Clovis-Big Dry Creek Museum

1891, C.B. Shaver was co-founder and president of the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company. The Fresno Flume and Irrigation Co. built a sawmill, millpond, and flume which carried the lumber from the mill to the valley. These were built in the area that is now encompassed by the current Shaver Lake. In 1894 the Fresno Flume and Irrigation company completed a 42 mile flume that connected the wooded region near shaver to a lumberyard in Clovis on the east side of Front street just south of Fifth Street, what is today's Clovis Rodeo grounds and Clark Intermediate School.

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The flume carried cut lumber to Clovis as much as 200,000 board-feet per day and provided pitch-laden irrigation water. Water from the flume was piped under Front street and down Bullard Avenue, ending around Willow Avenue, some homeowners used this water.

 

The flume began under the present site of Shaver dam at 5,275 feet above sea level and ascended 4,900 feet over 42 miles. The V shaped trough was built of wood secured tight enough to hold running water and carried loose boards. It was supported by stacked trestles as high as 90 feet and made of units called boxes that were 16 feet long, 330 boxes made 1 mile. 12 flume tender houses connected by a single telephone wire were spaced along the flumes route. The tenders could alert one another to trouble along the waterway, and a catwalk on the other side of the flume let men patrol the flume between stations. Occasionally a passenger missing the stagecoach from shaver would ride a flume board down the mountain.

 

The Fresno Flume and irrigation company yard in Clovis had a small pond that received lumber from the flume. The 40 acre site included a box factory, planning mill, and processing area that were powered by a large steam plant and kills. Billowing out of the smokestacks was foul smelling smoke, which was made worse by mixing with rotting bark. Generally the odor stayed down when from town. Fire ravaged the Fresno Flume and Irrigation company lumberyard in 1898. Workers could only stand and watch as there was a little defense against the flames that engulfed the stacks of wood and sawdust shavings. The factory, warehouse, planning mill, and engine houses, all burned to the ground, but they soon rebuilt and the company continued to prosper.