Voices from the Past Utah Power and Light Company Interviewee: Alma Klinger and William Fowler January, 31 1981 Tape #82 Oral Interview conducted by Harold Forbush Transcribed by: Jessica Smith May 2009 Edited by: Timothy Hunsaker May 2009 Brigham Young University-Idaho \
Harold Forbush: The Utah Power and Light Company as service as rendered by this corporation to the area of Rexburg, Idaho in particularly but generally its service to the residents of the Upper Snake River Valley as seen through the experience of Alma Klinger and William Fowler. This interview is being done at Rexburg on the 31 st of January, 1981 by Harold Forbush. It s a real joy today to be here in the home of Alma Klinger in Rexburg and I have with me Mr. William Fowler and we re going to be visiting in particular about their experiences working with the Utah Power and Light Company as its serviced the people here in this area. Mr. Klinger will you tell me your full name and where you were born and when? Alma Klinger: Well, I was born right here in Rexburg. On the second day of the year right here and I had a brother by the name of Chris that was here in Rexburg and he built a home right over here just on the corner and he worked and run a power plant; the first power plant in Rexburg and it was called Rexburg Power Plant and then when he was running that steam plant down there, it was just over the canal going north passed Rexburg here and it s by the river. And one day they, word got out that the steam plant blew up. Well, I knew that my brother was working there running it and I come down there and they figured he was killed and I run down there had to cross the canal and run down there and it just knocked him out but he was really pretty dizzy for several hours there and I stayed there with him and we came back up after he got to feeling better, why we came back up to the plant and straightened things out and got the power back on and I remember we were checking up on what really blew up. But the thing what happened was valves stuck and the valve stuck let the steam get so high that it, it blew it open and it, my brother was just coming in the door when that blew open and the pressure just knocked him right back over across the road and word got to me that he was killed. But we got things straightened out. That was called Rexburg Power Company. And then the Idaho Power came in next in May. I remember when they run the line down to my home, I had a home on the corner down here, a brick home as you go across the canal and they, at that time, word got to me that he was killed and I hurried and got up there and, it just knocked him out. HF: Well now, Mr. Klinger can you, can you establish the time, the date of that? About what year was that? AK: See, that s hard to figure. Let s see. HF: Had you started working for the power company? AK: I d been with the power company 50 years. HF: No, but at the time of this accident with your brother. AK: Well, that was before the power company, and they just called it the Rexburg Power Company. HF: That s before you started working?
AK: That s before I started working, yes. HF: I see. AK: That s when my brother was running that plant, Chris, he s dead now, but he use to work in the lumber company for a long time after he quit but he operated for the power company after they sold out to the Idaho Power and at that time, they started to build lines around the city and out away and it was called the Idaho Power Company. And then, I guess it was about 1900, or close to 1900 when Utah Power bought the Idaho Power project out and started to build lines. I remember we were living here and they put it to the people the two companies and they put it to the people to get their houses wired just as quick as they could get their house wired, they d be hooked up to that power company. I remember two power companies that was in here and one was, one was the Rexburg Power Company in the early years and I was just a kid then but I remember when they started to build and they said that the first one we get built to then that s the one we ll hook up. And they, the two companies started going in each direction right here in Rexburg. HF: Well, now, I m going to go interrupt just for a moment and present a little of the history according to the book that was published in 1972, the Pioneering the Upper Snake River Valley, let s see, Pioneering the Snake River Fork Country. And under economic and social changes dealing with electric power, and this is I think on page 137, it talks about the first real generated was established in Saint Anthony. And from that source the lights of Saint Anthony were turned on and generated electrically in 1902. Well, just somewhat after that, this same company was able to establish a system that took power between Saint Anthony and Rexburg and Teton City. And that was about 1908. Then the Idaho Power and transportation came, company came in building transmission lines up the valley and they bought out this existing system in 1909. And according to this booklet or this article, the Utah Power and Light Company purchased from the Idaho Power Transportation company the system that was in this area on the 19 th of April, 1913. And I assuming that that is correct, then the Utah Power and Light has owned the lines and the generating systems or whatever they had here since 1913. Now, I have Mr. Fowler here with me. William, will you state your full name and the date and place where you were born? William Fowler: William Robert Fowler, Sr. I was born in Lafayette, Indiana in 1903. October the 13 th, 1903, that s the reason I m so lucky. The year 1903 I was born on a Friday on the 13 th. So you see, 1903, that s HF: When did you come to Rexburg? WF: I came to Rexburg the first time in 1926. My brother in law was the division superintendant, R.R. Rowell. HF: How do you spell that last name?
WF: R.O.W.E. double L. Rowell. HF: Of the Utah Power and Light Company? WF: Yes sir. Yes he was a division superintendant. I stayed here until 1927, October 1927 and they wouldn t give me a job as a line man, I was just a ground man but I was climbing poles and doing as much as a line man would. But my brother in law wouldn t give me a job as a lineman because my sister might not like it. So I went home. I came back in March of 1929 and I ve been here every since. HF: Now, that would have made you, what, 1903, that would have made you 26 years old. HF: Approximately. WF: Approximately. HF: Mmhmm. And when do you get on regularly then with the power company? WF: Oh, when I came back in 27, I meant, in 29. My brother in law offered me the job and I came back and I worked for Al for a while and then I was out on the, I was out on the line crew and I stayed on the line crew and I was there as a line man and I ve worked for the power company for about 38, 39 years. HF: Very good. Do you remember this fellow when you, your first chance to meet his man? AK: [this here?] HF: Uh-huh. AK: Yeah, I sure do. HF: What were the circumstances? What do you remember first about Bill Fowler? AK: Well, Bill Fowler and I worked for the Utah Power and Light Company at the same time and we worked and Bill was working with me with the meter department and we tested the meters all over valley here. We d ride from one part to the other. We even had power going into Shelly and that was called Shelly Light and Power and we had to go down and help them on some of their equipment that they didn t have, able to take care of, so we went down there. I went down to Shelly Light and Power then we took that over from Idaho Power. Shelly had their old power plant out along the river and they had two generators there generating electricity for the city of Shelly. And then I remember when I went down there after we bought them out, Utah bought Shelly Light and Power out and they had a little power plant just over along the river and it was generated by water wheel, Shelly Light and Power. And they had a bank of transformers right along the river there that I think they re still there. Utah bought them out and I remember
have to go down and check. Bought them out, when Utah bought them out I had to go down and check their equipment because Utah Power was taking their equipment over. It was right along the river there, right there by Shelly where there was a water fall and that there plant was the transformers all on the bank there. HF: Mr. Klinger, what kind of a system did they have here in Rexburg when you started? AK: Well HF: When you started? AK: Well I was born here in Rexburg in 1902 and as I growed up, my brother Chris worked for the Rexburg, I guess it was called Rexburg Power outfit, he was running the steam branch right down along the river and he was working there, he must have got his over load valve stuck somewhere and took the ridge the steam and blew the steam plant apart, just blowed the door wide open and he was just standing in the, Chris was in there standing by the door when it blew opened and they say that s the only thing that saved his life, the pressure was just pushed straight out away from the plant and I guess that was, that s a long time ago. HF: Do you have a question? WF: Didn t the power company have a plant over there right kiddy corner across from the office over there in the service center there? Didn t they have a 44 thousand volt line coming into to that old rock building and they had an old generating plant. AK: Yeah, that s the old heating plant over here. I was on that, I worked for the Utah Power for 50 years and I worked, had Bell working with me on meters, I remember we use to rassle once in a while. He get me down, he s too fast. WF: The, while I was working for Al, I checked every meter up in Merrisville and Ashton when I was going out checking the meters and all, we had to do it every, every so often. I think we checked the meters about every, 10 years wasn t it? Something like that? AK: Yeah. WF: And I was staying up there in Ashton, I checked every, tested every meter there in Merrisville and Ashton. HF: When the power company took it over, the Utah Power and Light took over this system here, were there many, were there many homes already wired up for electricity here in Rexburg? AK: There was very few homes wired here in Rexbug when we, when even, after I started working for them. They use to just come and hit the end of your house, they just took and stuck the meter right there and put the fuse next to it so there was very few homes wired at that time. But when, as I was saying, when Chris started working for them, he was running a little steam
plant just north of Rexburg right by the river. And the time that blew up I was at school and word got to me that he d got killed, they just, that s the word got out that the steam plant blew up and it just blew the wall right off and blowed the door right off the building and that s all he said, that s all that saved Chris Klinger s life at that time. HF: What kind of system? Was it very; was it a good system when they first started out? Were the lights on? Did you have to have the lights? AK: That was just a little steam motor. HF: Yeah, but when you were working for the company, they had a pretty good system them didn t they? AK: Oh yeah, when I first started there, I started in Saint Anthony and I d been down in California at that time when I d checked up on motors and powers and things like that. And as I got up and was working, I had a brother Chris was working with the Utah Power. All our cleaners started out with the Utah Power but when I started at Saint Anthony, I was operating a water power wheel and that auto power wheel, it generated electricity there in Saint Anthony and in those days, why, people didn t use electricity only for lights. They had, they didn t have any electric motors or anything like that very much and it cost so much to keep them up that they power company decided that they d fix all our appliances free. And that s one of the jobs I was doing while I was operating the plant in Saint Anthony and in my time I d just have to wait and switch the power and so I was there, Nihms was the manager here of Utah Power. HF: What was his name? AK: L.W. Nihms. And he.. HF: He was the manager of Rexburg? AK: Yeah, he was the manager at that time. But I was going to say that s where I started operating up there at the, that was a water wheel that run generator up there. And the thing that I started, the way I got to go, I had a long time on my hands when I was just watching that wheel go around and I had a nice desk there and I could take and repair the appliances and made all different appliances from all over the system to Saint Anthony and on my spare time, it wasn t spare time, I was watching the wheels of things and power and I d repair those free for the people. HF: What kind of appliances were they Mr. Klinger? AK: Oh, all kinds. Irons and plates and motors and different things and I was doing a lot of that work, learned a lot of it when I went to California, I was working on special motors over the hill here had dry farmers, they had equipment that they run with power and I use to, when I came back here and I worked there, got a job working at the Utah Power there in Saint Anthony and
we repaired all the appliances that went bad, free. We repaired them, never charged anything just so people would start to use the appliances. HF: Do you have any idea how costly it was AK: What? HF: How costly it was to heat a home or the appliances in a home for a month? AK: Well. HF: What kind of a bill did the people have to put up with? AK: Well, it was just HF: Five dollars a month? Two dollars a month? WF: They wasn t heating by then. HF: No, but I mean your lights and your appliances. AK: Yeah, it was all metered by electric meters and they charged so much for one hour. HF: Do you know how much that was? AK: Well, I just don t remember just what the prices was. HF: What kind of a bill would a person receive, a home receive for having the lights heated and say the electric motors and the appliances in the home. What would the monthly bill be? AK: Well, it was, I don t know just how much the bill would be, they metered it just so much you can in one hour. HF: Do you remember how charge was in 1930 or 35 Bill? WF: Oh gee, no. AK: Yeah, you see.. WF: It wasn t very much. HF: Yes, I can, I can believe. AK: Utah Power, they, when I first started at that power plant in Saint Anthony, we was.. HF: Where did you have lines when you first started working? When you first started working for them, where were their lines? Did they have any electric lines up on the hill?
AK: Oh no, it was very, when I started working for them, it was just right along the high way, right where they had the lines built, they d put a transformer, they d never, never even spread out to go to anybody else, that s right where they had the main line. HF: Can you tell me how it got started to go out into the country and different places? How did they expand? AK: Well, Teton had a little power plant up in Teton called the Teton Power Plant. HF: That was Teton city? AK: City, yeah, and that, they, they bought power from the Idaho Power [stock] and then later on, when Utah came in why then they bought from them, but Teton had their own power. AK: They had a water wheel there and they generated their own power and... HF: Did any other place have a generator? Let s see. We ve established that Saint Anthony had a little generator and Rexburg had a little generator, and Teton City had a generator. Any one else? You told us that Shelly had one. AK: Well they had one, over in [Lost over] they had a little generator from a creek coming down the side of the hill and they had trouble and I went over and fixed it up for them. That s up above HF: Up above Arco? AK: Arco. Yeah, I got a brother, a son over there now that s manager of the power in Arco. They buy the power from Utah Power, but he s got all up the valley, they buy a bulk from Utah Power and then Arco has their own power and they run lines up around there and, it s only lately the last several years they, they got good water over there, they found out they could get good water and so they got, he s a big farms that s running pumps with off of electricity they buy from Utah Power. HF: Now, Mr. Fowler, when you commenced working for the plant in 1929, what facilities were available up and down the valley? WF: Well, I never did work for the plant. I was just a line man working out on the line, digging holes, raising poles and stringing wire and at that time, when I came back that s what I was doing, I never did work at a plant. HF: Well, when I say plant, I mean the whole operation, the whole facility. I didn t mean a generating plant. WF: Oh.
HF: I mean the whole facility. What equipment and what in the way of lines and installation did the Utah Power and Light have in the Upper Valley when you started in 1929? WF: When we were doing that, we were working, we didn t have any of this equipment that they could go out there and drive up a truck and dig a hole and get a boom and set the pole and what not. We did all that by hand. HF: And how would you go about doing this? WF: Well. HF: You would dig the hole with a shovel? WF: Yes sir. HF: By hand? WF: By hand with a shovel and a big bar, crow bar and about an eight foot crow bar and HF: And how deep would you build, go down? WF: For a 30 foot pole, we would go down five feet and then six inches for every five feet farther than that. 35 foot pole would go five and a half. A 40 foot pole would go six feet and so on like that. And we would raise those by hand. WE would get up there and pick it up and put it on a gin, what they call a gin and then we d get, split half of us, half on one side, half on the other side and push it against each other to raise it up and the gin would come down a little bit farther until we got it up and then we d set it in the hole. HF: And how many men would be involved in that process? WF: Oh, maybe half a dozen or something like that. HF: And that pole would be up there in the air maybe 30 feet? WF: Yes sir. HF: 20 or 30 feet. WF: a 30-35 foot pole. HF: And then you d have a cross bar on top to carry your lines. WF: Yes sir. HF: And how many lines would be going over that?
WF: Well, it s according, according to what they want. Usually it would just be two lines with what they call, 11 thousand, 12 thousand volt lines and if they were going to a place where they needed a machinery, three phase machinery, we would put in four lines. And that would be 11 thousand volt line, 12 thousand volt line up there and where we would go into a place that needed this phase line, we d put in three transformers, what they called a bank of transformers and to change the power from 11 thousand down to 240, 240 volts. They were there, machinery usually would be a 240 volt machinery, three phase, what they call a three phase line. HF: And with that transformer, would that be adequate to take care of generating, or putting power into the home or did you still have to transform it down to 110? WF: We d have to take a line off of that and make it down to 110 to 220 and that was when they started having ranges and something like that, your electric range was 220 and they d run in, well, practically all the homes unless it was definitely stated there would be just lights, we would run three wires in there which would make it 110 and 220 volt lines. HF: And, was your, were your first duties pretty much confined on the line to work here in the Rexburg area or do you recall going out in the country? WF: Oh, we were going out into the country, we were going up to Saint Anthony. We were going to Ashton. And down to Shelly. HF: Building new lines? WF: Building new lines, and. HF: And repairing old ones I guess? WF: Yes, and to the outskirts of Idaho Falls. Of course Idaho Falls had their own generating plant, the power company had a generating plant there in Idaho Falls too. It was just right out between Idaho Falls and Shelly, just a little ways out. HF: What was that called? WF: The Idaho Falls plant. HF: And that was owned by the Utah Power and Light? HF: Mmhmm. Now, to your knowledge did the Utah Power and Light have any other generators or places where they generated electric power from water in Eastern Idaho other than what we ve mentioned? WF: No, only that one just north of Shelly just a little that Al had talked about.
HF: And so they brought their power in from other places? They wheeled it in from other places? WF: We had a power plant up in Ashton. HF: The Utah Power did? WF: Yes, they still have. Yes, we have a water power up there. HF: Is that on, where is that located? WF: That s just out of Ashton. HF: Ashton. It s out on the north fork of the Snake? HF: It isn t on Fall River? WF: No. HF: It s on the north fork North fork of the Snake River. HF: Mmhmm. Now, do you remember down through the years where the substations were located? Mr. Klinger can you remember, do you recall where the substations were located? AK: Well, the Utah Power was located just about where they re off of that city office just straight up this road here about three blocks. HF: No, but the substation. AK: They use to have a big rock building there and they had a transformers in there and fed around the town here just, just around close. They didn t move out to anybody out in the country at all, just HF: And that was to take care of the residents and their needs of Rexburg? AK: Yes. It took on all of Rexburg. Of course, they had a kind of a race here. When the power first come in here, there was two powers, there was the Idaho Power and then Teton had their own power, Teton Power and they furnished for the homes just for the city of Teton, they didn t spread out. When the Idaho came in and the Utah, why they had a race here, I remember when I was just a boy here down to our home there around here why we had the two systems came in and they give ya the one that got to the house wired first, that s the system that they got on to. I remember they had a race and they came from up on the, up here in town where the big transformer is now and most of it s underground but they, where they big [trisks] are up here on straight up this street here. Why, we, I remember that they said, well, the ones that get the house
wired first, that s the one you got. And we got on, happened to get on at that time, Idaho Power was coming in and they, they got on, we got on theirs and all they d done was just hang the meter on the wall and run in and out and that was their switch, their switch was there so the fuse was a gift. And the way we use to fuse the fuses in a home had a socket hit the ceiling, you put a little thin wire in there and then if ever anything went wrong, why just that wire burnt off and it d just be on that one. We d have one on every socket in the house. But that hit the house, why they had a good size switch and protection. HF: How often would you read the meters? AK: Hmm? HF: How often would you read the meters that were attached the homes? AK: They read them regular each time. HF: Was that one of your jobs? AK: No. My job was to repair them. HF: You repaired the meters? AK: Mmhmm. Repaired the meters. And I was working in the Saint Anthony office, our plant operating, water plant there in Saint Anthony and having time on my hands, why I use to repair all the electric equipment that they d haul in, they d haul it from one end of this valley to the other end and I would set there at a desk and repair the equipment that needed to be repaired and we d done it free. We wanted to encourage people to use electricity but at that time HF: Were the, was the power quit dependable in those days? AK: Yeah. HF: When you turned the lights on did they pretty well always work? AK: Yeah. They usually... HF: Did they go off during the night? WF: We had good power all the way through. We still do. We still have good power and we have men working for the power company that get called out at two or three o clock in the morning, 30 or 40 below in a blizzard to keep the power going. HF: And now, you know, Mr. Fowler, you have talked and told us and described very interestingly the way in which the lines would be built with the, with the poles and so forth and you literally had to do it by man power. You had no equipment, literally. What was the first real big helpful equipment that was perfected that enabled you to dig the holes and to erect those?
WF: Well, they got trucks with a boom on it that would pick up the poles and set the poles into the ground and they got diggers that would dig a hole. But, after they get the poles up, we d have to put the dirt in and tempt the dirt in to get them straight, straight in line. And they have what they call a bucket now that they can go up, they don t have to climb the pole, they go up and work on the hot lines, 12,000, 11,000, 44,000 volt lines where they don t have to climb the poles, they got a bucket where they can go up there and work on the line like that. HF: And so the individual repairing would just ride in the bucket HF: Stand in the bucket. HF: And repair the line and it would be a lot safer that way too, wouldn t it? I suppose? WF: Well, I don t. HF: Maybe there wouldn t be any added safety feature? But you got to know what you re doing when you start messing around with a hot line right? WF: That s, that s right. You can t be thinking about what you re going to do next Saturday or Sunday or what you re going to do at night. You got to know what you re doing. HF: Are you insulated in any way? Is the linemen insulated so we won t be grounded and get killed? WF: When I was in there we had rubber gloves. HF: Okay. WF: That was good for 11,000, or 7,200, it was good for that. You could work the line hot with these rubber gloves. So, but you had to keep yourself in the clear of any line, any grounds that was, see they d put a ground wire on the pole, or they use to, I don t know whether they do now or not, but they run a ground wire from up at the top of the pole right on down to the bottom. And they had to stay in the clear of everything, wasn t taking any chances. HF: Well now, that was quite a challenge when you were up the pole, going up there with what, hooks or what? HF: And yet, yet you weren t grounded. WF: No.
HF: I see. WF: You just walk up there in those HF: Spikes, or WF: Spikes, you go up there and you got to be careful where you re going, how you re going. HF: Do you recall any big project of new lines that you installed, were particular major say from going out from one the substations that was in to another town or something like that where there had to be a lot of miles and miles of line installed? Do you remember any big project, expansion project? WF: Well, I helped worked on 44,000 volt line going between Idaho Falls and Shelly and, and I have worked on 130,000 volt line when was that? I can t remember where that 130,000 volt line, down around Idaho Falls someplace if I remember correctly. And that was well, yeah I worked with a crew in from Salt Lake that came up to work on the 130,000 volt line out over around Dubois, out in that part of the country. HF: Now the Utah Power and Light furnishes power out in Clarke county, Dubois? Does it? WF: Yes, yes. HF: Mmhmm. WF: Dubois, Hamer, Mud Lake, Arco, all through there. They, and I helped put a 44,000 volt line in going. (tape cuts out. The end of tape one) Start of tape two HF: The interviews and pertaining to the Utah Power and Light Company and its facilities in Rexburg and the area. Do you remember some of the, the men who you considered as your boss? You mentioned Mr. Nihms? AK: There s Nihms and there s Woolley. WF: Woolley. R.I. Woolley. AK: R.I. Woolley and WF: Joe Kushman. AK: Who? AK: Yeah, Joe Kushman and yeah I guess there s the early ones was just, let s see
HF: Now, these men, did AK: They, on a lot of them like this Teton Power, they had their own... HF: They had their own individual AK: Yeah. HF: Yeah. AK: And they had power to grind grain and power to elevate motors to drive, elevate the power, take the power and elevate the water as it come down. This water comes down just a big canal but it comes out of the Teton River and comes into Teton and they got their own, had their own power. I had to go there several times and help them fix up some of the stuff that wasn t working and I use to go there quite a bit because it was Teton flower and electric outfit, their own outfit there you see. Just their own people. I know several times I went there and they had troubles with some of the motors and I went there and helped them repair em and get them going, right there in Teton. HF: Now, you mentioned Mr. Klinger that you learned a lot of your knowledge, acquired a lot of your knowledge when you were in school when you were in California to some special school. AK: Yeah, I went down there and spent a year down there. HF: Do you recall what school that was? AK: Let s see, gosh, I don t, just as I was, individual people that run outfit there, that is they bought the power from the power company that up in the valley there and I, I done a lot of work for people on fixtures and things like that. I remember a fellow that I was living with that first time that they had the fair up there that I got a job there from a fellow while I was going to school and we went to see the worlds fair that was put on there in Los Angeles and there was thousands of people there. That s the first time I stood right there in all those people watching what was going on with horses and other things that you put on in a fair, you know what I mean. So I enjoyed it really well going and seeing. I know Felix is one guy that I met down there and then he come in when he was with the Utah Power down in Salt Lake too later on. So that s quite a few experiences I had. HF: Did the Utah Power people take you to Salt Lake to.. AK: Hmm? HF: Did the Utah Power and Light people take you to their facilities in Utah to let you, to check those out and to get knowledge from their system down in Utah? AK: Well, yes I, that s where all our bosses are down there.
HF: And they took you down there for training? AK: I, I done my training, I was up here in Saint Anthony; I was operating the power plant. HF: That s where you got your training then? AK: I got some books and while I had time on my hands watching the wheel go around, I started how to repair these different things and that s where I got a lot of my knowledge of course when I went to school down there, I had professors there that showed ya how to repair things and do things. So, it s quite interesting down there and that s the first time I went to see the world fair was down there in California and they really put on a really good show, I tell ya. They have horses and wonderful horses to show in the show and in the fair, why they got everything, animals of all kinds. HF: Right. AK: That you go and see. So it s quite interesting to get that experience. I know that I when I come back from WF: Giving your time. AK: It wasn t somebody knocking? HF: Three o clock. AK: Yeah, I remember going down there and the fellows that I was living with they took me and we went all over California, up and down that valley and I got acquainted with a lot of people. I worked for a fellow in the garage in what we called grapevine curves. That s down by a train in Bakersfield and Los Angeles and I worked down there. So, really got a lot of interest there. When I came back from down there, I d almost been working on the dry farm up here for all the farmers and I had a couple brothers with big farms and they had motor trouble. Whenever they had motor trouble they always have to get a mechanic come in and fix their motor and I learned enough about that down there that when I would be working up here on the hill with, for my brother, why if somebody had trouble, they sent a fellow over to run what I was doing and I went and repaired their motors that gave them trouble. So I enjoyed what I learned down in California so I was able to take care of those motors up there. WF: Uh, go ahead. HF: You go ahead. WF: Well, I was just going to say, I was a working foremen for a construction crew for 15 years and I had one of the best crews in the whole company. The fellows that I had worked and we worked and then when we got around to [sue with our job] we played. But we took all of our time, most of our time and really worked, and worked hard. I had
HF: Now, Rexburg was the center place? You d start out from Rexburg? WF: Yes, we d start out from Rexburg and to begin with if we had any work down in Idaho Falls we d have to stay in Idaho Falls over night and we d go out to Arco when we had taken over Arco, we d go out there and work. We d stay there and gee whiz, sometimes we d stay there for almost a week for the work that we had to do over there. And whenever we d go out of town we usually had to stay overnight. And the crew that I had Bill Casper, Sid Hinckley and Kenny Setten, I had a really very, very good HF: There were about four or five of you in a crew? Yes. HF: Now, this crew would be out to make repairs or renew installations? WF: Both HF: Both? AK: Yes. HF: And you would take your equipment with you? HF: Such as your truck with a boom on it? WF: Oh no. HF: This would be... WF: That was before, that was before my time. These booms, they got raising poles, that was after I... HF: That was later on. AK: That was later on. HF: But you d go out there and you didn t have this good equipment then you were talking about. WF: Nothing like they got now. Of course I went to [inaudible] but we did finally get a boom to work and had a truck driver, Sid Hinckley was our truck driver, boy if you wanted to raise up a transformer just an inch, that s what he would do. He was the best truck driver around. Getting up around hot stuff to work on a transformer, boy, he was just give it what you wanted and no more, nor less. He was a very, very good truck driver.
HF: Well now you re describing how he would raise what? The truck up, the rear end of the truck? WF: Oh no. HF: Or a boom, or something on it? HF: What do you call that? In other words if you wanted to get up to the lines, how would he put you up there? WF: Oh we d, we d climb up, climb up the pole but when he... HF: When he.. WF: Raising up a transformer. HF: Transformer. WF: with a boom, with a cable, you wanted to put the cable up there and just tell him to, through the going up there just barely move it to hang it on the cross arm and put it in position. He was just give an inch or two inches or whatever we needed. HF: Bill, when you would out on a job, what were some of the, what were some of the necessary equipment that you would take with your job? I mean, you d go out probably in a truck or two or three trucks wouldn t ya? WF: No, the mine was just the one truck with two seats in it. We d go out together. HF: Okay, three or four of you? HF: Okay, now what was some of the equipments that you would have to take with you to do your job? You d have to take some wire with you? WF: Oh yes, a wire. HF: What other supplies? WF: Payette wheels, cross arms, insulators, wooden pins, stuff like that. HF: Mmhmm. And you had WF: Transformers. HF: Transformers.
WF: Bare wire and we d have to take out insulated wire for your service wires to run your services into your homes. HF: Now, as you, the transmission lines, are those usually bare wires? Yes, because HF: Why did they have to have, why did they have to, why didn t they insulate those? Insulate those? WF: Well, they re way up in the air. HF: Right. WF: They re up.. HF: A bird could land on there and good bye bird. WF: Yes and [inaudible] that s what they were talking about over here in the Mud Lake Country, they were talking about the bird lighting on a pole where there was four wires or something like that and these eagles that use to be up there, they would get a ground wire, another wire and they d kill them. There was a lot of eagles killed out there in that Mud Lake District. HF: So long as the eagle feet just touched that wire on which he landed, he would be ok. HF: But if his tail or his beak or something, or a wing, hit another object WF: He was gone. HF: He was gone? HF: Do you remember instances of seeing this happen? Or seeing the result where big eagles or whatever had been killed? WF: Oh yes, down at the bottom of a pole, you d see that going over there, over to Mud Lake or over to Howe that when the 44,000 volt line running over there, yes. There was quite a lot of complaint about killing off these eagles, but we d been, they finally made a different construction to give them a little bit more space. HF: And so, this rarely happens now? WF: That s uh, well, yes it rarely happens because there s not very many eagles left over in that country any more for one thing.
HF: But they have learned through their experience of spacing the wire and so forth to avoid this. Yes. HF: I see. What other animals would be affected by this? I guess animals wouldn t be affected too much, would they? WF: No sir. HF: Like antelope or anything rarely would they have a reason to be killed. WF: No sir, they wouldn t. HF: I guess it has always been a real challenge in maintaining your power lines for because of terrible storms coming up. WF: Yes sir. HF: can you relate some instances where there have been in your experience through a bad storm a terrible amount of damage, maybe persons being killed. Do you recall any instances, any experiences? WF: No, not right off hand. AK: [inaudible] WF: Oh well yes, but that hadn t been a HF: What was the experience in your case? Relate your experience where you almost got it? AK: Well you know in this business meter reading, why sometimes we have our meters right up on a box on a pole for some of these farmers and by golly one day I was thought I was careful I was up on the darn old platform there and was working next to the hot line there and I guess I must have bumped something and by golly it hit me and I fell backwards and I, I guess I was knocked out. But a farmer was there in a field just out of Shelly and he was, him and his boy was working in a field right side of where I was up that pole platform there and I hit it, why it knocked me out and I went tumbling down what they said, I come tumbling down and when I hit the ground, why I come too. But by golly, for a while it was, I was knocked right out and didn t know what or where it was close quarters as far as the sugar company had big meters there and I had one fellow working for me at the time too down there and he got killed WF: I was going to ask you, do you remember that fella, he lived in Saint Anthony and he was up there on that platform and he got killed. AK: That s right.
WF: Well, I was out here west of town when the old 44,000 volt line was going out west of town, I was with Joe Middleton AK: yeah. WF: And we were putting up a transformer and I was reaching up to take the rope off from where the set of blocks to pull up the transformer. I was reaching up there just to pull it down and it came down all of the sudden, hit my left hand into the hot side of the cut out, knocked me off the pole and I fell in about three feet of snow. And Joe, I took off my coat and Joe started massaging my arm because it was numb. And if he hadn t gotten circulation back in there I would have got back up and finished the job. But he did that. Well. I ve had a pole fall with me and over there by the tabernacle over there. We was repairing the lines and putting in new lines and the pole broke and fell off. It hadn t been hit on the end of cross arm and on the canal bank it would have gotten me. I was knocked off a 55 foot pole down there at the city park when I was with Glen Hurdy to adjusting the lights for the ball field. My head hit a cut out up on top and knocked me out and I fell down off of that. Oh, I ve had a few things. AK: Yeah, that s the way it goes. I know I had a fella who [woods to the west] I had WF: That s the guy that was killed. AK: Working on the meters department and we had to change a line down in Lincoln, the Lincoln factory they have a lot of power and everything you see, and we had to change a line down there and he, Woodson run up that pole and had his belt on and everything and was working and some how he bumped in to it and it knocked him out and he come down and I thought boy I was down below and I got up, by the time I got up there, boy he was dead. He just, Woodson got killed right there at that Lincoln substation. HF: Yep. AK: So it sure was powerful. He was, he was a good meter man. AK: He, Woodson was, and he s done a lot of work for us but boy we thought he was careful and he went up that pole and somehow he bumped into it and by gosh it just killed him right there. HF: Was the sugar factory one of the big consumers of power? AK: Hmm? HF: Was the sugar factory one of your big consumers of power?
AK: Oh yes. They use a lot of power to run their equipment. They make their own sugar and everything and they got a lot of heavy equipment and big transformers that they run their equipment with, the sugar company. HF: Now that, was it Lincoln? AK: Yeah, that was Lincoln? HF: And how about over here at Sugar City? AK: Sugar City? HF: Uh-huh. AK: Well we have a HF: Did they consume a lot of power also? AK: Yeah, we have a lot of power in Sugar City too. HF: At the factory? All: Yes. WF: Yes, they had a big bank of transformers there. AK: Yeah we have a big bank there. Yeah. HF: What other big users existed? What other big users existed in the valley? AK: Well, some of these, right now, we ve got farmers that s big users running big pumps to pump water to irrigate equipment and so they got a lot of farmers that really got big banks and high voltage to run those pumps. HF: Can you tell me, can you tell me Alma, or Al, when they first started putting their lines up on the hill for the farmers, can you tell about that? Can you recall that when they started putting their lines up there? AK: Well that, when they first started to be able to irrigate with the water that was pumped up on the hill he put in big pumps quite deep down to where they hit water and then they pumped that water into their pipeline and the sprinklers sprinkled the water all over the hill. We had quite a few of these out along here I know. HF: Did you have a substation up there? AK: Yes.
HF: Is there a substation out on the hill? AK: Yes. We have a substation up on the hill here. WF: Up there. AK: And it, farmers run into their place there and then they have an elevator up there that s all electrical. They got a lot of electrical equipment on but it s surprising how many of the farmers have got big banks now and they can get power to run their pumps to give them pressure to shoot the water right over the, over the farm, over their lots. I don t know what, we ve got right up here on the hill. WF: The Smith substation. AK: The Smith substation that put [it all] for farmers and farmers got their lines. WF: Then there s one over the hill from that, there s the one, keep on going east, there s one that s just down under the hill. AK: Yeah. We got a big bank right up here just before you get to Heise Hot Springs; they got a big bank there and they got a pipe running clear up on top of the hill and they pump water clear up on the hill and then it pours water to farms right up on the hill up here. So we get, use a lot of power up there. WF: There s one right, right straight on south here about from where Tom Webster s, way over there on there that, way down there at the end of the road. AK: Yeah. Yeah, that s HF: Now, out in the Terraton, Mud Lake Country, they must have one out there? They must have a line out there. AK: Yeah, they have a lot of power out there. I got a, my oldest boy takes care of the power out in that territory and he s over in Lost River. They got a little, had a little power plant right up there in Lost River up in just a little plant up in the mountain there and I went out there to repair it for him. I went and, it was Lewis out there and had to go and repair that little generator they had up the that was being used in little Lost River. So that s quite.. WF: They got a substation there over there in Dubois where they get power from us and then there s one in Mud Lake and one in Hamer and we got substations all over the country out there. HF: What kind of wages were paid, did you receive when you first started working for them in 1929? And compare those wages with what their getting say, now. Can you recall? WF: We weren t getting very much. [Lagorian] wage as far as that goes.
HF: So it would be interesting for a person reading this tape to have a comparison. What kind of wages were paid in 1929 with say what we re paid in 1940 or 1960 or whatever. Can you give me some comparisons Bill? WF: Well, they keep going up there. We have our union for negotiations and we must be doing alright because we got a lot of people working for the power company. HF: Now, in your union of course, it s organized to, to promote benefits, fair wages, fair returns to the, to the employee and as a union man, I suppose that the company had various classifications for employment. HF: Can you recall and relate the work classification and what some of the duties were for each classification. WF: The ground men, they work on the ground all the time, whatever work needs to be done they do on that. The apprentice, they, they re allowed to do a certain amount of work on the pole, on a hot line. They re not allowed to do anything big on the hot line stuff and after, let s see, four years, they have to go down, the apprentice have to go down to Salt Lake. They go to school I don t know what it is now, a week or two weeks at a time a year to go down there to learn the job of a linemen and after they ve been there for four years I believe it is now, they, they ll have to pass a linemen s test. It is the linemen s test, take in your climbing and installing transformers and the hook ups and all that stuff that a fella had to do up on the pole. All that kind of work. And the classifications that they have for you. And then they have a foremen of a crew, he sees to the, how the work is going on and making the work come out right and he s not allowed, a regular foremen is not allowed to climb a pole. He has to stay down and see that everything is in the clear, see that the linemen is doing his work and right. A working foremen, he doesn t have as big of a crew as do regular foremen does. He can get up and climb a pole when, if needed or to help out on a job. And that s, that s the classifications we have; the ground man, the lineman, the ground man, the apprentice lineman, a lineman, a working foreman and a foreman. Those are the classifications on your line crews. HF: Now, Mr. Kingler, tell me a little about your family, your wife and your children, how many children you had and name them for me and tell me a little about your family. AK: Oh, well I guess I just have to tell ya, tell about my wife. HF: Alright. AK: We was, I was living here in Rexburg and so was she but we didn t know each other and I had two black Shetland ponies and I took horses and cows down to the river to a pasture that we had fenced off along the river and I use to ride them ponies down that driving the cows and other horses down to that pasture. And my wife lived right along the road there but she didn t know
me and I didn t know her and I used to ride those ponies down there and I d go down driving the other animals down to put them in the pasture down on the river and when I d get them back why, I d get up on the ponies and stand up on them and come down the road with hoping[inaudible] along and I was just hanging on to the lines and she use to, said she use to get up out of the big trees and just wait for me to come and take my animals down to the river and then she d watched me come back. HF: She was kind of spying on you huh? AK: Yeah. Stand up on, and so she used to stand, hide behind those big trees. Oh them trees are that big ya know and out along had them big trees and she d stand behind them trees and that s what she said and watched me come riding the horses, stand up on the horses and come home along that road. So when I finally got acquainted with her and I went to a dance up to tabernacle they had and it was for the dance was for the junior high people and I d went there with another girl that I d been going with and we go in there and dance and enjoy the trip and then we d go home. Well now, she was spying on me. She lived right along that road where I went with the cows and horses and she, I d come back there and be standing up on the pony was only about so high and I d be standing up on that pony and they d go loping along and she stood behind the trees and watched me. That s what she told me. And one night we went to one of those dances and they had the girls would take care of the each of the, for a program so we would take a girl, we d find a girl and take them home and one night I was down there. HF: You found here, huh? AK: And I found her. She d been working in the candy kitchen and she d seen me but she didn t know who I was but she was working in the candy kitchen and so she came with another two or three girls that was spying on us and so I asked her if she d go home with me. She d never, I never knew her and she never knew me. But I, finally she went home with me and I had my car and I loaded the other fellow with me and we took them home and then I made dates from then on and I won her. HF: Well isn t that, that s wonderful. AK: and I ve got a, so we ve got I got seven boys and two girls that we have in our family and we got a big bunch of grandchildren, they re just. I told mom I guess we had the first lot over in the cemetery where her mother died when she was just 12 days old and she never knew her mother at all but what they tell her about her, she s one of the best mothers in the valley. She made butter and cream [emaraze] that this, and she had more for more butter than anybody else going sold their butter around and the people that were around and so that s how I got acquainted with her is just, I went to the candy kitchen and bought things there and I never knew her and she never knew me. We use to, the power company don t you know, would take time off and go over the candy kitchen and get a drink, a soda pop, and whatever else dare they get and so that s where I d see her, but I never got acquainted with her. But when I got acquainted with her at a