San Francisco Call, Volume 112, Number 31, 1 July 1912 — Power Company Creating New Lake in the Sierras [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Power Company Creating New Lake in the Sierras

Great Dam at Big Meadows Will Result in Inundation of Forty Square Miles

The beginning of a new lake in California, which will cover 40 square miles of mountain country above the north fork of the Feather river, has been made at Big Meadows by the Great Western Power company. A great dam that will tower 110 feet above the ordinary water level of the stream flowing through the meadows is being constructed, and the engineers In charge purpose to have It finished by the end of December. Then the great lake will begin to fill until 40 square miles are covered by the water. While the prime object of the dam is to store water for creating electricity, after the water has passed through the power plant it will be diverted along a ditch and flume way and pass down on the floor of the Sacramento valley in Tehama county, irrigating thousands of acres. And there is another and a curious result of the reservoir—it will open up a new mountain resort country. The Great Western Power company Intends to co-operate with the Western Pacific railroad in developing pleasure grounds that will, they believe, rival Tahoe. The floor of the

reservoir is 4,500 feet above sea level, the country is full of game and the mountain scenery is wild and Impressive. Rising from one side of Big Meadows—which will later be the lake —is Mount Lassen, 10,400 feet high. Four hundred billion gallons, which is 54,450,000,000 cubic feet, which is 1.250,000 acre feet of water, will be contained in the reservoir. The dam itself is of the multiple arch type, constructed of concrete, heavily reinforced with iron. It will consist of a series of concrete buttresses, spaced 80 feet apart from center to center in a direction parallel to the flow of the stream, and with a series of arches on the upstream side, each arch covering the space between two buttresses. These arches are not vertical, but inclined so that the weight of the water behifid the dam exerts its pressure downward rather than outward, thus increasing the stability of the structure. The dam is built on what engineers call a "twelve safety factor," which means that it is powerful enough to withstand a pressure 12 times greater than will be exerted upon it.

View of Big Meadows dam that is being constructed by the Great Western Power company.