North Cascades

MARKETING THE WILDERNESS: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES

WATER RESOURCES: HYDROELECTRICITY

Seattle City Light

Skagit Power Company headquarters cabin at Reflector Bar, town of Diablo today, n.d.
(Callahan Collection, Seattle, Washington)

On the west side of the mountains Seattle City Light's (SCL) extensive hydroelectric development along the Skagit River resulted in tremendous changes to the upper valley. But long before SCL applied to the USFS for power production rights, others had shown an interest in the Skagit as a power resource. As early as 1905, the Skagit Power Company, whose principal backers hailed from Denver, Colorado, posted claims to water rights in the vicinity of Diablo Canyon. They planned to build a 170-foot high dam across the canyon. Three years later, construction camps were established at Goodell's Landing and Reflector Bar, and the company began building a road from the landing upriver. [189]

With only paperwork and one-half mile of road to show for their efforts the financially troubled company sold out to Stone and Webster, a Boston, Massachusetts, firm. In 1913 the new owners obtained a 50-year permit for the region, thus securing their right to develop the Skagit River. [190] But they too neglected to begin construction and their failure to do so ultimately resulted in the request of James Delmage Ross, Superintendent of SCL, for rights to power development along the river.

Artist's conception of Seattle City Light's Skagit River Project, n.d.
(FARC- RG95- Portland)

SCL's battle to acquire and develop the largest power site in western Washington was long and tedious. [191] A legal battle between Stone and Webster and SCL went on for more than a year. Ross traveled to Washington, D.C., to defend his position that the river resource belonged to the public, not the private sector. Indeed, the public sector was victorious and in 1918 the Secretary of Agriculture awarded a new permit to SCL. The transformation of the upper Skagit River corridor was officially underway.

After measurements of stream flow were recorded and numerous surveys completed, work began. The first stage of the Skagit Project entailed a temporary wooden crib dam to be built in the deep gorge upstream from Goodell's Landing. Materials, supplies, equipment, and men for this massive construction effort had no efficient way of reaching the site. The closest railroad tracks were those of the GNRR, and these terminated in Rockport twenty-three miles to the west. At first, materials and equipment were hauled over a road to Bacon Creek. This road was used in conjunction with a barge on the river, running between Damnation and Thornton Creeks, and a skid road built between Thornton and Goodell Creeks. Remnants of the old skid road can be found along the north bank of the Skagit. [192]

SCL quickly realized that it was cost efficient to build their own railroad into the upper valley to facilitate the transportation of workers and supplies. By 1920 a 25-mile standard-gauge line was completed and in operation. For the most part the railroad followed the northern bank of the Skagit, running through farmlands and logged areas until reaching Gorge Creek, the site of dam construction. This rail line was not a common carrier; however, SCL accommodated those traveling up and down the river valley as best they could by carrying passengers and freight at standard rates.

By April of 1920, 500 men were working for SCL and they were living in temporary frame shacks and tents. The need for a permanent camp was obvious. Seattle City Light selected and purchased an area east of Goodell Creek and began construction of a carefully planned work camp. Taking the name of a nearby creek, Newhalem was to have 75 three-bedroom cottages, six bunkhouses, a cookhouse, a warehouse, a general store, and hotel, all arranged along streets paralleling the Skagit River. Particular attention was given to the design of the landscape, and non-native flowers, shrubs, and trees were introduced into the wilderness. [153]

Hundreds of men were employed on the project by 1920, living in tents and frame shacks. SCL built a sawmill at Goodell Creek to supply the lumber needed for the dam and for use in building Newhalem, the company town at the site of Goodell's Landing. Newhalem eventually included seventy-five three-bedroom cottages and six bunkhouses, a cookhouse, a warehouse, and a school. [193]

On September 17, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge pressed a button in Washington, D.C. to "start" the generators, marking the completion of the Skagit Project's first phase. But even before the Gorge Creek site was completed, studies had begun for the second stage of the Skagit Project. Several places were considered as possible dam sites; but the one chosen was Diablo Canyon. Drilling and exploration began in 1925 and by 1927 the Winston Brothers Company, contractors for the dam, were constructing their camp at Reflector Bar and assembling their machinery and equipment. [194] SCL extended the railroad an additional six miles from Newhalem to the new construction site. This segment of the line was electrified because the terrain was extremely rugged, too difficult for a steam-powered locomotive to traverse.

Gorge Dam under construction, 1919.
(Photo courtesy of Seattle City Light)

Rock was blasted to cut a route through the narrow canyon. Two wooden truss bridges, named Devil's Elbow and Ferry Bar, carried the train from one river bank to the other side and back again. In the 1930s, additional bridges were built and older ones upgraded all along the railroad route. A steel span replaced the wooden Devil's Elbow Bridge in 1935. [195] In addition to these developments, the quiet upper valley saw a second company town emerge in Diablo, a response to the ever-growing number of employees. About 1926 Frank and Glee Davis built some rental cabins to help house the dam and railroad workers. On a small flat where Diablo is located today, the Davises erected one-room cabins, calling the "development" Garden Cabins. [196]

Early view of Diablo located below newly completed Diablo Dam, n.d.
(Photo courtesy of Seattle City Light)

At the time of its completion in August 1930, Diablo Dam was the highest dam in the world. [197] Six years later the Diablo powerhouse was finished. With the completion of the second stage came the onset of the third. By 1937 work had begun on the Ruby Dam and power plant, at a site familiar to local residents as the Rip-Raps. Construction lasted until 1949 and service began three years later on what became the largest of the three Skagit dams. [198] As with Diablo Dam, materials were brought in via SCL's railroad. In Diablo, the freight and the railroad car itself were placed onto an incline lift which hoisted the car up a hillside to the top of the dam. From here the freight was floated by barge on the Diablo reservoir to the Ruby Dam site. Extensive logging of the Ruby reservoir occurred during this time, with millions of board feet of timber removed. SCL embarked on a trail building program to replace inundated USFS trails. J.D. Ross did not live to see his dreams for the Skagit come to fruition. He died in 1939 and was entombed in a mountain vault in Newhalem. In his memory Ruby Dam was renamed Ross Dam; a mountain and a lake honor him as well. Ross missed the single most concentrated building effort in the history of the upper Skagit valley. Between 1943 and 1960, Ross Dam was twice raised in height, the Ross Dam powerhouse was completed, a new and higher concrete dam replaced the original Gorge crib dam, an addition was made to the Gorge powerhouse, as well as many other alterations, repairs, and replacements. [199] SCL dramatically transformed the face of the upper Skagit valley, fulfilling its mission to supply Seattle with electricity. The wild Skagit River became regulated and the deep gorges carved by river currents in earlier days were lost beneath the waters of Gorge, Diablo, and Ross Lakes. Two company towns were born and with them came domestication of the upper valley -- sidewalks, streetlights, stores -- and hundreds of transplanted Seattleites who became residents for a time. Railroad bridges were rebuilt in the 1940s and 1950s only to be removed entirely when SCL discontinued its Rockport-Diablo railroad line in 1954. Only bridge piers along the river and sections of the railroad grade are visible today.