Title:

John S. Eastwood papers, 1884-1969 (bulk 1895-1924)

Creator/Contributor:

Eastwood, John S., creator

Creator/Contributor:

Welch, Marguerite Eastwood.

The John S. Eastwood papers contain materials relating to Eastwood's career as a civil/hydraulic engineer, particularly in the field of dam design and construction. The collection consists of professional correspondence, agreements, proposals, reports, surveys, specifications, field notes, articles, writings, and biographical information. The bulk of the collection focuses on Eastwood's engineering projects from 1886-1924 in California, such as Big Creek-Mammoth Power (San Joaquin Valley), Hume Lake Dame (Fresno County), Big Meadows Dam (Plumas County), Big Bear Valley Dam (San Bernardino County), Los Verjeles Dam (Yuba County), and Sespe-Piru Power and Irrigation Project (Los Angeles). Of note are three scrapbooks compiled by Eastwood; his wife, Ella; and his niece, Marguerite Eastwood Welch. They contain numerous newspaper clippings, photographs, and materials documenting John Eastwood's work, electrical power transmission, water rights, multiple-arched dams and their structural integrity, irrigation projects, and politics in financing power. There are some family papers including Eastwood's correspondence with his wife and letters of condolence to her after his death, along with inquiries from his business associates concerning his engineering projects and documents. Also included are correspondence and legal documents of the case, Marguerite Eastwood Welch vs. Southern California Edison Company (Los Angeles) regarding Eastwood's Pacific Light & Power Corportion stocks.

Date:

1895 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Eastwood, John S -- Archives

Water-supply engineers -- California

Hydraulic engineers -- California

Civil engineers -- California

Hydraulic engineering -- California

Arch dams -- California

Water-power -- California

Forms part of the History of science and technology collection.

COLLECTION STORED OFF SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Collection number BANC MSS 69/11 c was consolidated into BANC MSS 2010/178 during the course of processing.

John S. Eastwood papers, BANC MSS 2010/178, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

In English.

Associated collection: John S. Eastwood papers, 1884-1979; Also available at: Water Resources Center Archives, University of California, Riverside.

Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collection of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 2010.083).

John Samuel Eastwood was born in 1857 in Minnesota. After studying engineering at the University of Minnesota, he moved to the Pacific Northwest and worked on various construction and enginnering jobs. He then moved to the San Joaquin Valley in California where he pursued opportunities in hydroelectric power technology and its relation to the economic growth of the region. It was in Fresno where he met and married Ellen Tabor, and in 1885, was appointed the city's first engineer and later served as chief engineer on various private enterprises such as the San Joaquin Electric Company (renamed San Joaquin Light & Power Company) and Henry Huntington's Pacific Light & Power Corporation. He developed irrigation systems, surveyed the territories, conceived plans for large-scale hydroelectric power plants and dam/reservoir designs. Eastwood is most noted for his design of multiple-arched dams, which faced much controversy at the time, but later commended for their efficiency, economy, and execution. He managed to build 17 of the multiple-arched dams, mainly in California, including the Hume Lake, Big Bear Valley, Los Verjeles, Kennedy, Argonaut, Cave Creek in Arizona, and Granby in Canada. Eastwood was active in his business of designing dams until the end of his life. On August 1924, he suffered a heart attack while swimming and drowned at the age of 67 years.

Type:

Scrapbooks.

print

3 cartons, 3 boxes (4.95 linear feet)

English

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED OFF SITE: Advance notice required for use.