North Cascades

MARKETING THE WILDERNESS: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES

WATER RESOURCES: HYDROELECTRICITY

Chelan and Washington Water Power Companies

Large power companies on both slopes of the Cascades began to show an interest in hydroelectric possibilities in the early twentieth century. On the east side the Chelan River exhibited great potential with its 400-foot waterfall and a ready-made reservoir in place -- Lake Chelan. In 1893 the Chelan Water Power Company was founded with the intention of developing this river, but nothing was accomplished until M.M. Kingman purchased the company in 1899. Some time between 1899 and 1903, Kingman, who also was a miner in the upper Stehekin valley, built a power plant on the Chelan River, supplying the growing town of Chelan with electricity. [184]

In 1925 the Great Northern Railroad (GNRR) and the Washington Water Power Company of Spokane entered into an agreement to further develop the Chelan River. [185] The need to illuminate the GNRR tunnel under Stevens Pass brought the free-flowing Chelan River into the limelight as a potential source of electric power. [186] Work began in 1926. Conduits and a power house were built, and a dam was constructed at the outlet of the lake. Throughout the summer of 1927 the level of Lake Chelan behind the dam rose steadily, eventually rising some twenty feet. By the time the project was completed in 1929, approximately 500 acres of land at the head of the lake had been inundated, creating a new shoreline. [187] Owners of property were compensated for their losses by the companies responsible, but the upper end of the lake and the settlement of Stehekin would never look the same again. The land was logged by Grant Smith and Company. [188] Buildings were moved or demolished and Purple Point became the new arrival and departure point for lake travelers. The imposing Field Hotel, threatened by rising water, was dismantled and material not used by valley residents or incorporated into the Golden West Lodge was burned.