On a wet Friday, we received a water-related email from a reader who wanted to pass on a heads-up about a Huell Howser show tonight at 7pm on KCET. You can learn a bit of history about a really big water project, one that has a local angle:
DATE: Friday, February 6, 2009 6:46 PM
SUBJECT: Howser KCET Special 2/08/09 on Edison/Frampton Big Creek Story
TO: Claremont Buzz
Dear Claremont Buzz,
This Sunday, 2/08/09 and again on Saturday 2/21/09, on KCET Huell Howser will have a one hour program on "The Big Creek and Florence Lake Story". It has double meaning for Claremonters because of the involvement of Claremonters Bob and May Frampton and their son Rick in the program. The program tells how the largest water-to-electricity system of its type in the world, brings electricity to Southern California.
The Framptons checked and regulated lake and stream levels at isolated snowy Florence Lake from 1935-38. The films they took and an interview with their son Rick by the house they lived in there, ends the program on a beautiful note. The story gives a rare explanation of Southern California Edison Company's ingenious engineering feat in the early 20th Century. It is especially relevent now with water rationing ahead, to realize that not only our Central Valley food growers, but our electricty supply, is dependent on the High Sierra snow packs which store so much water for us.
Rick Frampton has also edited a book about his parents years at Florence Lake, filled with photographs they took, and has donated copies to several libraries in town including the Claremont Library, Honnold Library, Claremont Heritage, and the Gardens (where May Frampton lives) and Pilgrim Place.
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