Today’s post is by John LeGloahec, Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives in College Park, MD.
Hydroelectric Power is one of the largest sources of renewable energy and is a popular means of providing power, as long as there was a water source and there was the means to construct a plant to harness the water. There are more that four hundred properties in the records of the National Register (National Archives Identifier 20812721) with the search term “hydroelectric” (and only about 180 when you add “power” to the search).
In Iosco County Michigan, is the Cooke County Dam (National Archives Identifier 25339562) on the AuSable River, “in the northeastern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The historic district consists of three major components: a Generating Facility, an Attendant’s House, and a Storage Shed. The Generating Facility, one of six on the AuSable, straddles the river approximately twenty-two river miles upstream (west) of its mouth at Lake Huron. The Attendant’s House and the Storage Shed stand nearby on the river’s south bank.”
“The Cooke Hydroelectric Plant has undergone few alterations since it went on line in 1912. At an undetermined date, a switching station was installed in the northeast corner of the powerhouse and an enclosed, air-conditioned office was built around the switchboard near the downstream (east) wall of the building . . . By the end of the 1940s, the substation was moved to its current location near the southeast corner of the powerhouse, replacing an earlier incarnation that was situated east of the Attendant’s House. In 1957, the original transformers, which had been installed in the southern end of the powerhouse in 1911, were removed.”
“The Cooke Hydroelectric Plant . . . was the site of a record-breaking transmission voltage made possible by improvements to transmission line hardware. The 140,000-volt transmission line from Cooke in 1912 surpassed the pressure carried on any other line in the world.”
Crossing the Tennessee River in Alabama is the Wilson Dam (National Archives Identifier 77835635), which “spans the Tennessee River between Florence (north) and Muscle Shoals (south), Alabama. It stands at an elevation of 508 feet and 259.4 miles above the junction of the Tennessee with the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. Wilson Dam Highway (State Route 133) crosses the Tennessee on a 20-foot road way along the top of the dam.”
“Wilson Dam was erected by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1918-25 and turned over to the TVA when that agency was established in 1933. Wilson is a concrete gravity dam on a blue limestone rock foundation. The total length of the structure is 4,535 feet, the height 137 feet, and the maximum width at the base (including the apron) is 160 feet. The head–the water depth on the upper side of the dam (east)—is 97.6 feet. There were originally 58 spillway gates in the face of the dam, each capable of discharging 10,000 cubic feet of water per second.”
In Idaho, on the Snake River, is the Swan Falls Dam Plant (National Archives Identifier 84248912), “originally constructed in 1900, was designed by A. J. Wiley and consisted of two dam sections, each 450′ long, divided by a lava promontory. A power plant was east of the promontory and on top of the dam, on the Ada County side of the river. In 1907 a power plant was built east of the original, and in 1910 another plant was constructed west of the original.”
“When large scale lode mining came to Silver City, scarcity of wood or coal hampered development of major Florida mountain silver properties, particularly the Trade Dollar and the Black Jack. Not too much timber grew in that rather arid section. Shortage of fuel became “a source of expense and embarrassment” during the Panic of 1893. Hydroelectric power offered a possible answer to the problem . . . In 1894 a Boise mining engineer, A.D. Foote, set out to locate a good Snake river power site for Silver City . . . His final choice was Swan Falls, only twenty eight miles from the mines. Unable to finance such a venture, Foote finally found a mine management position in Grass Valley, California. But Wiley, a young Boise engineer starting out on an outstanding career, kept up his interest in Swan Falls power. Wiley was running a Snake river fine gold dredge at Grand View in the summer of 1898 when a local electric plant began operation in Silver City and when the Trade Dollar and Black Jack managers began to show interest in bringing in electric power from Swan Falls.”
There are a number of properties in the National Register concerning the Tennessee Valley Authority, specifically its efforts concerning hydroelectric power, Tennessee MPS Pre-TVA Hydroelectric Power Development in Tennessee MPS (National Archives Identifier 135817335). This file notes, “The first production of electricity in Tennessee by means of hydropower was an early twentieth century phenomenon. While strides had been made in the late nineteenth century in other areas of the United States and in Europe, it was not until 1901, when local entrepreneurs in Middle Tennessee began to see the potential to electrify cities and towns with hydropower, that construction actually began. Some smaller attempts utilizing the limited power of creeks and streams were successful earlier, but these were extremely limited and idiosyncratic in nature. Hydroelectric power would, however, develop in Tennessee to the stature of giant public utility corporations producing electricity for the entire state by means of hydro- and coal-burning steam-powered generating facilities.” “The earliest commercial application of electricity in Tennessee was in the City of Chattanooga on May 6, 1882, when a small steam-powered electrical generating plant lit some street lights. According to the Chattanooga Times for May 7, 1882: “The lights first appeared at 8 p.m., and the crowd at once surged to all points where…visible. The effect was grandly beautiful.” This is significant in itself inasmuch as Thomas Edison initiated his system for lighting in New York City, at 257 Pearl Street, on September 4, 1882, four months after the Chattanooga experience. One public electrical industry source claims that “Chattanooga is universally credited with installing the first central station in the South.” Nashville soon followed suit, but the production of electrical power was accomplished by the use of steam engines to drive the generators. One of the early dynamos used for street-lighting in Chattanooga was, as reported in 1933, “preserved by Henry Ford’s shrine to Thomas Edison in the Edison Institute at Dearborn, Michigan.” Electric power in Tennessee cities was created by steam power until early in the twentieth century. Chattanooga, Memphis, Knoxville, and Nashville shared this means of electrical production with other cities in America until technological improvements would allow the transmission of electrical power over greater distances.”
In Pierce County, Washington, is the Nisqually Power Substation (National Archives Identifier 75612988) which holds a “central role in the City of Tacoma’s pioneering efforts as one the first cities in the country to construct, manage and deliver hydroelectric power through a publicly owned utility system. The building is also important as a remarkably intact early example of power station architecture as it evolved into large-scale public works forms later seen in municipal public works buildings, hydroelectric projects, and dams throughout the country. The southern Puget Sound area, by virtue of its location in Washington State’s unique geological environment, was a prime location for the development of hydroelectric power well before the massive Columbia River projects of the Federal government in the 1930’s. Western Washington seemed, at the end of the 19th century, to have an inexhaustible supply of water and the plentiful river systems fed by Mt. Rainier and the Cascade Mountains presented a promising opportunity for dam construction and power generation. The Nisqually River hydroelectric dam and generating plant at La Grande, along with the transmission lines and central city substation, were put into service in 1912. The publicly funded and built system provided power to the entire city and became the first municipal effort in Washington State to harvest hydropower outside a recognized political jurisdiction.”
“The Nisqually Substation remained an important location for Tacoma Public Utilities until the late 1950s. At that time, a new open air, fully automated substation was built across the street and the original substation was deemed obsolete. In December of 1960 the building was sold empty of all original electrical equipment to Leo and John Gallagher of the Puget Sound Mattress and Felt Company for $30,500. PSM&F Co. owned the building until 1965, when they sold it to Tacoma Plastics, Inc. Tacoma Plastics owned and used the building as a molding plant and shipping operation for about thirty years. In 2000, the building was sold to glass artist Dale Chihuly and is currently undergoing restoration. The Nisqually Power Substation is no longer connected to the municipal power system. Its original function has long since been computerized and relocated, but the powerful building and its distinctive architectural form continues to convey more than just an obsolete purpose and dated message. Like a retired railroad station, this very specialized structure completes an important sentence in the region’s narrative, explaining in brick and stone how the natural environment was exploited and imported into the city for social and industrial purposes. It also demonstrates the monumental importance of public works projects during the first decades of the century when the scope of government projects and collective public endeavors was expanding in America. Twenty years after the Nisqually substation was built, U.S. Senator Homer T. Bone from Tacoma used the success of his hometown’s efforts to build its own hydroelectric system to bolster Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plans to build federal dams and power plants on the Columbia River. In a region where hydroelectric power transformed the frontier into a modem economy, the Nisqually substation is emblematic of the earliest efforts at building publicly owned utilities and shared systems of economic advancement and basic human needs.”
In Clackamas County in Oregon, “the River Mill Hydroelectric Project, built in 1911 by the Portland Railway Light and Power Company, consists of an assemblage of concrete industrial structures spanning the channel of the Clackamas River in the vicinity of Estacada, Oregon.”
“The River Mill Hydroelectric Project is located on the Clackamas River, slightly less than a mile east of the city of Estacada, in Clackamas County, Oregon. Estacada, the sole incorporated city in the so-called “Upper Clackamas Valley,” was established in 1905. The development is located off “River Mill Road,” east of State Highway 211. Primarily located within the channel of the Clackamas River, a year-round river that begins in the mountainous area to the southeast and drains into the Willamette River near West Linn. The Estacada vicinity is an area of small shelves and valleys within a generally wooded terrain, much of which is within the Mt. Hood National Forest. The River Mill Hydroelectric Project itself is a part of the larger “Clackamas Project,” a four unit hydroelectric system developed and operated by the Portland General Electric Company and its various predecessors as detailed in Section 8. Within that system the waters of the Clackamas first flow through the Oak Grove plant (1924/1931). Approximately 13 miles downstream they reach the facilities at North Fork (1958). The Faraday plant (1907- 1910) is 2.5 miles east of North Fork and River Mill, the northeastern most facility in the Clackamas System, is located 1.25 miles downstream.”
As the United States was coming out of the Great Depression, one of the projects that helped was the formation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the hydroelectric projects across the South. There is a file in the National Register records concerning Tennessee MPS [Multiple Property Submission] Pre-TVA Hydroelectric Power Development in Tennessee (National Archives Identifier 135817335). “The first production of electricity in Tennessee by means of hydropower was an early twentieth century phenomenon. While strides had been made in the late nineteenth century in other areas of the United States and in Europe, it was not until 1901, when local entrepreneurs in Middle Tennessee began to see the potential to electrify cities and towns with hydropower, that construction actually began. Some smaller attempts utilizing the limited power of creeks and streams were successful earlier, but these were extremely limited and idiosyncratic in nature. Hydroelectric power would, however, develop in Tennessee to the stature of giant public utility corporations producing electricity for the entire state by means of hydro- and coal-burning steam-powered generating facilities.”
“The earliest commercial application of electricity in Tennessee was in the City of Chattanooga on May 6, 1882, when a small steam-powered electrical generating plant lit some street lights. According to the Chattanooga Times for May 7, 1882: “The lights first appeared at 8 p.m., and the crowd at once surged to all points where…visible. The effect was grandly beautiful.” This is significant in itself inasmuch as Thomas Edison initiated his system for lighting in New York City, at 257 Pearl Street, on September 4, 1882, four months after the Chattanooga experience. One public electrical industry source claims that “Chattanooga is universally credited with installing the first central station in the South.” Nashville soon followed suit, but the production of electrical power was accomplished by the use of steam engines to drive the generators. One of the early dynamos used for street-lighting in Chattanooga was, as reported in 1933, “preserved by Henry Ford’s shrine to Thomas Edison in the Edison Institute at Dearborn, Michigan.” Electric power in Tennessee cities was created by steam power until early in the twentieth century. Chattanooga, Memphis, Knoxville, and Nashville shared this means of electrical production with other cities in America until technological improvements would allow the transmission of electrical power over greater distances.”
“Winchester, in Franklin County, became the first Tennessee city to develop a hydroelectric power station. In 1898, the city floated a $15,000 bond issue in order to pay for the project. In 1900, the City of Winchester solicited William Jackson Dodge, a self-taught electrical engineer of the Nashville Electric Steam Plant, to build the premier hydroplant in the volunteer state. Built on the Elk River, the “Loop Plant” was located some 6 1/2 miles from the city and was completed in 1901, fittingly, the first year of the new twentieth century. “It consisted of a concrete dam 20 feet high in a narrow bend, or ‘loop,’ in the river from which the plant derived its name.” A flume, which would become a familiar component to many plants in Tennessee, was cut through solid rock to carry water to a powerhouse and a 100-kilowatt generator. The dynamo was driven by a “grist mill type waterwheel.” The powerhouse itself was “one of the most unusual features of the project. It was of frame construction and was built upon hewn oak timers that were laid across the top of the cut….The building was ‘split level’ with one section of the floor about 3 feet higher than the rest.” At first, the demand for electricity was not as great as had been anticipated? the hydroelectric plant was supplemented by a steam-powered plant in Winchester, and the entire load was “used almost entirely for street lights.””
So the next time you plug in your phone to charge, or turn on a light, think about where your power is coming from. Is it coming from up the river, gently down the stream, across the raging rapids? Thank hydroelectric power if that’s the case and we will see you next time.
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring records from the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and National Historic Landmarks Program Records, 2013 – 2017 (National Archives ID 20812721), a series within Record Group 79: Records of the National Park Service.