The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-02-02
Thirty-Five Hundred Horsepower
Will Be Generated on
the MERGED.
GREAT SAVING TO MINERS
The Distributor of Natures Forces to
Be the Third Largest in the
United States.


nitely settled that Mariposa County is to
have the third largest electrical power de-
veloping and distributing power in the
United States. The largest is at Niagara, the
next is at Folsom in this State, and the
third is to be constructed at the Horse
shoe Bend, point on the MERGED River
four miles from Coulterville, and as nearly
as possible in the center of the county.
The securing of the new electrical-power
plant is the greatest stride that Mariposa
has yet taken since she received the first
impact of the present returning wave OF
prosperity.
The company will be known as the Bend
Power Company. 1t will be incorporated
with capital of $4,000, fully subscribed.
Its objects will be simply to generate cleo
trical power and sell it. The company
does not propose to embark in mining or
any manufacturing business on its own
account.
The Horseshoe Bend Vineyard has been
often described. 1t is a wonderfully fer
tile little oasis of alluvial soil that lies in
the middle of wilderness of jimesal-
covered mountains some four miles north
of Hunters Valley and about the same
distance south of the flourishing town of
Coulterville. 1t is in the very center of
the best prospected part of this county.
and is an ideal situation for central dis
tributing plant.
Within easy distance from the Horse
shoe Bend it would not be difficult to
enumerate hundred mines that are suf-
ficiently prospected to utilize cheap power
if they could get it. Among the most
prominent are the MERGED Gold Mining
Company, with thirteen mines; the Crown
LeaG, with i've or six; the Cabinet group,
the Keystone group, the Tyro, the Rob-
erts mine, Maxwell & Cathay's Bonanza,
Red Banks, the Tom Brown mines, Par
kers mine, the Virginia, Mrs. Camissiona' s
mine, Martini's mine, the Quail, Mrs.
Jeffery's Bird mine, James Lindsay's
No. mine, the Alice Clark and Black
Gold, the Champion, Williams mine,
Joyce mine; Captain A. II. Wards Pinon
Blanco group, comprising one and half
miles ON the great mother lode; the But
rerfy Rogers mine, Peterson's mine,
Quartz Gulch mine, the McAlpine, great
property on the mother lode, the Red
Cloud, the Louisiana, the Bower Cave
group, the Bandarita, with its 1868 feet of
tunnel, so straight that standing at the
inner end of it you can see the daylight;
the Martin g. WaIling mine, the Haslo,
Ollie Fisk's mines and the Scanlon mine.
These are all on the north side and list
equally long of wellprospected properties
in Hunters Valley and toward Hornitos
could be given. Every mine named is IN
position to use cheap power just as soon
as it is available.
The water power is to be taken from the
MERGED River at point about q mile above
the Horseshoe Bend. A favorable location
has been selected for the dam, which will
be thirty-five feet in height. At the bot
tom it will be twenty feet in length; at
twenty-five feet high it will be thirty feet
long. and on the top it will be sixty-five
feet long. The ditch and fiume will have
q fall of ninety-three feet, equal to the
rivers course of four miles around the
Horseshoe Bend. At the dryest season
of the year the power company calculates
upon 10000 miners inches of water and
1900 horsepower. For eight months in the
year the company expects water enough to
generate $500 horsepower, and the ditch
and flume will be made sufficiently large
to carry the water.
The plant as arranged so far will consist
of three 500 horsepower generators three
generator switchboard panels. three ex-
citing dynamos, four step-up and four
step-dow conyerters, one distributing
switchboard panel, twenty-four miles of
No. 2 copper wire, weighing 81, 200 pounds,
etc. There will also be a number of
motors, as the Bend Power Company un-
dertakes 10 furnish motors to customers
who make contracts for any length of
time.
The price the company proposes to
charge its customers Is S. per horsepower
month. At the prese Mt time the expense
OF producing steam is from $12 to SIS per
horsepower, and two years hence, at the
present rate of consumption of cordwood
the hills would be bare of timber and
steam power, except in few localities, at
a price almost prohibitive. If it be con-
sidered that concerns using 100 horse
power will save $1,000 month, in itself no
mean profit, it can scarcely be wondered
that Mariposans to-day are jubilant over
the announcement that the Bend Power
Company is to break ground as the first
central distributing power plant on the
MERGED river.
H. II. Clark. the general manager OF
the Horseshoe Bend vineyard, is the pro-
AlObCt VI tue DeuQ IOWcI OOu pdbys LII
the rapid development. of Coultervile and
Its neighborhood Mr.. Clark has taken q
prominent part in every progressive move
Inent having for its object the advance
ment OF the district. While interested to
moderate extent in mining, he has Tor a
long time past made up his mind that the
suress road TO wealth was to provide the
power first with which to carry on
operations.
Work will probably be begun in about
Six weeks time. The ditch and f1ume. the
buildings, the machinery and the laying
OF wires TO different points of CONSUMPTION
can all be done before and during summer,
but 1t will be necessary to wait until the
snow-waters in the MERGED abate about
october next before it is possible to build
the dam. When the river is low enough
the dam can be put into position in a
couple of weeks, and, everything else
being in readiness, the electric power can
be Immediately turned on for consumers