Engineers Say Snoqualmie Falls Can Light the Sound
A New York journal sizes up the 260-foot falls at 18,000 horsepower and predicts a company will soon wire Seattle and Tacoma to the river.
The current number of Engineering Magazine, a leading New York publication, contains an exhaustive article by A. Allan on the water powers of the Western states, in which Snoqualmie Falls and the possibilities for the utilization of its immense energy are commented upon in a favorable manner. The article treats of Rainbow Falls, the falls of the Willamette near Oregon City, the waste water at Kearney, Bear Creek falls near Ouray, the cascades of the water falls in the Dakotas and Minnesota, Provo falls in Utah, Bridal Veil falls on the Columbia, and the falls of the Shoshone and Spokane rivers.
Concerning Snoqualmie Falls, Mr. Allan says: 'Washington, with its many diversified industries and climates, is divided from north to south by the Cascade mountains, which range from 6,000 to 14,000 feet above sea level. As the snowfall on the mountains is large, and the annual rainfall is from 70 to 80 inches on the coast, the available horse power wasted in the rivers draining to the Columbia is almost unlimited. The largest power developed at present is at Spokane Falls, where the Spokane river tumbles in a succession of falls 157 feet in half a mile.
'A company has bought, and is preparing to utilize, Snoqualmie Falls, twenty-three miles east of Seattle, to furnish electric power to that city and Tacoma and smaller towns adjacent. The height of these falls is 260 feet, and the energy is estimated at 18,000 horse power. Seattle and Tacoma have a number of different manufacturing establishments and cable, electric car and electric lighting companies, all dependent on steam. The two cities use about 10,000 horse power at a cost of $100 per horse power per annum, while the city of Everett consumes 1,500 horse power at an approximate cost of $100. If electricity generated by this water power was used instead of steam it would result in a saving of at least $500,000 per annum to consumers.'
“If electricity generated by this water power was used instead of steam it would result in a saving of at least $500,000 per annum to consumers.”
Within a few years of this prediction the falls became one of the nation's first big hydroelectric plants; Snoqualmie Falls still generates power and draws tourists today. The Northwest's 'green energy' story is more than a century old.
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