Big Creek, California

History

Big Creek was built at the site of the first dam and power plant of Southern California Edison's Big Creek Hydroelectric Project, one of the most extensive in the world. Other than the private helipad owned by Southern California Edison, the only way in or out of the town is Big Creek Road, off of State Route 168. The dam has a walkway across it to the south bank, but access is limited to employees of SCE and those residents who have been given a key. Its major industries are electric power generation and tourism. There is camping and water recreation in the summer and snow skiing in the winter. Huntington Lake is to the northeast and Shaver Lake is to the south. China Peak is only about 15 km away. Though Big Creek's only school is an elementary, it teaches kindergarten through 8th grade.

The penstock pipes for the original two units at Big Creek Power Houses One and Two, built 1912–13, were purchased from the Krupp Works in Germany because at that time that manufacturer produced steel pipes of the tensile strength needed to contain the very high water pressures in the pipes in the 1500 foot drop down to Power House One. All post-World War One penstock pipes were manufactured in the United States.

The first post office opened at Big Creek in 1912.

Half the town's homes were destroyed by the 2020 Creek Fire.

Demographics

|align-fn=center 2010

Big Creek first appeared as a census designated place in the 2010 U.S. census.

The 2020 United States census reported that Big Creek had a population of 151. The population density was 328.3 PD/sqmi. The racial makeup of Big Creek was 117 (77.5%) White, 0 (0.0%) African American, 5 (3.3%) Native American, 3 (2.0%) Asian, 0 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 7 (4.6%) from other races, and 19 (12.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12 persons (7.9%).

The whole population lived in households. There were 58 households, out of which 32.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 28 (48.3%) were married-couple households, 2 (3.4%) were cohabiting couple households, 11 (19.0%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 17 (29.3%) had a male householder with no partner present. 24 households (41.4%) were one person, and 12 (20.7%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.60. There were 34 families (58.6% of all households).

The age distribution was as follows: 46 people (30.5%) under the age of 18, 11 people (7.3%) aged 18 to 24, 34 people (22.5%) aged 25 to 44, 33 people (21.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 27 people (17.9%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 39.5years. There were 73 males and 78 females.

There were 123 housing units at an average density of 267.4 /mi2, of which 58 (47.2%) were occupied. Of these, 26 (44.8%) were owner-occupied, and 32 (55.2%) were occupied by renters.

References

References

1. "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau.
2. {{gnis. 1659696
3. {{California's Geographic Names. 1002
4. {{gnis. 2628711
5. From David H. Redinger, The Story of Big Creek, revised edition (Glendale: Trans-Anglo Books, 1986) {{ISBN. 0-87046-070-6; William A. Myers, Iron Men and Copper Wires, A Centennial History of the Southern California Edison Company (Glendale: Trans-Anglo Books, 1983) {{ISBN. 0-87046-068-4; also notes from interview with David H. Redinger, 1975.
6. Warszawski, Marek. (September 6, 2020). "Creek Fire consumes half the homes in tiny town. ‘Words cannot describe the devastation’". [[Fresno Bee]].
7. "Decennial Census by Decade".
8. "2010 Census of Population - Population and Housing Unit Counts - California".
9. "Big Creek CDP, California; DP1: Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics - 2020 Census of Population and Housing".
10. "Big Creek CDP, California; P16: Household Type - 2020 Census of Population and Housing".