Electric Power Comes to Utah

Electric Power Comes to Utah

BY OBED C. HAYCOCK

ON NOVEMBER 26, 1879, the Deseret News editorialized: "The excitement of electricity as an illuminating agent has to a great extent subsided. Edison's scheme by which the electric light was to have been utilized for household as well as public purposes does not seem to be so feasible as at first supposed. . . ." Less than a year later the Deseret News reversed itself: "This is emphatically the age of electricity. That is, the power and capabilities of the force known by that name are being developed in a manner unknown to ages of the past. . . ." As experiments continued and demonstrations (sometimes in a carnival-like atmosphere) occurred, public interest in electricity grew. Once begun, the growth of electric power was rapid. Utah generally kept pace with other parts of the country and, at times, surged ahead. Two native Ohioans, Lucien L. Nunn and Paul N. Nunn, were key figures in the development of electricity in Utah and the West. This article will describe the growth of electric power—primarily before the formation of Utah Power and Light Company—and the contributions of the Nunn brothers and others to the state's development.

Events proceeded rapidly in the summer and fall of 1880. The Cole Brothers Circus advertised as part of its show "the only genuine electric light." { Then, a determined agent of the Brush Electric Light Company tried to sell his electric light machine to the gas company, but they were not interested. So the salesman organized a demonstration at the Patient Smelting and Concentrating works south of the city in cooperation with manager Patrick E. Connor. Salt Lake City Mayor William Jennings, members of the city council, and other prominent citizens attended. Two electric lamps illuminated the building "in brilliance second only to sunlight." Plans called for the plant to be operated around-the-clock with the works illuminated at night. It was estimated that a hundred tons of ore could be processed in twenty-four hours. The industrial potential of electricity was immediately evident. The Salt Lake Power, Light, and Heating Company was formed in November, and in April 1881 Salt Lake City became the fifth city in the world to adopt a central power system for lighting. Following close behind was Ogden.

The first plant was located in the center of the second block south of Temple Square, near the stage of the present Utah Theatre. The thirty-by-seventy-foot brick structure contained four 60-horsepower boilers that drove a buckeye engine of 150-horsepower capacity. The engine, in turn, drove three Brush generators of 40-lamp capacity each. Three circuits, strung on insulators and brackets fastened to the building, supplied light to most of the businesses on Main Street between First and Third souths. Loops ran into the stores for the number of lights required there, then to the next store and the next. The circuit consisted of wire run from light to light until it returned to the generator. There were forty lights per circuit.

The new electric service offered stiff competition to the gas company which had to reduce rates from $4.00 per 100 cubic feet to $3.00 per month. Electric rates were $27.00 per month per lamp for all-night service, $19.00 for twelve-hour service, and $12.50 for service to 10 P.M. So successful was the lighting of downtown businesses that one month after the initiation of electric service in Salt Lake City the same promoters organized the Ogden City Electric Light Company.

Although outages and other problems beset the first suppliers of electricity, enthusiasm for the new service was high. Many small plants were built in the next few years. These were located near their respective loads as direct current could not be transmitted economically any distance. Until 1891 most people believed that alternating current was only a laboratory curiosity that would never be used as a power source. The Nunn brothers, Judge William Story, Sr., and others were to challenge that presumption by building the Ames plant in Colorado to supply alternating current to the Gold King Mining Company near Telluride overa distance of approximately 2.3 miles. The success of this "fantastic scheme" brought the men national prominence and led Lucien and Paul Nunn to expand their pioneering activity into Utah and other parts of the West.

In 1880 Lucien L. Nunn, a twenty-seven-year-old Ohioan who had studied law at Harvard and at universities in Germany traveled to Leadville, Colorado, where he operated a restaurant for a short time. Following news of rich strikes, he moved on, ending up in 1881 at Telluride where the mines were booming. Nunn began practicing law, and by 1888he was both prosperous and influential. In partnership with Judge Story, Nunn acquired interests in mining properties and water rights and studied methods of harnessing water power to operate the mills. His investigation of direct current, cable drive, and compressed air as power sources led him to inquire also about George Westinghouse's experimental work with alternating current. The problem was one of transmission.

In purchasing control of the San Miguel Valley Bank in 1888, Nunn became acquainted with Saint Louis entrepreneur James Campbell, president of the Gold King Mining Company, one of the bank's principal creditors. High operating costs had plagued the Gold King. As a possible remedy, Nunn suggested alternating current to power the mine operation. Campbell agreed and, impressed with Nunn's determination, suggested that he take over management of the Gold King. Returning to Telluride in 1890, Nunn made improvements at the mine and mill and began plans for an alternating current power plant.

At this point, Lucien wrote to his younger brother, Paul N. Nunn, a teacher and high school principal who had studied science and engineering. Paul was asked to familiarize himself with the new alternating current and its generation and transmission. The rest of the story is fairly well known. The Nunn brothers and other secured Westinghouse's approval to produce alternating current in the new Ames power plant, and the machinery was installed in the winter of 1890. The Ames plant, a wooden shed in a gorge two thousand feet below the Gold King mill, was among the first commercial alternating current plants in the world transmitting power at high voltage. In addition to proving that alternating current generation and transmission was practical, the Ames plant carried out an extensive research and training program. Many things used later in the industry were developed there, including transformers, switches, insulators, and lightning arresters. Eventually the electric power operation became a separate corporate entitity called Telluride Power Company, a predecessor of Utah Power and Light Company.

After the people at Ames had shown the feasibility of alternating current generation and transmission, the fever to build plants in Utah was very high. Hydroelectric plants were built in almost every canyon where enough water was available, and in some canyons several were constructed. As a result, many small independent companies competed for the power loads. In many localities competing lines were run along the same street. The competition was intense. In some cases a company would build a line in the daytime, and a competing company would tear it down during the night.

The Nunns were also interested in the Utah market. In 1894 Lucien came to Utah and went on up into Montana in search of hydroelectric sites. He located many, including Provo River. Eventually he would build two plants in Provo Canyon with his brother as the construction engineer for both. The Nunn and Olmstead plants were extremely significant in the development of Utah and of the power industry. They involved new ideas and practices not possible before and provided the first technical training program for powerhouse employees in Utah.

At first the citizens of Provo welcomed the idea of a power plant in the nearby canyon:

The scheme is a gigantic one and will add greatly to Provo's prosperity. But it is only one out of many that will come with the advent of statehood. . . . Moneyed men have always fought shy of Territories, but in Utah our past politics were such as to frighten all outsiders. . . . Provo is blessed with some of the finest water power, now running to waste, to be found in the new State. It ought to be utilized not only for a power plant, but for more factories.

By May 1896 seventy-five men were working at the damsite, and Nunn was seeking a street-lighting contract from city officials. Then, one month later, nervous residents, recalling the Johnstown flood of 1889, began to fear that an eighty-foot-high dam would bring disaster upon them if it broke. In addition, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad protested that water behind the dam would flood its right-of-way. After a court battle, Nunn was limited to building a dam no higher than fifteen feet. When it appeared that the Nunn brothers might abandon the project altogether, local businessmen threw their support behind it. A sixteen-foot-high dam was built, and by November 1897 teams were hauling in machinery for the power plant.

Lucien Nunn had signed a contract with Capt. Joseph L. De La Mar of Mercur, a mining town west of Provo, to provide his Golden Gate mill with 500 horsepower. After the Nunn plant, located three miles above the mouth of Provo Canyon, was completed, it was used to charge the line to Mercur on January 7, 1898. The line ran north of Utah Lake, across Cedar Canyon, and up to Mercur. This difficult terrain created problems for the construction crew, according to Orson Twelves, one of the workers:

Teams were unable to pull the poles up the hills and in many places block and tackle work was necessary. The same was true in Provo Canyon. At times some rather unique methods were employed in digging holes, especially when we ran into boulders. They were larger than a man's head and the spoon would not hold them. We'd loosen the boulder, and put Ikie King, a small individual, into the hole head first and then pull both Ikie and the boulder out.

Despite these difficulties, work proceeded, even during a brief strike by linemen. Upon completion, the thirty-two-mile transmission line to Mercur was the longest power line in the world and the first 40,000- volt line in the United States.

Manufacturers of that time would not guarantee their transformers for the higher pressures required for 40,000-volt transmission. Therefore, Telluride decided to make its own. The transformers were connected star on the low side and star on the high side. They were immersed in engine oil and were the forerunner of the present oil-insulated, air-cooled transformer. The line was insulated with a specially designed insulator developed by the company. In use for many years, it became known as the Provo-type insulator. In thus meeting the demands of new situations, the Nunns and their associates took a lead in engineering new equipment to meet growing power demands in the West.

As more power was needed, the Olmsted plant at the mouth of Provo Canyon was built in 1903. It had a three-mile wooden flume, ten feet wide and seven feet high, that was patrolled both summer and winter. The flume was subject to damage from snow, ice, and slides as well as from competitors. The Olmsted plant utilized a 340-foot head, driving three 3,600-horsepower turbines.

At that time it was difficult to find experienced power and operation men for the growing industry. Lucien Nunn "conceived the idea of placing young men under the direction of his brother, who would give them a course of study each day in addition to practical training in the plant operation." Thus the Telluride Institute was founded at the Olmsted plant in 1903. The institute probably offered the first technical education in Utah, preceding work at the University of Utah. Paul Ashworth (later president of Telluride Power Company) described his experience at the institute:

That fall 1909 I started school at Olmsted and taught several classes, including physics^ chemistry, English, and German, in addition to studying several subjects. I had various other jobs around the plant in addition to operating, including some work in the shop where we were developing rotary switches and drop-out links, over in the standards laboratory in various experimental projects, and in the automobile shop helping J. C. Miller keep the cars in operation. In the standards laboratory and in the adjoining high voltage laboratory, major pioneering developments were carried out on high voltage equipment, relays, and many other phases of the power business under the direction of P. N. Nunn.

The turn-of-the-century years were marked by rapid power development in Utah. Both hydroelectric and steam plants were built. Many mining companies, for example, depended upon their own steam plants for power and were skeptical of long-distance transmission from hydroelectric plants because of the risk of power failure. To overcome this objection, Lucien Nunn built several plants in northern Utah, purchased the Hercules Power Company plant in Logan Canyon, and interconnected all the Telluride holdings with two hundred miles of line.

Still on the lookout for more promising hydroelectric sites in waterscarce Utah, Nunn scouted Bear Lake and Bear River for power development and built the Old Grace plant. Essentially his plan was to pump and store water from the Bear River into the natural reservoir of Bear Lake. A canal could then be dredged from the lake back to the river and the flow from the lake controlled. The water could be used to generate power on its way down the river. This is roughly the plan carried out by the Utah Power and Light Company after it acquired Telluride. The Bear River then became one of the most scientifically controlled rivers for irrigation and power in the United States.

Many power plants were built during the industry's pioneering period, but most were poorly financed and poorly equipped. These early plants did not operate around-the-clock but only when the load was large enough to justify it. As lighting was the principal load, the plants normally ran from dusk to 10 P.M. or midnight on theatre and dance nights. Power was also supplied on Monday and Tuesday mornings for washing and ironing. To survive, companies frequently merged to stop destructive competition such as duplicate lines and equipment.

A graphic example of the intense competition surrounding early power development occurred in 1893 when R. M. Jones, a civil engineer and inventor, applied to Salt Lake City for a franchise to build a power plant at the Stairs in Big Cottonwood Canyon. In December 1893 Jones and his associates incorporated as the Big Cottonwood Power Company. Quarrels over water rights ensued. A second group of men financially interested in the Salt Lake City streetcar system organized the Utah Power Company in 1895 to build a plant at the mouth of Big Cottonwood. Into this situation came Frank H. Gillespie who claimed prior rights to the stream. As a clam was being built across the stream, Gillespie went so far as to build a flume over the dam. Utah Power workmen tore the flume out with sledgehammers and axes. According to the Salt Lake Tribune of February 4, 1896,

Mr. Gillespie's men were completely routed and the flume which had been constructed over the . . . dam during the preceding night was demolished by sledge and axes in the hands of Francis Armstrong's men. While the work was being carried out, Mr. Armstrong and one of his assistants stood by fondling double-barreled shotguns.

The Granite plant of the Utah Power Company was completed and serving the street railway in February 1897. The Stairs plant was completed in May 1896. Leaders of the Mormon church took an active part in developing the fledgling power industry. One example is the Pioneer Electric Power Company which was organized in 1893 with George Q. Cannon as president and Wilford Woodruff and Joseph F. Smith among the directors. Their plan was to build a dam on the Ogden River about ten miles east of Ogden to form a large reservoir for power, culinary, and irrigation purposes. The eventual aim was to supply power to the Ogden Power and Electric Railway in Ogden and Salt Lake City and to a sugar factory, the site of which was to be selected. Irrigation water would be supplied to about twenty thousand acres of land in northwestern Weber County that seemed especially suitable for sugar beets. When completed, the Pioneer plant at the mouth of Ogden Canyon was a model of modern design and equipment. It drew much attention locally and was discussed at the annual convention of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1897.

The new plant had an estimated 10,000-horsepower capacity, only 1,000 of which had been subscribed by Ogdenites. Surplus power was a problem. Distribution of power from the Pioneer plant had already been a subject of much controversy. When the company made application to Salt Lake City to supply power for street lighting, the bid was approved by the city council but vetoed by Mayor James Glendinning because:

It is a matter of public notoriety that the Pioneer Electric Power Company, the Salt Lake & Ogden Gas & Electric Light Company, Citizens' Electric Light Company, and the Big Cottonwood Power Company are about to form a gigantic combination to control the manufacture of gas and light and dictate the price.

Shortly after, some of the same men who had organized Pioneer organized the Union Power and Light Company, and on August 9, 1897, Union took over management of the four companies mentioned by Glendinning plus the Little Cottonwood Water Power and Electric Company.

Union Power immediately faced problems with titles and bonds and stiff competition from the Ogden Street Railway Company. 35 Exactly two years after its formation, Union Power was absorbed by Utah Light and Power Company. In another three years this company merged with Consolidated Railway and Power Company to form the Utah Light and Railway Company. An excellent example of free enterprise in the Gilded Age, the new company had evolved from eighteen different predecessor companies in the Salt Lake City and Ogden areas.

Most of the electric power and street railway systems plus several gas suppliers in Utah's two largest cities were absorbed by Utah Light and Railway. In 1904, its first year of operation, the new company began consolidating its railway, gas, and electric systems. Personnel were shifted, obsolete equipment discarded, and distribution simplified. Service was improved an estimated 50 percent.

In 1906, E. H. Harriman, president of Union Pacific Railroad, purchased 60 percent of the stock of Utah Light and Railway with the intention of building a model urban transit system. The company management was reorganized with William Hazard Bancroft, vice-president and general manager of the Oregon Short Line, named as president. Other prominent Utah businessmen were also officers and directors.

A major program of updating equipment and improving service was begun under the new board of directors. For example, heavy steel rail was ordered to replace some eighty miles of light track, fifty new cars were purchased, new car barns and repair shops were built on the site presently called Trolley Square, daily gas output was more than tripled, and electric generation and transmission was modernized. In September 1914 Utah Light and Railway merged with Salt Lake Light and Traction Company to form the Utah Light and Traction Company. The millions of dollars worth of improvements made by Harriman and his associates benefited the state in many ways. However, his dream of modern urban transit was superseded in a few years by the tremendous success of the internal combustion engine.

By 1912 most of the companies producing electric power had been consolidated into several major companies in Utah and southeastern Idaho. In addition, a number of small companies continued to serve isolated towns. Despite the number and size of companies serving the area, some parts of the state had only partial electric service, and hundreds of farm communities had none at all. Most power plants— usually located on small canyon streams—had been built to fill a local need such as electricity for mining operations, streetcars, commercial and home lighting, or industry. The early power companies faced major problems: "inadequate financing, shortage of water, lack of capacity and standby, scattered territory, limited markets, poor load factor, inadequate equipment, management recruited largely from men experienced in fields other than the power business." To integrate power service into one areawide system the Utah Power and Light Company was incorporated on September 6, 1912, and began consolidating into one organization the diverse companies then in operation. Telluride Power Company was acquired November 22, 1912; Knight Consolidated Power Company on February 7, 1913; Idaho Power and Transportation Company on April 19, 1913; and the electric properties of Utah Light and Traction Company were leased on January 2, 1915.

Pioneering entrepreneurs and engineers in league with local mining interests and the business community successfully introduced large-scale electric power development into Utah. Dozens of companies were started in the highly competitive turn-of-the-century years, and many consolidations followed. However, many small companies remained, serving Utah's far-flung towns. The potential for electric power on the farm, in industry, and in the home (the electric iron was about the only home appliance then in common use) was just beginning to be realized in 1912 when the formation of Utah Power and Light Company ushered in a new era of power development in the state.

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