This collection is the result of Frank E. Bonner's work as a consulting engineer for four California water agencies. The materials in this collection consist of water and hydroelectric power studies, maps, designs, computations, drawings, photographs, and reports on various constructed or proposed water developments in the Sierra Nevada.

The collection consists of correspondence, reports, designs, specifications, and photographs, relating to dams, dam sites, and hydroelectric power plants in Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, British Columbia, and Mexico.

The collection consists of correspondence, reports, photographs, and miscellaneous material, relating to various bridges, dams, water supply systems, and hydroelectric power installations in California, including the Hetch Hetchy Project, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and to electrical distribution systems in California and British Columbia.

The collection consists of reports and papers on hydraulic power systems, hydroelectric developments in California and the West, land reclamation and valuation.