The Story of Big Creek
The Story of Big Creek

Author: David H. Redinger

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2018-12-05

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 178912560X

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Nature never intended Southern California to be anything but desert, so they said. But settlers turned it into farms, factories and living areas for millions of people. The key to that development was 300 miles north, in the High Sierra, where the company that became the Southern California Edison Company undertook the creation of one of the great water power developments in the world. They called it Big Creek. Completed in 1929, this work of engineering art involved six dams, eight tunnels (one 13 miles long), three major artificial lakes and five powerhouses—all created to ensure electric power for a rapidly growing Los Angeles and suburbs. Author David H. Redinger was Resident Engineer for the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, one of the most extensive in the world. In this fascinating book, he recounts the obstacles encountered in building a railroad in the High Sierra, from carving roads and tunnels through rough terrain, to enduring snowstorms at high altitudes, and generally accomplishing near-miracles with brainpower, mulepower, steampower, and manpower.

Building the Ultimate Dam
Building the Ultimate Dam

Author: Donald C. Jackson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780806137339

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Offers compelling insight into how designer Eastwood battled government bureaucrats, corporate patrons, and fellow hydraulic engineers to build seventeen dams in the western U.S. during the early twentieth century based on his innovative multiple-arch design. Reprint.

Dams
Dams

Author: Donald C. Jackson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 135194651X

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Dams have been used to control water for thousands of years, with the oldest known dam being a small earthen structure in present-day Jordan dating to c.4000 BCE. Since then, cultures throughout the world have practised the art of dam-building and the technology has evolved in myriad ways. The papers selected here examine the key technical issues influencing dam construction from ancient times to the early 20th century. In addition they illustrate why various human societies have built dams and how ’social’ (or seemingly ’non-technical’) factors have influenced the process of dam design. Though hydraulic engineering is the primary focus of the book, it also reveals a keen interest in questions of water resources and environmental history.

Summers at Cedar Grove
Summers at Cedar Grove

Author: Ben Timson

Publisher: Page Publishing Inc

Published: 2024-06-25

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13:

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The Missouri Ozarks are blessed with many clear, spring-fed streams. One of the most scenic is the Current River. High up on the river, a low-water bridge serves as a popular put-in location for several thousand canoe and kayak floaters each year. The site is known as Cedar Grove. Many floaters arriving at the bridge have no idea of the origin of the put-in location's name. Summers at Cedar Grove is the story of the once thriving village that existed at the bridge told through the eyes of the author, who spent many summer days during his childhood at the family farm near the village. First known as Riverside, the village was formed in 1875 and was populated primarily by Scots-Irish migrants from Appalachia. During the timber boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Riverside rose to prominence and became known as Cedar Grove. The timber was stripped from the land over four decades, and the village eventually faded from existence. Through a combination of historical data and stories relayed from individuals who lived in the community, the reader will learn about the mill, stores, one-room school, health care in the village, and the people that supported it during its rise and fall.

In the Country of the Kaw
In the Country of the Kaw

Author: James H. Locklear

Publisher: University Press of Kansas

Published: 2024-04-18

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0700636412

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Gathering its waters from the plains of Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, the Kaw is truly America’s prairie river; the only one to arise entirely on the Great Plains and traverse all three major grasslands—shortgrass, mixed-grass, and tallgrass prairies. James Locklear’s In the Country of the Kaw is a joyous exploration of the realm of the Kaw River, which stretches from the High Plains of Colorado to the Kansas City metropolitan area. The book’s first section profiles geology, landforms, and the region’s woodlands and grasslands. The second explores the rich biological diversity associated with the land and its inhabitants’ remarkable adaptations to the environment and each other. The final section is a collection of stories of human interaction with the landscape, how nature has shaped culture and culture nature. Locklear finds “astonishments” at every turn. In the Country of the Kaw is also a call to seek the flourishing of the natural and human communities of the region. Locklear describes staggering, human-wrought environmental degradations, but also finds great hope in the resilience of Nature and the inspiring work of conservation, preservation, restoration, and renewal being accomplished by individuals and organizations throughout the region. Locklear’s relationship with the country of the Kaw stretches from his childhood in Kansas City in the 1960s to his current professional life as a botanist working in the Great Plains. A half century of rambling and rooting around in this region has given him a deep awe and affection for its uniqueness and goodness, which he conveys to the reader on every page.