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When power came to the people
Sometimes it is interesting to look back into the pages of history to see just when various things that we tend to take for granted first came into being in our city. For instance, our first electric plant, The McCook Electric Light, Heat, and Power Company, was built in McCook in 1889, and the plant was dedicated at an Independence Day Celebration that year.
According to an early newspaper account of the event, "the episode viewed today marked a real step forward for Fairview (McCook)." The power plant was located in the 200 block of East First Street, later the site of Ideal Cleaners.
The building was distinguished by a huge brick chimney that was a landmark for McCook into the 1960s. In that first plant, the power produced was "direct current," the type of current originally promoted by Thomas A. Edison, the inventor of the electric light. In those early days power was only supplied to the businesses down town, and a few homes on the fringes of downtown. Even then power was not very reliable and had to be carefully conserved.
At 10 p.m. Lights would flicker, a warning to people that if they wanted light they should fire up their old kerosene lamps, or candles, because power would soon be turned off. And, electric lights were really all that electricity was used for in those days. Electric irons, stoves, electric motors, refrigerators and radios would appear later.
The power to drive those first generators was supplied by steam. That steam also powered a whistle that could be heard all over town. Daily, the whistle signaled when people should begin work (7 a.m.), knock off at noon, return to work at 1, and quit at 6 pm. Prolonged whistles alerted citizens of disasters and summoned firemen to a fire. This practice must have been quite usual in Nebraska towns in early days. It is still in use in Plainview to this day.
Steam also signified the "Heat" in the company's name. Steam was piped to downtown businesses, at least along Main Street (now Norris Avenue) in the 100, 200 and 300 blocks. It was a system of steam-heated radiators, (the steam generated by the city's power plant) that originally provided heat for those buildings. When the Sehnert Bakery was at 212 Norris Ave., we found the old pre- 1900 steam heating system was still in place. We could see where the steam supply pipes coming from under the street had been cut off at the building, and old timers explained how the system had worked. But by the time we arrived, a gas furnace supplied hot water to the original old radiators for heat.
In 1908, the power plant was moved to a location on the riverbank in South McCook (just west of what is now Barnett Park). When the new plant was built the company began to generate "alternating current."
Thomas Edison had insisted from the beginning that direct current was best for producing power for lights and promoted that system throughout the United States. Soon after, however, George Westinghouse (best known for his invention of air brakes for trains) introduced power plants which produced alternating current.
For a while the two systems existed side by side, but by 1908 alternating current was proven to be more efficient and versatile than direct current. That was the system which was chosen for the citizens of McCook. Alternating current, of course, is the system which is in general use today.
In 1924 the McCook Electric Light, Heat, and Power Co. dropped "Heat" from its name and became Nebraska Light and Power Co. J.R. Jacquet was named manager. That year marked the beginning of systematic modernization. By 1931 the McCook plant was completely rebuilt. Seven diesel engines, varying in capacity from 200 to 900 horsepower (to power the generators) were installed, making the operation the largest of its kind in Nebraska.
Then came 1935!
According to Ray Search, there had been a bad flood in 1915, when a large number of homes on the bottomland west of the present Barnett Park were destroyed. But in that flood, the City's Power Plant was saved by the installation of improvised dikes. In the intervening years many of those homes were rebuilt and the Power Plant was considered safely located. However, the 1935 flood proved that the plant's location on the banks of the Republican River was a grave mistake.
In early June of that year, the Republican River produced one of the great floods in the state's history. City employees and volunteers made heroic efforts to again throw up temporary dikes around the plant, but the flood waters came up so fast that the plant was engulfed in surging, muddy water and some 40 men were marooned on the roof of the plant. Several attempts to rescue the men were tried over the course of two days and a night. One such attempt was to attach a rope from land to a telephone pole, which was still standing in the flood waters, then to the power plant. Two men were actually brought to land by this means. A third man, Bob French, was tossed into the swirling water when the telephone pole broke. Mr. French was a strong swimmer and managed to make his way to shore some two miles downstream. The rest of the men were forced to spend 36 hours, cold and damp, on the roof of the building until the waters receded enough that a boat could be used to bring the men to safety.
In an amazingly short time after the flood waters receded, with the help of engineers from as far away as Washington State, the motors and generators were cleaned up, and put into service, again supplying the citizens of McCook with electricity for lights, power, and pumps for the city's water wells.
For a time, during 1936 and 1937 the engines operated in the open, subject to the wind and rain, until a new building was completed.
By 1941 the aging diesel engines were shut down and the McCook plant ceased to generate electricity. The McCook plant became the "McCook Division of the Platte Valley Public Power and Irrigation District," and McCook began buying its power rather than generating its own.
In the light of the explosion of electricity usage after World War II, with the advent of air conditioning and the myriad of appliances that have become a part of our lives, it is probably just as well.
Source: McCook Gazette Centennial Edition A personal account, "The Republican River Flood ... as it affected the Power Plant, 1935", by J.R. Jaquet
Both books are available at The Museum of the High Plains, in McCook.