| OCR Text |
Show OMS No. 1024-0018 NPS Form 10-900a (Rev. 8-86) Utah Word Processor Format (02741) Approved 10/87 united states Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES CONTINUATION SHEET section number 8 Page 4 Stairs Station Hydroelectric Power Plant Historic District, Salt . Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah 1ength) . While construction of Stairs Station was underway, the Big Cottonwood Power Company looked for customers to purchase electricity from the plant. In January 1895, the company signed an agreement with the Sal t Lake and Ogden Gas and Electric Light Company to supply the latter with · power, purchased wholesale. Apparently the Salt Lake and Ogden Company's steam plant, located in the business section of downtown Salt La ke City, had drawn the ire of the local citizenry because it polluted the air. By drawing power from Stairs Station, the Salt La ke and Ogden Company hoped to abate the smoke problem caused by its coal-fired facility. But before Big Cottonwood Power could begin generating electricity, competition between the two companies arose. Big Cottonwood Po wer entered a bid for the Salt Lake City munic i pal stree t lighting c ontract, which the Salt Lake and Ogden Compan y wanted to keep. Apparently the ensuing squabble between the fi r ms led to the nullification of their earlier contract. Potential competition f rom power co mpanies outside the Salt Lake area soon brought Big Cottonwood Power and t he Salt Lake and Ogden Company back together. By 1896, L.L. Nunn of Provo and the Pioneer Electric Power Company of Ogden threatened to build lines to Salt Lake. Out of self-defense, the Big Cottonwood Power Company and the Salt Lake and Og den Company entered into another agreement. A contract, dating from about June 1896, stipulate d that Big Cottonwood Power would supply the Salt Lake and Ogden Company with electricity for ten years. R.F. Hayward, general manager of the Salt Lake and Ogden Company, supervised the construction of a transmission line, made of wood poles, from Stairs to a SUbstation in Salt Lake City. Stairs Station began sending power over the 10,000 volt line on 2 June 1896. Stairs was the first hydroelectric power station to supply electricity to Salt Lake City. The transmission was the first in Utah to use alternating current over a long distance. Big Cottonwood Power Company remained an independent business f o r only a short while. By 1897, owners of recentl y built hydroelectric power plants, including Stairs !;lnd Pioneer, inst.ead of competing against each other merged their companies into one firm, the Union Light and Power Company. In 1899, Union Light and |
