That was the headline in the Plumas National Bulletin newspaper of Quincy on October 4, 1911. Oroville city trustees raised the alarm that Great Western Power Company’s construction of a dam at Big Meadows to create what we know today as Lake Almanor. Of course, their fears were justified. On September 30, 1911, some 2,500 miles away, a concrete dam of the Bayles Pulp & Paper Company at Allen, Pennsylvania breached, killing more than 800 people. Oroville, located downstream on the Feather River, had always been apprehensive about the dam at Big Meadows, and this episode only heightened their fears.
Great Western’s Vice. President, H.H. Sinclair, issued a statement asserting that Oroville and other valley towns had nothing to fear, as the utmost care in the design of the dam had been exercised. Sinclair stressed that the company had already spent $20,000 just in investigating the site conditions on the river for the foundation. Furthermore, he stated that he hoped construction on the dam would begin on April 1, 1912 with the goal to have it complete by December. However, there would be numerous problems encountered and the dam was not complete until early 1914.