This week I started working on a collection from the A. K. Smiley Public Library. The items that were present here so far consisted mainly of letters that were exchanged between Jas T. Taylor, who was then the engineer in-charge at the Bear Valley Irrigation Company and the various suppliers to the company. Some of the key elements that I noticed in these exchanges were the quick implementation of proposed developments. Due to this, apart from letters, some of the exchanges took place through telegrams where a majority of them had only a day’s difference.
The key companies that I have seen so far were the California Marble and Building Stone Co., Union Lime Co. (which was mainly involved in mining activities) and the Spreckels Bros. Commercial Co. When I did a little research, I found out that the Spreckels Bros. Commercial Co. mainly dealt in establishing a trade between the mainland United States and the Hawaiian Islands. As I begin to work further on the items, I am curious to find out the nature and purpose of these exchanges and what the outcomes were. As we can see, even though the broader topic mainly connects to the Bear Valley Irrigation Company, there were other major companies as mentioned above that also played a key role in the irrigation process.