A few days back in
my post about Trout Lake,
I mentioned a historical factoid that Trout Lake
water was used to generate the first AC power station in the country.
Today I drove up to the Gold King
Basin, the site of the mine that inspired the
story.
So now, as Paul Harvey might say, here's the rest of the story.
In 1881 a washed up Leadville restaurateur named Lucien Lucius Nunn made his way to Telluride, Colorado to see what he could roust up in this newly booming mining town. During the next decade, LL Nunn opened a law practice, became a real estate developer, opened a bank and started managing the Gold King Mine, in the mountains south of Telluride.
Now
there were a lot of mines operating around that time ultimately
digging over 350 miles of interconnecting tunnels through the
mountains. But one problem they all had in common was how to power
them. See, many of them were built above timberline like the Sheridan
Crosscut, the Tomboy, the Smugglers Union and the Gold King, which
meant all timber for buildings, homes and to shore up the mines had to
be hauled in by mule or ox team. Wood or coal to generate power to run
the mines and mills also had to be hauled in and it was pretty
expensive, not to mention downright difficult in the winter.
In
1889 LL traveled back east and had a sit down with George Westinghouse.
In those days, Thomas
Edison had just developed DC power but it was not as
stable and could not be transmitted long distances, which was what Nunn
needed. Nunn convinced Westinghouse to buy up a number of patents from Nicola Tesla for
AC power for the princely sum of $1 million, quite a fortune in those
days. LL returned to Telluride and began construction of a 100
horsepower generator at Ames,
located at the base of a mountain where he could pull water out of Trout Lake
to run his new Westinghouse turbines, then run wires up the other side
of the mountain to his mine to power equipment, stamp mills, trams and
provide light.
As
you might imagine, Edison was against this the whole way as he owned
the rights to DC power. What was referred to as the "Edison Gang' liked
to portray AC power as unstable and deadly, taking some pleasure in
frying small animals with 'the juice' to show just how dangerous this
newfangled stuff was. Regardless, the venture soon proved itself out
and in October of 1891 the power line was extended to Telluride, making
this small town the
first city in the nation to enjoy widespread household use of electric
power. Old Timers tell of placing bets to see if they
could grab the wire, throw the switch sending power to the mine 7 miles
away, and let go of the wire before the circuit was complete. The Old
Timers who survived to tell that tale were never the ones placing the
bets, as you might imagine.
AC power revolutionized mining operations (along with most everything else) making it possible to run trams greater distances from mine to mill and to construct ever larger stamp mills. Previous stamp mills often employed only 2 to 10 stamps, large pounders that reduced large rocks to more manageable size for transportation and milling. With the advent of AC power, Nunn was able to construct a 120 stamp mill on Bear Creek near Telluride, which served to consolidate many of the local milling operations.
Ten
years later, Nunn and his brother Paul along with Westinghouse and
Tesla built the largest hydro-electric generating plant in the world
modeled off his original plant at Ames. This new plant was built for
the Ontario Power Company at a sight known as Niagara
Falls.
Amazingly
that original Ames Power
Plant is still functioning today providing power to the
Telluride area as well as tapping into the nations electric grid. It
has gone from powering the mining boom that built this area a century
ago, to powering the ski lifts and recreational facilities that are
providing another boom into this century. Most people outside this
area, (and probably not that many locals) know that the power plant
even exists and even fewer know it's story - but nearly every aspect of
modern technology owes it's start to the imagination of LL Nunn and the
little power plant he built high in the Colorado Rockies.
And now you know... the rest of the story.
I've been lucky enough to take a month off again this summer to spend at my old home in Telluride CO. You can track my travels here:
#1.
Myths & Legends of the Great Southwest
#2.
Trout Lake Colorado - My Slice of Heaven
#3. The
Smugglers Union Mine
- Travels at Timberline
#4.
An Ode to Roadhogs
#5. Leon Russell - Rico Colorado
#6. A Small Town America 4th of July - Telluride CO
Remember, Don't wait to buy real estate - Buy real estate and wait.
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