Big Creek, California

USA / California / Shaver Lake /
 CDP - Census Designated Place  Add category
 Upload a photo
Small town of Southern California Edison Workers; location of Big Creek Powerhouse #1

Big Creek is a small unincorporated town in Fresno County, California located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the north bank of Big Creek. The town is at an elevation of 1,500 meters (4,920 feet) and its coordinates are 37.21 north, -119.24 west. Its population is 258.
Big Creek was built at the site of the first dam and power plant of Southern California Edison's Big Creek hydroelectric project, one of the most extensive in the world. Other than the private helipad owned by Southern California Edison, the only way in or out of the town is Big Creek Road, off of California Highway 168. The dam has a walkway across it to the south bank, but access is limited to employees of SCE and those residents who have been given a key. Its major industries are electric power generation and tourism. There is camping and water recreation in the summer and snow skiing in the winter. Huntington Lake is to the northeast and Shaver Lake is to the south. Sierra Summit is only about 15 kilometers (9 miles) away. Though Big Creek's only school is an elementary, it teaches kindergarten through 8th grade.
Big Creek has a rich and interesting history. Those who reside in Big Creek have many interesting tales of the town and its surroundings. For example, some of the giant steel pipes that carry water from Huntington Lake to the hydroelectric plant, visible running up the mountainside, were purchased from Nazi Germany before World War II. Some of these penstocks are stamped with a swastika. Most of the swastikas are turned to face into the ground, out of sight; however, a few of them are still visible. In addition, Big Creek is the hometown of Carver Mead, a Caltech electrical engineering professor who is responsible for developing the first GaAs MESFET and for his pioneering contributions to VLSI design.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Creek,_California
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°12'15"N   119°14'46"W

Comments

  • Huell Howser (PBS) visited this and they showed a power plant which is buried at the end of a tunnel a mile inside the mountain. I'd like to find out if this is the right place.
  • The power plant inside the mountain is Eastwood Power Station, located between Balsam Forebay and Shaver Lake.
This article was last modified 14 years ago