A $2 Million Power Plant Would Harness White River for Tacoma and Seattle

Tacoma, Feb. 19.—Special.—An immense electric power plant, second in size only to the Snoqualmie Falls and other large plants, is to be built this year in the Stuck valley, ten miles east of Tacoma and twenty miles south of Seattle. To carry out the project the White River Water Power Company, with a capital of $2,000,000, has been incorporated under the laws of New Jersey. The equipment will be furnished by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, which bridled Niagara Falls, and which has been instrumental in organizing the new company.

Water power is to be secured by tapping the White River below Buckley, from which the intake, by the simple conveyance of an open ditch, will be carried to Lake Tapps, near Sumner, which will be utilized as a storage reservoir. The lake is three miles long, one-third of a mile wide, and 11 feet deep. From the end of the lake by a flume over the natural grade, the water is to be diverted to the edge of the bluff overhanging Stuck valley, giving a fall of 400 to 490 feet to a power generator capable of developing 8,000 horse power without calling on surplus power stored in Tapps, by the turn of which 30,000 horse power can be developed. It is calculated that Tacoma and Seattle can each use 5,000 electrical horse power, and other towns 3,000, leaving 12,000 horse power to meet the natural growth of the two cities in the immediate future.

This great plant is erected to hasten the building of the projected electric railway between Tacoma and Seattle, and the manufacture of cars, iron and steel products on a large scale in the two chief Sound cities. The power project was developed by E. H. McHenry, now chief engineer of the Northern Pacific railroad, who began the surveys and secured the water rights in 1882. These rights have since been transferred to the White River Water Power Company, the project having been declared entirely feasible by an expert sent here last summer by the Westinghouse Company. Robert Bale Hill, of this city, and Engineer McHenry will be among the officers of the new company.