BUILDING THE ULTIMATE DAM

From CHAPTER FIVE (pp. 85-108):

Upon embarking on hydroelectric power initiatives in the early 1890's, Eastwood curtailed his involvement in the Sierra Nevada logging industry. The cutting of giant sequoia in the Converse Basin continued at a furious pace; but despite the large number of trees destroyed, the costs of processing and transporting cut tiomber proved too high to generate sustained profits within the Pacific coast lumber market...


Confident that profits could be attained through more efficient production, [in late 1905] a major Michigan-based lumber firm began planning a move into the sequoia region. One result of the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company's expansion was that Eastwood found a client willing to finance his first multiple arch dam [later called the Hume Lake Dam; it was built under Eastwood's supervision in 1908-09].


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During the Big Bear Valley Dam's first decade of operation [after construction in 1910-11], the structure experienced two dramatic events that testified to the strength of Eastwood's design.


The first came in January 1916 when, in the midst of heavy storms that buffeted all of Southern California, water spilled over the dam's crest, demonstrating the structure's ability to withstand an "overtopping" undamaged. The incident received coverage in the nationally distributed Engineering News and offered convincing proof that, in contrast to earthfill and rockfill designs, a multiple arch buttress dam would not quickly erode and collapse if water from the reservoir passed over the structure and onto the foundations.


The second major test came on April 21, 1918, when a major earthquake shook the San Bernardino region. Centered near the town of San Jacinto in Riverside County (only about 30 miles due south of the Big Bear Valley Dam), the San Jacinto earthquake registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale. The Bear Valley Mutual Water Company's newly hired dam keeper, B.T. Weed, was perched on Eastwood's dam when the shock wave hit; and he reported that "she was vibrating from eight to ten inches and N & S, jumping up and down 2 feet thought sure she was gone, but she is here yet and is holding the water back in good shape."


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Through his work on the Hume Lake and Big Bear Valley projects, Eastwood learned the hands-on process of building dams, and he came to perceive his work as constituting part of a larger crusade to transform how hydraulic engineers conceptualized their craft. And long before pouring the final bucket of concrete at Big Bear Valley, Eastwood had drafted plans for a major hydroelectric dam in the mountains of Northern California--one that would rival the scale of his Big Creek proposal.

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