By VERNON ROBISON
This week marks the 80th anniversary of electric utility service in the Moapa and Virgin Valley communities. According to Overton Power District (OPD) records, a program was held in Overton on May 20, 1939, to celebrate the energizing of power lines throughout the newly constructed OPD system.
Before that time, there had been a few pockets of electrical service in certain neighborhoods in the communities. A few enterprising early residents constructed water wheels to harness the power of the running water in irrigation canals and ditches which flowed by their homes. This was usually just enough to power a light bulb or two in a ranch house or barn. It was nothing like the full utility-scale power service that began with the formation of OPD.
For that kind of a system, you’d need an industrial scale power generation facility. And in the 1930s there was actually one coming to the region due to the construction of Hoover Dam. Of course, the dam was built not only to tame the mighty Colorado River, but also to produce electricity for the population centers of the southwestern United States. At that time, those population centers were mainly centered in southern California, which is where the lion’s share of the hydro-power was allocated. But a smaller amount was set aside for the rural communities in Nevada.
In 1935, as the dam was nearing completion, the Nevada State Legislature passed statutes allowing “improvement districts” to be formed to manage the distribution of the new hydro-power resource. Community leaders got together and prepared applications to the state, to form their own local utility districts. As they did, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission assigned each district with a number according to the order in which the application had been filed.
Back then, Las Vegas was just a train stop crossroads that had experienced some growth with the Hoover Dam construction. But the real southern Nevada population was in the rural farming areas of Lincoln County and the Moapa and Virgin Valleys.
Lincoln County submitted its application first and, thus became Lincoln County Power District #1.
The communities of the Moapa Valley applied next. But as that application was being processed, the smaller Virgin Valley communityexpressed an interested in piggy-backing onto the request, with both valley’s applying as a group. So the Moapa Valley communities withdrew their first application, made the changes and resubmitted the application as Overton Power District. By the time the application was resubmitted, it had become the fifth in line. Thus when it was approved, it became the Overton Power District #5 as it is known today.
OPD Board meeting minutes of November 15, 1935 recognized Mr. Hardy, Mr. W.H. Lyon and Mr. Jesse Winn as having been appointed by the Clark County Commission as first members of the OPD board of directors. At that meeting, the board officially completed the organization of the Overton Power District and made Mr. Lyon president of the board.
The next year, federal legislation was passed providing federal loans for the installation of electrical distribution systems to service rural areas of the country. The OPD obtained one of these loans in 1938. In August of that year, bids were solicited for a contractor to construct the new system. The bid was awarded to the firm of Bennett and Taylor and in November the contractor was given notice to begin construction.
The new transmission line tapped in to the existing Lincoln County transmission line at a place called Sheep Mountain Junction, near modern day Coyote Springs. The line came over the hills into Moapa, and followed the Muddy River narrows into the lower valley to connect with homes in Logandale and Overton. A line also crossed the Mormon Mesa to connect customers in Bunkerville and, finally, Mesquite.
For the project, the contractor hired mainly locals for its work crews. It was rough work. Lifelong Logandale resident Bryant Robison remembers stories told by his father, Dell Robison, who was one of those hired to work on the power lines.
“They didn’t have any power equipment to do the job, so most of the work had to be done by hand,” Bryant Robison said. “In some cases it took a two-man crew all day long just to dig a hole for just one power pole, using only shovels and a steel bar for breaking through the rocks and caleche.”
Robison was just seven years old when the lights first came on in his hometown of Logandale. Now at the age of 87, he still remembers it well.
“It was definitely a big change in lifestyle for us,” Robison said. “There wasn’t too much that we did that wasn’t somehow affected and made a little easier by it.”
For example, when the sun went down, the desert got very dark in those days, Robison recalls. People only had oil lamps to light their homes at that time.
“I remember we had to trim the wicks in all of the lamps every afternoon before it got dark to prepare for the night,” Robison recalled.
One of the most notable improvements was in refrigeration. With the power connection, people were able to purchase electric refrigerators.
“Before that our only refrigerator was just a wooden box frame covered with burlap that we had to keep wet,” Robison said. “That was the only way we had to keep things cool. It didn’t always work real well.”
Robison said that blocks of ice could sometimes be purchased at a packing shed near the railroad tracks at the west end of Liston. That too helped to keep things cool. But the ice didn’t last long.
Other cooling comforts would soon follow. It wasn’t long before swamp coolers, and then air conditioning units, were available to tame the heat of the desert summers for local residents.
Logandale resident Elaine Whipple grew up in Bunkerville. She was 11 years old in 1939 and can vividly recall the excited atmosphere in that Virgin Valley town when the power lines were first energized there. Whipple said it was like a big town festival.
“It was so exciting!” she said. “I remember everyone was running up and down the streets talking about it. They were saying ‘We have lights! We have lights!’”
The major lifestyle change that Whipple remembered was in the process of doing household laundry. In those days people worked hard and got clothes very dirty, she said. Doing laundry was a major event that involved help from the whole family.
“The men had to build a fire to boil water,” Whipple said. “They would pour the hot water out into basins and then we went to work cleaning the laundry by hand. It was hard work and it took a lot of time.”
But with power service, everyone in town soon had water heaters and electric washing machines to do most of that work for them.
“When the power came to town, we thought it was just magic!” Whipple said. “It was like a dream come true!”
From our modern 21st century standpoint, it is hard to comprehend the magnitude of that event 80 years ago. We have come to take comforts like electric utility service for granted; along with all of the remarkable lifestyle benefits that come with it.
So this week, while celebrating 80 years of power service in northeastern Clark County, we would salute all the community members who have, and who have had, a hand in securing and providing that service to us. Hats off to all of you!
And Happy Anniversary, Overton Power District #5!
