{"id":631,"date":"2009-02-09T19:24:01","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T19:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/huell-howser-archives\/2009\/01\/01\/big-creek-140-californias-gold\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T21:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T21:36:45","slug":"big-creek-140-californias-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/huell-howser-archives\/2009\/02\/09\/big-creek-140-californias-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Creek &#8211; California&#039;s Gold (140)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Huell travels to the mountains above Fresno to tour \u201cBig Creek\u201d\u2019 which was America&#8217;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\u2019ll also meet and hear some great stories from a one of the first families that worked at this remote Edison outpost.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Note: This episode was released across Public Broadcasting Service&#8217;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.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Embedded Media titled: GOLD00140_big_creek\" src=\"https:\/\/video.chapman.edu\/V\/Video?v=9826652&amp;node=43161455&amp;a=165996757&amp;preload=false\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Huell travels to the mountains above Fresno to tour \u201cBig Creek\u201d\u2019 which was America&#8217;s first large-scale integrated hydroelectric project, begun [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3592,3593,301,3594,3595,3596,3597,1427,3598,3599,680,1441,3164],"class_list":["post-631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-californias-gold","tag-big-creek","tag-edison","tag-fresno","tag-henry-huntington","tag-huntington-lake","tag-hydroelectric","tag-john-samuel-eastwood","tag-power-plant","tag-rick-frampton","tag-roger-taylor","tag-sierra-nevada","tag-sierra-nevada-mountains","tag-southern-california-edison"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - 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