125 years ago – April 18,1901
New County Road: Dry Creek Valley Will Be Greatly Benefited
The new county road up the west side of Dry Creek valley will afford a delightful drive along that beautiful section. The road will start from the Upson place and intersect the present county highway near the bridge at Lambert. The view from points along the road is enchanting at any season of the year, and is especially so in the spring time.
F. J. Kron, who recently purchased the Daniel Prows place, was most active in bringing about the certainty of the new highway. He is at work improving his property, and will in time have one of the finest ranches in this valley. His brother-in-law, Mr. Sanborn, who owns a half interest in the place, will soon commence the erection of a home higher up on the hill, overlooking the valley, with a view of St. Helena Mountain and peaks to the east.
When the road is completed, Dry Creek Valley will doubtless become a most popular drive, going up the east side to Lambert and returning down the west side to the Paxton place and into town, it also assures a rural mail delivery over the route mentioned at no distant day.
75 years ago- April 19,1951
Church Blaze Calls Out Firemen
Quick work by Chief Harold Sullivan and members of the Healdsburg Fire Department prevented what might have been a serious fire Sunday night at St. John’s Church, East and Matheson streets. Called out about 9:15 p.m., firemen found that two sets of transmission wires leading from a switch box at a back corner of the Church had shorted and started a fire that melted the lead pipe in which they were enclosed. The hot lead, dripping from the pipe, started a fire in the dry shingled side of the building.
50 years ago – April 15, 1976
Agreement Signed To Let City Tap Geyser’s Steam
Agreements were signed Tuesday in Sacramento that complete the second stage of putting Healdsburg and other Northern California cities into the business of generating their own electricity. The agreement was signed between the Northern California Power Agency and Resource Funding, Ltd., and completed more than two years of legal, political and financial maneuvering by the seven cities and one utility district involved.
It calls for geothermal drilling and eventual construction of an electrical generating plant in Lake County and is expected to lead to lower electricity costs for the participating NCPA cities, which include Healdsburg, Ukiah, Santa Clara, Alameda, Lompoc, Roseville, Lodi and the Plumas-Sierra Utility District.
After the agreement becomes final, the NCPA will pay $930,000 to Resource Funding for the rights to purchase geothermal steam. Resource Funding will then conduct a drilling project until it has developed enough steam to construct a 33-megawatt generating plant to be built by NCPA on 1,425 acres a mile south of Boggs Lake and Mt. Hanna. The NCPA intends to construct additional plants until a 165-megawatt capacity is reached. For Healdsburg, Beer said the agreement will lead to the city receiving as much as 35% to 40% of its total electricity needs from the new plant.
