Stories of Folsom Lake, Its Dam and the Electrification of Sacramento
By Brittneydawn Cook
EDITOR’S NOTE
Brittneydawn Cook is a Sacramento native who became the Executive Director of the California State Library Foundation in December 2018.
It Starts with A Memory
As a kid, there was rarely a summer that went by without a trip to Folsom Lake, which is located in the Sierra Nevada foot- hills twenty-five miles northeast of Sacramento. My father had a special place he preferred that was right along the edge of the walls of the current Folsom Dam. There was a little beach area that we hiked down to and many summer nights were spent swimming, fishing and hearing stories of how things used to be. My family has lived in the Sacramento area for generations, and they have seen neighboring towns start from nothing and grow into suburban communities. My grandma always tells us how she saw the Folsom Dam being built, and how the family would come out in the evenings to watch the construction from the hillsides.
On one of our many trips to the Folsom area, I can remember seeing the ruins of a wall along the banks of the American River in the distance and asking my father what they were. We inspected from afar together and he surmised it looked like an old dam. This memory comes flooding back with the conclusion of every summer. With summer at an end once again and with Folsom Lake memories fresh on my mind, I was inspired to finally put to rest the question of what those ruins in the distance were, so I turned to the stacks at the California State Library for answers.
An Industrial City
The idea for the original Folsom Dam stemmed from one man’s dream of an East Coast industrial city nestled in the foothills of California. Horatio Gates Livermore came to California from Maine in 1850 to make his fortune in the famed Gold Rush. H. G. Livermore grew up in the thick forests of Livermore, Maine, which is named after his family. It is said that H. G. traveled via covered wagon convoy out of St. Joseph Missouri and along the way was attacked by hostile Indians, which delayed the caravan in Salt Lake City until late spring of 1850. While looking for his big break during the Gold Rush,
H. G. Livermore explored the banks of the American River and settled in Georgetown, a small town in El Dorado County, California. While panning for gold, Livermore found himself entranced by the power of the river, and it was in one of these entrancements that he started to think back to his home state of Maine. He thought back to the logging industries and the use of logging mills in waterways. He realized that in his travels he had heard talk that California had a scarcity of lumber mills in the Sacramento area, and the few that existed were charging top dollar. He began to create elaborate plans for the future in regard to supplying Sacramento with the lumber needed to expand the city. Livermore was so excited about this idea of an industrial city powered by water that he began talking to everyone he knew, but alas, it would take him years to get the process of building the Folsom Dam started. At the time, water was a commodity in high demand due to its use in gold mining processes. Like Livermore, many people were looking at the American River and seeing dollar bills reflected back at them. One of these people was A. P. Catlin, a Mormon Island resident and future superior court judge of Sacramento County. Catlin formed the Natoma Water & Mining Company in 1851 (a year before taking a seat in the California State Senate) with five other local men: Judge Thomas Williams, G. Craig, William Jarvis, Henry Robinson, and John Bennett.
Under the control of Catlin, the Natoma Water & Mining Company immediately started construction of the sixteen-mile Natoma ditch to divert water from the American River to the various nearby mining cities. By November, the ditch was completed and water was up for sale. In A Study of the Old Folsom Dam and Power-Plant by Louis Edward Jones, it is stated that the Natoma ditch measured 8 ft. wide at the top, 5 ft. wide at the bottom, and 3 ft. deep, and in its run of one mile, it had five wooden flumes, two of which measured 2,000 ft. in length. “One twisted and curved around the steep side of the hill between Higgins Point and New York Creek, the other crossed a high wooden bridge over New York Creek.” The author continues by describing the layout of the canal: “the ditch took its water from the South Fork of the American River, about two miles above Salmon Falls, where a dam had been built to form a small pond.” Construction of the dam cost $200,000 and the Natoma Water & Mining Company managed to net a profit of $40,000 in the first year.
During the summer of 1853, the Natoma Water & Mining Company became a joint-stock venture and elected the following officials: A. P. Catlin, president; S. R. Caldwell, vice president; A. T. Arrowsmith, secretary; T. S. Craig, treasurer; G. N. Colby, H. Hollester, F. S. Mumford, T. H. Berry, F. Clark, and E. O. Crews, directors. As the company was opened up to stockholders, Livermore jumped at his chance to own part of the company and purchased as much stock as he could afford. Before 1853 was over Livermore was joined in California by his two sons, Horatio Putnam (H. P) and Charles (Chas.) Edward, who would help bring to life their father’s plans. In the next year, Livermore would find himself seated in the California State Senate, in which he served only one term.
Company Expansion
In 1854, A. P. Catlin and the majority holders of the company decided to expand into a second company, The American River Water & Mining Company, to start diverting water from the North Fork of the American River. The Natoma ditch was extended by twelve miles in 1856 to nearby Prairie City, costing the company $300,000. Even with the high cost of the expansion the company prospered, which allowed them to purchase more than 8,500 acres in the current Folsom area. This land purchase included most of the Leidesdorff land grant. The company decided to divide the property and allow for some of it to be used for industrial businesses and agriculture. When no offers were made to lease the land, the company decided to plant 2,000 acres of vineyards and fruit trees in order to make some profit from their acquisition.
By 1862, the Livermores took control of the Natoma Water and Mining Company, and the town of Folsom was chosen for the future site of the lumber mill H.G. Livermore had dreamed of. Folsom was a perfect place due to its location on the American River and the convenience of having a direct train line to the city of Sacramento. After sixteen long years, Livermore was finally able to make his first attempt at a log drive at Folsom. The first attempt was made before the sawmill was built, and it was a failure. The current of the American River was too quick and powerful for the logs to be plucked from it before they were carried downstream. With the company now starting to lose money, new approaches needed to be considered. The company looked to its engineer, H. T. Knight, for an answer to its problems. It was concluded that the best answer for the success of this logging industry was to build a dam.
Slow Process for a Big Future
The company started the process for the future dam by investing $119,000 in a two-mile extension of railroad tracks from Folsom station to the site of the dam for the transport of materials. The beginning of the foundation of the new dam took place in the fall of 1864, but the winter rains made water levels too high for construction to continue. While the foundation survived the winter, the construction was halted for a long time while the company worked on obtaining the permits to continue with its grand plans. By this time, electricity was becoming a worldwide phenomenon, and Horatio P. Livermore was fascinated. H. P. was keeping up with the electrical work being done overseas and it became obvious to him that the Folsom Dam project could easily support a hydroelectric plant. He started to work out a plan for a powerhouse, discussing with electrical manufacturers what he needed only to be told that what he was trying to accomplish “had no precedent” and therefore was deemed impossible. The Livermores still did not back down from their dreams, and they started to look elsewhere for support in this industrial venture. In 1868, the stars aligned in favor of the Livermores in the form of a ten-year-old legislation decision.
In 1858, the California Legislature authorized the Board of Prison directors to select a site for a new state prison. No movement had been made by the Board of Prison directors by 1868, so the legislature gave the board a deadline date of June 30, 1868, and limited the board to two locations: Folsom and Rocklin. The Livermores heard of the deadline and scheduled an appointment with the board of directors. During the meeting, the Natoma Water & Mining Co., arguing for the Folsom location, offered the board of directors 350 acres along with exclusive rights to water and future electricity that would come from the powerplant attached to the prison. The catch was that the state would pay $15,000 for convict labor to help construct the dam, canal, and powerhouse. The board agreed on Folsom and took their proposal to the legislature, and thus began an extended waiting period.
On March 30, 1874, the legislative bill passed, allowing the company to finally break ground in Folsom on the first of October. As state surveyors came to view the property, they realized that it was not really the desired location. Another deal was made for the neighboring 133 acres in return for an additional $15,000 in convict labor. The company agreed, and bids for construction were advertised, and the search turned up a Mr. Miles. Miles and the state agreed on very little, which lead to Mr. Miles walking out on his contract shortly after the project was started. According to Louis Edward Jones in his studies of the old Folsom Dam, Mr. Miles was just the first to leave. “Before it was over, the entire prison staff and everyone connected with it had either been fired or quit,” Jones said. Due to all the delays, the Folsom prison wouldn’t be finished until July of 1880, and in 1881, stockholders of the Natoma Water & Mining Company formed the Folsom Water and Power Company turning over all its rights and properties related to waterpower.
When the new company formed, Charles E. Livermore was made its president and Horatio P. Livermore became general manager. Another familiar name came along with them as chief engineer, and that was H. T. Knight. There is no record of H. G. Livermore in this new company, but his sons carried on with his original plans. The first order of business for the company was to approach the state about a follow-up on the promised workforce in return for the land the state had been using for free. At a meeting with prison officials the company made a demand for their overdue workforce. The demand was met and the project was
resumed immediately. The success of the demand was short-lived because by 1882 things came to a crashing halt. “The Company felt the 80 prisoners furnished them could not possibly build the dam as fast as they wished. Nor was the original $15,000 worth of labor, agreed on in the contract, enough to see its completion.” The state did not agree, and the disagreement went to court, ending in favor of the company.
A Second Chance
By this time, a new governor, Robert Waterman, had been elected, and the company was fast to re-approach the dam project in regard to prison labor. On May 8, 1888, in the meeting with the State Prison Board the following offers were made:
1) The company would give additional waterpower that would be produced by a bigger fall in the dam project in return for the labor of the canal and dam.
2) The state would obtain use of the two-mile railroad the company had built as long as the state agreed to keep up the repairs.
3) The prison would be allowed to pump from the future canal for all domestic and irrigation purposes.
4) The prison would have access and use of the gravel from the riverbed.
5) The company would give permission to the prison to run its sewer line over company property and allow its waste to flow into the river.
The offers were accepted, and work on the project resumed on July 1, 1888.
The spring of 1889 would return focus to the original mission of lumbering, and Charles Livermore formed the American River Land & Lumber Company with A. J. Ralston. The general manager position was awarded to H. P. Livermore, and the company was quick to purchase a 10,000-acre parcel of timberland in Slab Creek, forty-four miles above Folsom along the South Fork of the American River. By 1890, the first log run was attempted with a half-built dam. The log run, which consisted of 700,000 board feet of logs, was successful. Finally, in 1892 the logging dream of H. G. Livermore was coming to fruition, but he wouldn’t make it to the finish line, passing away in Oakland just a few months before the completion of the dam in 1893. The dam stood 89 feet above the river bed and was 650 feet wide. According to Jones, The dam required “30,000 cubic yards of masonry, of which the headworks (the diversion point of a waterway) alone occupied 15,000 cubic yards.” Built completely of granite quarried on the spot, the dam was capable of backing up the river four miles with an estimated 13 million cubic yards of water storage in its reservoir.
Electric City
After their father’s death, the Livermore brothers, along with Albert Gallatin, decided to move forward with an earlier discussed possibility, namely electricity. Thus, the Sacramento Electric Power and Light Company was formed and the idea of powering the whole city of Sacramento became the full focus of the Livermore brothers. In September of 1893, the company signed a contract with General Electric to begin construction on the highly anticipated hydroelectric plant. The foundation for the Folsom Powerhouse was started by October 10, 1894, and completed by July of 1895. The initial report quoted by Jones states that “An 11,000 volt three-phase transmission line was carried on cedar poles from the powerhouse to Sacramento.” The 4,000 horsepower electrical generation that the powerhouse could produce seems small in comparison to today’s electrical generators, but at the time, it put Folsom on the map.
On September 9, 1895, electricity was successfully transmitted to Sacramento, a distance of twenty-two miles. At an earlier suggestion from The Sacramento Bee, the community had organized a local celebration on the day to honor the addition of electricity to Sacramento. They planned the electrical celebration around the 1895 State Fair and Admissions Day. The Sacramento Bee announced the following: “This is the birth for us of Power, of Growth, of Greatness. It is right that we should rejoice and celebrate it in this Grand Electric Carnival, September 9, 1895.”
Engineers traveled from far and wide to come see the long-distance transmission. The Journal of Electricity noted that Sacramento became the first American city to demonstrate the transmission of high-voltage electricity over such a long distance. It should also be noted that the Folsom State Prison became the first throughout the world to have electricity. No less than 30,000 people attended the Grand Electrical Carnival, which far surpassed the original estimate of visitors. Housing became a problem and a committee of Native Sons of the Golden West figured out a solution. They compiled a list of rooms available in private residences and hotels “charging one dollar per person or two dollars for a double bed.” Visitors were so enamored by the electricity, they paid to stay.
A New Age, and Final Chapter
When all was said and done, the Livermore brothers could relish the fact that they brought to life an unknown dream of their father’s. What started as dreams of an industrial logging town turned into an electric city fueled by a river that one pioneer saw so much potential in. However, the Livermore family could never get too far from their electrical success. Norman Livermore, grandson of H. G. and son of H. P., would renew the family interest when he inherited his father’s remaining stock in both the Folsom Water and Power Company and the Sacramento Light and Power Company in 1916 at the passing of his father. These were later included in the merger of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company holdings. Over his lifetime Norman would find himself in many amazing positions: A Cornell graduate; a civilian assistant for the Army Corps of Engineers; Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army during WWI; president of a drug firm; founding member of PG&E; director, trustee, or member of various well-known companies and corporations; and groundbreaker for the current Folsom Dam. At the age of seventy-seven, Norman B. Livermore was invited by PG&E as an honored guest and speaker at the 1949 groundbreaking ceremony of the $50 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control and water conservation project that we know as the Folsom Lake & Dam. With that, my curiosity of that mysterious broken wall can now be put to rest.
This article is from the California State Library Foundation’s Bulletin #125. For more articles, artwork or information please visit our website www.cslfdn.org
SOURCES
Blenkle, Joe A. The Story of Folsom Dam, Folsom, California: Souvenir Book: Historical Facts, Gold Rush Day Stories, Tales of Ghost Towns, Dam Chronology. Folsom, Calif: N.p., 1956. Print.
California Legislature. Journal of the Legislature of the State of California, Twenty Eighth Session, Vol. II. 1889.
Chickering, Allen L. In Memoriam. California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 33 №1, March, 1954; (pp. 81–82)
Jones, Louis Edward. A Study of the Old Folsom Dam and Power Plant. Sacramento,Calif: N.p, 1961. Print.
Noy, Gary. Horatio P. and Charles Livermore. Snowy Range Reflections: Journal of Sierra Nevada History & Biography. Vol. 5, no.1, Winter 2013. Sierra College Press. Ejournal.
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The Folsom Powerhouse №1 1895: National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. September 12, 1976. Journal.
Pitzer, Gary. 150 Years of Water: The History of the San Juan Water District. Water Education Foundation. 2004.
