Wise Road is more than a country road linking Ophir to Lincoln; it’s also a connection to Placer County’s earliest waterways.
Wise Road is named for the power plant that sits at its intersection with Ophir Road, just off Interstate 80. Constructed circa 1917 and named for James H. Wise, a former assistant general manager of Pacific Gas and Electric, it is part of a water distribution assembly created during the Gold Rush era.
Fed by the natural watershed of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, the Wise Powerhouse is one in a series of dams and reservoirs stretching from the shoulders of the Sierra down to the sole of the foothills. Long before hydro-electric networks harnessed the water’s force to generate electricity, the rivers, creeks and streams coursing through Placer County were prime spots for gold mining.
After glittering flakes were discovered at Sutter’s Mill near Coloma in 1848, the population shifted westward as people from around the world came to search for their share of the riches in the Western frontier. It wasn’t long after the first prospectors arrived that the need for a water disbursement system became obvious.
Miners used water to help loosen gold from dry diggings. Early entrepreneurs saw the potential profits in snaring water in basins above the snow line and conveying it down the hills to claim sites. The race was on to see who would accomplish the feat first.
By 1853, three major companies were in business, with hand-dug ditches and wood flumes carrying water to settlements throughout Placer and Nevada counties. But ongoing disputes about sources and rights of way kept the owners tangled in legal battles.
Tired of wrangling, the companies eventually agreed to unite their efforts. The merger resulted in the creation of the Rock Creek, Deer Creek and South Yuba Canal Company.
In 1882, to maximize trapping snowmelt and runoff from spring storms for release in the dry season, the company built a dam northeast of Cisco Grove at Lake Fordyce. At that time, it was the largest reservoir in California.
Another outfit was running the Bear River Ditch, a gravity-fed channel that clawed down from Greenhorn Creek to Newcastle and the valley beyond. Lacking dams, the crude conduit usually dried up every year.
In 1884, South Yuba bought out Bear River and began expanding the number of ditches feeding fruit ranches and vineyards from Colfax to the flat lands. In 1905, the companies were taken over by Pacific Gas & Electric, a company using water to generate power.
Between 1913 and 1917, the Wise Powerhouse was erected on Auburn Ravine creek, a few miles southwest of Auburn. Expanded in 1987, the ivy-covered Wise Powerhouse is an industrial landmark in territory once dominated by dusty gold mines, thumping stamp mills and fragrant orchards.
Today, Wise Road slithers like a snake through Ophir’s ravines before meeting up with Mt. Vernon Road. Continuing westward, it straightens out like a ball of gray yarn rolling loose down a golden blanket as it passes pens of goats, cattle and horses. It accesses working ranches and genteel country spreads before intersecting Highway 65 north of the Lincoln Airport and crossing over the Placer-Sutter county line.
Named for a newfangled hydro-electric facility, Wise Road is an old-fashioned way to savor back roads scenery while heading west.