In the spring of 1927 a high-voltage transmission line was built up the length of Arbon Valley, to carry power between the Idaho Power company's plant at American Falls and the Utah Power & Light company's system in northern Utah. The Pocatello Tribune's American Falls correspondent followed the work in a few short reports. They say nothing about any valley farm getting power from it, but a good deal about poles, mud and telephones.
The earliest report of the route found is from November 1926. A dispatch from Malad in the Deseret News said the surveys were done for a line to carry part of the power from the new "million dollar" unit at American Falls into Utah. From American Falls it would run "down the Arbon valley through the Daniels section" and on through Malad Valley to the new Cutler plant on the Bear River, between Cache Junction and Brigham City. In 1927 the Tribune named a different plant at the southern end, the Utah company's Wheelon plant. The papers read here do not explain the difference.
Poles from Schiller
The contractor was the Phoenix Construction company. Early that April its work was slowed. A dispatch from American Falls dated April 2 reported:
Inability to use motor trucks, coupled with heavy roads in the Arbon valley, are hampering the Phoenix Construction company in transporting poles from Schiller and distributing them along the route to be followed by the high tension line which is to connect the American Falls plant of the Idaho Power company with the Wheelon plant of the Utah Power & Light company.
Schiller was the railroad siding where the valley's wheat was shipped, some 26 miles from Pauline. Teams were hauling the poles from Schiller to points farther up the valley. The paper did not expect rapid progress until warmer weather dried out the side roads.
Two weeks later trucks were getting through as far as Pauline. On Thursday, April 14, the company's carpenters began putting up buildings for a construction camp. The Tribune's American Falls column of April 17 reported:
Carpenters in the employ of the Phoenix Construction company, on Thursday, began the work of erecting buildings for a construction camp in the Arbon valley, two and one-half miles south of the Arbon postoffice. This is the third camp the company has established in the valley. At the present time the poles for the transmission line are being hauled to Pauline by truck, whence teams are taking them to higher points in the valley.
The reports do not say where the first two camps stood, how many men worked in them, or how many poles went up.
The telephone line beside it
The article retold here, printed on April 13, was about the valley's telephones. Since December 1915 a Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph line had run from American Falls up the valley to the Arbon central. The company's American Falls manager, D. H. Porter, found that the new power line would run beside the telephone poles for twenty-six miles, never more than a mile away and often only 250 feet off, and would cross the telephone line at four places. Induction from the heavy power cables could make the telephone wires unusable even in ordinary weather, and on stormy days it would certainly stop the service. The cure was "transpositions", rewiring the telephone line at intervals, and a crew with delicate instruments was to be sent out once the power was on to find where they were needed.
Work on the line was finished on Tuesday, June 28, 1927, and the current was turned on that day. A report from American Falls in the Tribune of July 3 said the Mountain States officers had found the interference less than they had feared. The valley's own company fared worse:
The Bannock Telephone company was not so fortunate. Two of its five lines were so badly affected as to practically put them out of commission.
That was probably the farmers' Falls-Bannock Telephone company, which ran the local lines out from the Arbon central kept by Mrs. T. B. Evans. The report gives only the short name. No later report read here says whether the two lines were put right, or when.
As far as these reports show, the line carried power past the valley rather than into it. The site's Stories date electricity in valley homes to 1945 or 1947, as accounts differ, and by 1954 the valley had distribution lines of its own, which frozen fog loaded with ice that February.
On this site: the Stories entries for the first power line through the valley and the first telephone line, and the place pages for Pauline and West Fork and Arbon.
The article as printed
Pocatello Tribune, April 13, 1927, page 12. Transcribed from the page scan.
High Tension Line Causes Trouble to Phone Company
(Tribune Special)
American Falls, Idaho, April 13.—Construction of the high tension line up the Arbon valley, which is to connect the American Falls plant of the Idaho Power company with the Wheelon plant of the Utah Power & Light company, promises to complicate matters for the mountain States Telephone & Telegraph company. Induction from the heavy cables is a factor which must be given consideration, and it must be removed if the telephone company is to maintain service up the valley.
D. H. Porter, manager of the American Falls exchange of the Mountain States company, finds that the electrical transmission line, when completed, will parallel the telephone company's pole line for a distance of twenty-six miles. Never is it more than a mile distant, and frequently it is as close as 250 feet. At four different points in the valley the transmission lines crosses the telephone line.
Even under normal weather conditions the induction from the transmission line probably would be sufficient to prevent the effective use of the telephone wires, and on stormy days it would be certain to stop the service. In order to overcome the interference it will be necessary for the telephone company to make transpositions at intervals, this rewiring having the effect of shutting off the outside interference.
When the transmission line goes into operation a crew of men will be sent out by the telephone company. Delicate instruments will be used to determine the exact amount of induction and interference, and transpositions will be made wherever necessary.