Leon Bly’s Early Years

Leon Bly
Leon Bly sounding Eagle Lake. Courtesy of Wyn Wachhorst

Leon Bly was born on March 6, 1877 at Chicago, Illinois.  By 1908, he had located to Red Bluff, and became involved with many projects.  In 1909,  he was the engineer and founder of the Butte and Tehama Power Company. The following year he examined the potential development of Mill Creek for hydro-electric power which he sold the project to the Sierra Irrigation Company.

In 1913, he was president of the Red Bluff of Chamber of Commerce was promoting a highway between that city and Susanville. It was during this time he became acquainted with Malvena Gallatin, and it should be noted she owned a large ranch in Tehama County, among other things.  Malvena was also in process of building a summer home  at Eagle Lake.  She wanted to control the level of the lake, due the lake’s constant rising level. Since 1875, the level of the lake had risen by fourteen feet, and no one knew just how much higher it would go. *

One of the reasons why the previous attempts to tap Eagle Lake failed, was those parties lacked the financial capital required for such an undertaking.  Malvena had the funds and was willing to commit capital for it. In 1915, Bly began work on a preliminary study to see if the project was feasible.  By 1916, the project moved forward with Gallatin’s money, who would be repaid when the tunnel and canal works was completed. Just how much she advanced Bly is not known, though she provided him with the necessary funds for the next six years. It had to have been a substantial investment, just with the purchase of right-of-ways. For instance on November 10, 1917,  Bly paid Ed and Mary Murrer $2,000 for a right-of-way near the tunnel’s proposed outlet.

The rest, of course is history.  In the near future, we will explore what became of Leon Bly after his Eagle Lake project.

*There are some versions that Bly became acquainted with Eagle Lake on a fishing trip, and subsequently heard of the previous attempts to tap the lake for irrigation.

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