After the Gold Rush, ditches systems were primarily used to supply water for domestic consumption.
Shortly after 1887, Polish prince André Poniatowski and his associates redeveloped the Blue Lakes Water Company, delivering water to Stockton and Oakland and, in 1897, completed construction of the Blue Lakes Power Plant on the Mokelumne River, just north of Mokelumne Hill.
Within a year the Prince looked to a larger hydro-electric project and with his brother-in-law, financier William H. Crocker, General Electric President Charles A. Coffin, and others, incorporated as Standard Electric of California. The new, larger plant – the Electra Powerhouse – was located several miles east and upstream of the Blue Lakes Powerhouse.
Young Edith, at the age of 14, was reportedly hired to photograph construction of the facility. Her photographs show diligence and imagination in documenting building activities, hauling of equipment, laying the penstock, dam construction, and work crews, with many views taken from precarious locations.
Nearly 80 negatives of this enterprise survive.
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