The River That Would Light Seattle: Snoqualmie Falls Power Company Incorporated
In January 1893, a $2 million company filed articles to harness Snoqualmie Falls and wire electricity to Seattle—an early bet that turned a waterfall into urban power.
The story, cleaned up
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The Snoqualmie Falls Electric Power Company will be formally organized in New York today, and within a month the practical work of constructing the plant at Snoqualmie Falls and stretching the wire to take the electric current to this city will be under way.
A telegram was received by Postmaster Griffith Davies yesterday from D. H. Gilman in New York informing him that the last step had been taken in the negotiations preliminary to organization, and requesting him to file the articles of incorporation. Mr. Davies went to Olympia and filed one copy of the articles with the secretary of state, while another copy was filed with the county auditor here.
The capital stock of the company is $2,000,000 in $100 shares; the principal office will be in Seattle and a branch office in New York city, and the incorporators are Smith M. Weed, Charles D. Wells, D. H. Gilman, Watson C. Squire and Griffith Davies. The objects are to purchase, own and hold the power of Snoqualmie Falls and lands adjacent; to accumulate, store, sell, etc., the waters of Snoqualmie river or the power to be developed from the flow of such waters for fire, sanitary, mechanical, manufacturing, agricultural, electrical or power purposes, or for any other lawful purpose, and by such hydraulic or electric conductors or other devices as shall be found convenient to conduct, convey and furnish such power to, through any town in the counties of King, Pierce and Snohomish. The duration and existence of the company is fixed at fifty years.
The bonds of the company will be ready for delivery by February 1, and the details for the construction of the plant have been worked out in New York, but have not yet been sent here. The arrangements for the construction of steel and car-building plant are making very satisfactory progress and are expected to be closed in a short time.
“The Snoqualmie Falls Electric Power Company will be formally organized in New York today, and within a month the practical work of constructing the plant at Snoqualmie Falls and stretching the wire to take the electric current to this city will be under way.”
The Snoqualmie Falls plant became a landmark of Northwest hydropower and still operates, though its early promise of cheap power for Seattle helped shape the region's energy politics. The fight over who owns falling water and who gets the electricity remains live in the Northwest.
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