he Redlands Electric Light and Power Company was organized in October, 1892, and began operation on its plant in August 1893, being the first three phase power transmission plant in the United States.

The waters of Mill Creek are used for the purpose of generating electric power by this company. The stream is diverted from its bed on the lands of the company, and conducted through a thirty-inch steel pipe line, a distance of 10,250 feet, with an available fall of 530 feet to the power house station, where it is turned on to high speed Pelton water wheels, which are directly connected to the electric generators in the power house. From thence, the electricity is carried by a transmission line four and one-half miles to the Union Ice Company's factory at Crafton, where they are using 200 horse power, and three and one-half miles further to the city of Redlands. There is also a transmission line at 10,000 volts, carrying electricity to the State Insane Asylum, the city of Colton and the city of Riverside, together with the power for pumping water for the East Riverside Irrigation District and city of Colton, whose wells are situated sixteen and twenty-two miles from the power house. The output of the machinery now installed in the present power house is 1,000 horse power, a larger part of which is already contracted for. The Redlands company contemplate in the near future the development of 2,500 horse power in a plant, the power house of which will be located just above the intake of the present pipe line. This power will be developed by means of tunnels and ditch lines, taking the waters out of the stream from Mill Creek a mile above its junction with the Mountain Home Stream, to which point the water of Mountain Creek will be brought by a ditch about one mile long. The line will be four miles long, giving an effective fall of 1,000 feet.

Beginning with a small amount of power in use, the Redlands company is now supplying electricity on long term contracts to the municipal plants of the cities of Riverside and Colton, to the State Insane Asylum, to the city of Redlands (a city of 4,000 people) and to the Union Ice Company's factory at Crafton.

In the city of Redlands that company commenced business with nine hundred incandescent lights in the year 1894, and now have 5,000 16 c. p. lamps in use, which is some indication of the rapid advancement there has been in the use of electricity.

The Redlands company and the Southern California Power Company, while retaining their separate identity, will both be placed under the same management, thus largely reducing the operating expenses, and giving each company the benefit of the experience of the other.

(Source: Illustrated Redlands, 1897, p. 89)