John S. Eastwood - Big Creek Complex

Big Creek Complex

Shortly thereafter, Eastwood became engaged with the Pacific Light and Power Company as engineer in charge of designing a large hydroelectric project on the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. This has since become known as the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, presently operated by the Southern California Edison Company. The Pacific Light and Power Company was controlled by the famous financier and electric railroad magnate Henry Huntington. Eastwood had great hopes for the Big Creek project, and he planned it to include storage dams to ensure that a drought could not stop its power production.

Although Big Creek was for the most part designed prior to 1907, financial difficulties associated with the Panic of 1907 delayed Huntington's ability to initiate construction for several years. While designing the Big Creek project, Eastwood had devised an inexpensive type of reinforced concrete dam design which minimized the amount of material required and, consequently, reduced construction costs. In 1908, while waiting for work on Big Creek to begin, he designed and built the Hume Lake Dam for the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company. This structure is located in the Sierra Nevada about forty-five miles south of Big Creek. The first of its kind, its completion in 1909 demonstrated the practicality of the multiple-arch design. Shortly thereafter, Eastwood received the contract for the design of a multiple-arch dam to supersede the 1884 Big Bear Valley Arch Dam near San Bernardino in Southern California.

Eastwood envisaged the use of multiple-arch dams in the construction of the Big Creek project, but these hopes were dashed when, in November 1910, he was dismissed from all association with the project. Although he was awarded 5,400 shares of stock in the newly formed Pacific Light and Power Corporation (which was legally distinct from the earlier PL&P Company), this financial interest soon disappeared when in the summer of 1912 Huntington, as majority stockholder, assessed all owners of Pacific Light and Power Corporation stock $5 per share to help pay for the construction of Big Creek. Unable to pay the assessment ($27,000) on his stock, Eastwood was forced to relinquish his stake in the PL&P Corporation. Following this abrupt separation from the Big Creek project at the age of 53, Eastwood was left with only modest financial holdings and, as a means of survival, he began actively pursuing a career devoted to the design of multiple arch dams.