his company was organized under the general laws of the State of California, April 19, 1897, for the purpose of utilizing the water power available in the mountain streams of Southern California for the generation of electricity. The place of use of electricity so generated will be in the valley lying between the city of Redlands and the Pacific Ocean, including the cities of Redlands, San Bernardino, Colton, Riverside, Ontario, Pomona, Pasadena and Los Angeles.

The company has acquired title to the use of the water of the Santa Ana River for power purposes, and proposes to take the stream from the river bed at the junction of Bear Creek with the Santa Ana River, carrying it in flumes and tunnels along the river bank for a distance of three and one-fourth miles, gradually rising above the stream to an elevation of 728 feet. At this point the water will be delivered by means of two steel pipes thirty inches in diameter, to the power house, situated on the banks of the river, these to be used to drive Pelton Type Impulse Water Wheels, directly coupled to the electric generators in the power house. For the head used this plant will have a greater volume of water than any plant now in existence. All the machinery in the plant was made to order by large Eastern firms from special designs by the electrical engineer of the Southern California Power Company, and comprises all the latest electrical developments.

The company will develop from its present installation 6,000 horse power at the power house in the Santa Ana Cañon. Thence the electric power will be delivered by a transmission line seventy-nine miles long at a voltage of 30,000, and this transmission will be the longest distance, and the highest voltage of any plant in the world. The harnessing of this stream comprises an engineering feat seldom undertaken.

The company has secured water rights, reservoir sites, and the necessary franchises and rights of way across the lands of the Government in the Santa Ana Cañon, also franchises and rights of way covering the entire transmission system from the power house into the cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena. Long term contracts have been made to the extent of 5,000 horsepower for operating electric street railways, and for lighting purposes in the cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena.

Work on the plant was commenced a few months ago, and has been progressing very rapidly. Up to the present time nine out of the eighteen tunnels have been completed; the power house is well under way, and poles and wire distributed at the stations along the Southern Pacific Railroad, over whose right of way the pole line will be constructed. And in a short time this power generated in the San Bernardino Mountains will be in actual use in the cities of Los Angeles and Pasadena.

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