Big Creek – California’s Gold (140)

Huell travels to the mountains above Fresno to tour “Big Creek”’ which was America’s first large-scale integrated hydroelectric project, begun in 1911. This massive engineering marvel consists of 23 generating units in nine powerhouses with a generating capacity of approximately 1,000 megawatts, and six major reservoirs with a storage capacity of more than 560,000 acre-feet. Not only do we get a behind the scenes tour, we’ll also meet and hear some great stories from a one of the first families that worked at this remote Edison outpost.

Note: This episode was released across Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) affiliated stations in California, but not necessarily on the same day for each station. The date shown represents the earliest, approximate airdate for this episode.