Highways and Byways with Jeff and Susan Jeff and Susan's 2009 11 Month Trip to New England

Desert Center, CA Jan 10, 2009

We went to the Metropolitan Water Districts pump plant, called Eagle Mountain PP, and got a tour. We were fortunate, they don't do tours anymore. Either they liked me or they were bored or they did it because I am a retired San Diego Water Utilities employee. It took a little something to get through all the gates, but once they figured out where we were, they opened the correct gates. Our tour lasted nearly 2 hours. I notice now that I didn't take a picture of the building. I tried but it was into the sun and the camera would shoot. To explain how big it is, it pumps all the water to LA and San Diego. The power bill for just this one station (they have 4 others like this one), is $3 million per month. This station was built around 1929. Everything in it is just like it was in 1929. The station has all original equipment.

After the tour, we went to downtown Desert Center. We found only two places still operating, the Post Office and the cafe. Once Kaiser Steel stopped mining Eagle Mountain, the whole place pretty much folded.