Ames power plant, San Miguel County, Colorado [002]: Original plant, built 1895

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Title Ames power plant, San Miguel County, Colorado [002]: Original plant, built 1895
Photo Number P0206gn_n43_002
Description Scan of a glass plate negative, with caption: "Original Power station, Ames, Colorado." Photo shows the original hydroelectric power station at Ames, San Miguel County, Colorado
Date 1895; 1896; 1897; 1898; 1899; 1900; 1901; 1902; 1903; 1904; 1905
Textual Date circa 1900
Keywords Rocky Mountain Power; Hydroelectric Power; Ames; Colorado
Subject Hydroelectric power plants--Colorado--Ames--Photographs; Ames (Colo.)--Photographs
Spatial Coverage Ames (Colo.); San Miguel County (Colo.)
Latitude 37.864583
Longitude -107.881692
Additional Information The Ames hydroelectric generating plant had its beginnings when L.L. Nunn installed a Westinghouse electric generator and motor in the winter of 1890-91 on the South Fork of the San Miguel River to provide electricity to the Gold King Mine stamp mill, located 2.6 miles away. This was the first commercial power system to use alternating current. A powerhouse was built in 1895 by Nunn's Telluride Power Company, to be replaced by a new plant in 1905-06. Flumes, and later penstocks (steel pipes), brought water from Trout Lake and Lake Hope, located to the south up Lake Fork. Howards Fork, to the east, supplied additional water. Telluride Power later became part of Western Colorado Power Company, a subsidiary of Utah Power & Light (predecessor of Rocky Mountain Power). The hydroelectric plant, still in operation today, has been owned by Public Service Company, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, since 1992.
Collection Number and Name P0206 Rocky Mountain Power Company Photograph Collection
Collection Name Rocky Mountain Power Company
Rights
Type Image
Finding Aid https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv479461
Digitization Specifications Digital image produced on Epson Expression 10000 XL scanner, RGB, at 2000 dpi. Archival file is uncompressed TIFF.
ARK ark:/87278/s6fj37dg
Setname uum_map
ID 984602
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6fj37dg