Our work at Cliftons consisted primarily of Overhead and Underground Electric Lines and Underground Gas Piping and Telephone Ducts, for Utilities, Municipals and REA Coops. All of it was outside work because of our Union affiliation. We did, at times, do small jobs for local Industries and installed the Flood Lighting on many of the High School Athletic Fields, in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana.
Some of the places that we worked and the jobs that we did follows;
Kincheloe Air Force Base, Kinross, Michigan
Overhead Electrical and Substation.
Missile Base at Cape Canaveral, Florida
Overhead and Underground Electrical and Substations.
K.I.Sawyer Air Force Base, Marquette, Michigan
Overhead Electrical and Substation.
Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Oscoda, Michigan
Overhead Electrical
Indiana Toll Road
Service Area, Roadway and Street Lighting.
Railroad Classification Yards at Elkhart and Indianapolis
Pole lines for Power and Communications.
Empire, Republic and Cleveland Cliffs Iron Mines, Mich. UP.
Overhead Electrical.
International Bridge Soo, Michigan and Soo Ontario
Roadway Lighting for Michigan State Highway Department.
Port Austin Radar Base, Port Austin, Michigan.
Overhead Electrical.
Raco Radar Base, Raco, Michigan.
Overhead Electrical Alterations.
Upjohn Company Kalamazoo, Michigan and Miles Laboratory Elkhart, Indiana.
Pole Lines and Transformer Banks.
Wolverine Shoe Co. (Hush Puppy) Rockford, Michigan.
Overhead and Underground Electrical.
Fort Custer, Battle Creek, Michigan.
Overhead Electrical Alterations and Underground Gas Piping.
Some of the Municipals that we worked for in Michigan were;
Sturgis
Niles
Coldwater
Hart
Marquette
Lowell
Holland
Zeeland
Grand Haven
Lansing
Allegan
Paw Paw
Some of the REA’s in Michigan were;
Fruit Belt in Cassopolis
Tri County in Onaway
Wolverine in Big Rapids, and O&A in Newago.
Some of the Utilities were;
General Telephone Company,
Underground Duct Lines and Manholes
Michigan Bell Telephone Company
Underground Duct Lines and Manholes
Battle Creek Gas Company. Battle Creek Michigan
Gas Transmission and Distribution Lines and General Maintenance
Southeastern Michigan Gas Company. Port Huron, Michigan.
General Gas distribution and maintenance.
Michigan Gas Utilities Company.
Misc. Gas work in several counties in Lower Michigan.
Michigan Power Company. Three Rivers and Marquette Michigan.
Gas Transmission and Distribution and Electrical Transmission, Distribution and Substations.
Upper Peninsula Power Company, Ishpeming, Michigan.
Overhead Electrical.
Consumers Power Company.
Steel Towers, H-Frame and Single Pole Transmission Lines, Substations, Distribution both Overhead and Underground, Joint Underground with Gas, Electric, Telephone and TV in same trench, Considerable Cross Country Gas Transmission from the Oil Fields of Michigan.
Indiana and Michigan Electric Company.
Essentially the same as Consumers Power except no Gas property.
The voltages that the electric lines were to carry ranged from 120/240 (house services) to 138,000 volts. We did not get into the high voltages, such as 345,000 and 765,000, because that work requires a great amount of very expensive, highly specialized equipment, that was not adaptable to other types of work that we did.
One of the few jobs, other than the Missile Base, that was outside of our contiguous area, was an extensive electrical system re-build for an REA in Ottumwa and Bloomfield, Iowa.