MILEPOSTS #1029

By Ken Brafman, Image from ROWHS Collection

TITLE: OUTLET TOWER ON LAKE ARROWHEAD: This week’s image is a photo of one of the new exhibits at our Mountain History Museum in Lake Arrowhead. In 1907 the Arrowhead Reservoir and Power Company awarded a contract to Los Angeles contractor Arthur S. Bent to build an outlet system that would control and aerate water released from the lake. The tower was to be positioned at the portal of Tunnel #1, which would allow water to flow into Willow Creek. When the original plans for a reservoir were conceived in the early 1890s, a system of tunnels was devised that would link several reservoirs and deliver water to the San Bernardino valley for agriculture. Resistance to this plan of diverting water came from a coalition of farmers and other interested parties in Hesperia and the surrounding area, and the resulting lawsuits eventually put an end to the ambitious water scheme. The outlet tower was built on a six-foot slab embedded in bedrock and was completed, in less than a year, on July 5, 1908. It rose to a finished height of 189 feet with two-foot-thick walls at the base, which was 17 feet across. The walls thinned to 15 inches thick as they reached the top, which was 13 feet across. Inside the tower was a vertical ladder which was needed so a worker could climb down to operate the doors to the inlets. To operate the machinery required a worker to row to the outlet and climb the outside ladder up to the control room. In 1914 a standby generator was installed. To operate this machinery a worker was lowered down the shaft using a steam hoist. By 1917 the tower was generating electricity for the north shore properties. The outlet tower was successful, averting floods when needed. On July 5, 2008 the tower was given a grand centennial birthday party by the Arrowhead Lake Association and the Rim of the World Historical Society.

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