Power From The Mountains

In the span of a decade, Southern California went from a settler lifestyle of horse-drawn carriages, outhouses and oil lamps to electric lights, kitchen appliances and street lighting that extended the time the general store was open to well beyond dusk. The emergent use of electricity in the west is a story of genius and vision thrown together with abusive corporate power. Gold brought thousands of people west, but did not keep them there. The harvest of hydroelectricity put California on the map at the perfect moment in history, and it took extraordinary men to do it.