Portola Sites

Ranchers in northern California were still in the dark when the federal Rural Electrification Administration (REA) came into being in 1936. A provision in the New Deal allowed Investor Owned Utilities to borrow money and extend lines to rural areas. A group of ranchers and farmers in the area interested in receiving power went to Sierra Pacific Power and Pacific Gas and Electric to try and interest them in taking advantage of the new government loans. When they couldn’t get the IOUs to bring power to the valley, they began knocking on neighbors’ doors, in an effort to form their...