electric Corporation have grown, it is
interesting to note that the total power generated and purchased for the
service of customers of The Southern Sierras Power Company, The
Nevada-California Power Company and the Yuma Utilities Company in 1931,
amounted to 275,500,167 kilowatt hours, which was a decline of 5.69 per cent from
the peak record of 1930. The total sold,
as taken from customers’ meters for 1931, was 194,925,099 kilowatt hours, a
decrease of only 4.29 per cent from the 1930 high.
The
power companies have direct connections with the Los Angeles Gas and Electric
Company by means of a steel pole line constructed from San Bernardino to the
Seal Beach plant of that company, built in 1929 at a cost of $850,000; a
connecting link with the San Diego Consolidated Gas and Electric Corporation at
Rincon in San Diego County, particularly designed for protection to continuous
service in the Imperial Valley, and one with the Southern California Edison
Company at Colton, thus making possible for scores of western inland
industries, farms and cities a service that is reliable and continuous.
In
June, 1916, The Imperial Ice & Development Company was incorporated and
during the year 1917 the properties of four subsidiary companies, the Corona
Gas and Electric Light Company, the Rialto Light, Power and Water Company, the
Coachella Valley Ice and Electric Company and the Bishop Light and Power
Company, were purchased by and consolidated with the Southern Sierras Power
Company, solidifying and condensing the corporate structure. With the formation of the Ice Company, the
Coachella Valley Ice and Electric Company was acquired
and control of the Holton Power Company, including its ice plants and
interurban railroad. This company was
operated as a subsidiary until 1929, when it was finally completely absorbed. Ice manufacturing
and storage plants were erected for the purpose of serving the vegetable, fruit
and melon industries of the Imperial and Coachella valleys with refrigeration
service, as well as the domestic needs of the cities. As an indication of the scope of its
business, the company sold 273,350 tons of ice to the Pacific Fruit Express,
vegetable shippers and domestic users during the year 1931. During that year it also concluded
negotiations with the Pacific Fruit Express Company for a new fifteen-year
contract covering the requirements of the express company in the Imperial
Valley, which makes certain a good load for its ice plants for the next fifteen
years, in addition to the increasing demand of Imperial Valley for ice. The Imperial Ice and Development Company owns
six plants, located at El Centro, Coachella, Brawley, Calexico, Holtville and
Calipatria, with a combined daily production capacity of 970 tons and storage
capacity of 91,900 tons.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 751-754,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S SAN
BERNARDINO BIOGRAPHIES