Part 4 - Looking to the Future

As most folks sat down at their supper tables on Saturday night, June 4, 1904, area creeks began to rise following an onslaught of heavy rains across the Black Hills.  By the next day, Spearfish Creek had a peak flow of 5,000 cubic feet per second.  It was, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, one of the first large floods ever recorded at a USGS gauging station in the Black Hills and remains as the “peak of record” for the Spearfish station.  Other streams rose quickly, too, including Bear Butte Creek, the Redwater, and Whitewood Creek.

The 1904 flood wreaked havoc across all of the northern Black Hills.

(Photo courtesy of U. S. Geological Survey)     

The Queen City Mail called it the “most disastrous flood in Black Hills history.”  While the most severe damage was in the Deadwood vicinity – where four people lost their lives – record rainfall caused flooding from Deadwood and Spearfish to Belle Fourche and Sturgis.

The existing roadway in Spearfish Canyon was washed out, along with miles of Burlington & Missouri Railroad track.  Also lost was the “Y” that accommodated a spur line into Spearfish and the B & M depot.  There would be no rail service for more than two months.  Ponds at the hatchery were destroyed, as were numerous bridges in town, including the city bridge to the hatchery.

Damage to the SEL&P hydroelectric plant in the canyon was so extensive, that Homestake superintendent Thomas Grier considered the “advisability of moving the plant closer to town.”  But plant manager W. S. Knight told the Queen City Mail soon afterward that “this plan has been abandoned and the new plant will be placed on the present site, or a quarter-mile above, where there is an excellent location.”

Knight said the new facility would be double the capacity of the damaged plant and would likely require building a new flume, to be erected with Spearfish labor.   

The severity of flood damage, however, served as a catalyst for Homestake Mine Superintendent Grier  to finally accede to do the two things that the Spearfish Business Men’s Club had been unable to persuade him to do:  1) move the electric light plant closer to Spearfish, and 2) expand and improve the services provided by the plant.

Too, Homestake had been using small dynamos to illuminate portions of its mining operations for more than 15 years.  Larger dynamos were employed to successfully power some of the early electric motors used by the company.  But Homestake needed larger amounts of electricity, and hydroelectric power was becoming more attractive.

Construction of the new and larger plant near Spearfish would not only placate Spearfish, it would provide Homestake with an opportunity to further experiment with hydroelectric power and its feasibility for their company.

By the end of July, a crew of 22 men and two teams were in the canyon above the light plant “working on the site of the new dam for the plant.”  The old plant, its dam and flume, were all a part of the wide devastation wreaked by the June flood.  Workers were tasked with changing the channel of the creek for about 200 feet and “clearing the right-of-way for the 4,000 feet of flume to convey power to the plant.”  The location and size of the new plant was embraced by local residents, as surveyors labored just a ways downstream from the mouth of the canyon on the very edge of Spearfish.

Meanwhile, after three decades in the Black Hills, Dr. Daniel Dickinson – associated with the Homestake Mining Company for nearly 30 years and the listed “purchaser” of SEL&P Company in 1899 – moved to Los Angeles, California.  

Within weeks of his departure, several documents were filed in the Register of Deeds office in Deadwood, reflecting "the transfer of the electric lighting plant at Spearfish to the Homestake Mining Co.  The transfer was made through Daniel K. Dickinson, to whom the Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company made an assignment of its franchise in the town of Spearfish and executed a warranty deed for its ground and plant, water right, ditch, flume and appurtances....for $18,000.  Daniel K. Dickinson then issued a warranty deed to the Homestake Mining Company, in which the consideration was one dollar." 

The 1904 Homestake power plant.

(Photo courtesy of Gary Lillehaug and the Spearfish Area Historical Society) 

Homestake was now clearly in control of Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company.  Its decision to expand the plant and move it closer to Spearfish seemed driven less by the needs of Spearfish and more by its own plans for mining operations.  But the two were not irreconcilable

The Mail surely reflected community excitement about the new plant on the edge of Spearfish when it reported that “It is yet too early to forecast the probable date when the dynamos will be started, but it is a great satisfaction to know that we will have electricity for the long winter evenings, furnished by a modern and thoroughly up-to-date lighting plant.”

The new hydroelectric plant building, a 50 x 110’ concrete structure, was constructed in short order and began operating by late December 1904.  In addition to hydro power from Spearfish Creek, a steam power plant was installed as a winter auxiliary unit and for emergencies, particularly when slush or ice would jam up the 225 horsepower Leffel wheel.  The steam plant consisted of a 200 horsepower boiler and 165 horsepower engine.

Homestake was positioning itself to further expand and develop the facilities necessary to provide electricity not only to Spearfish, but to Homestake lumber mills, processing plants, and the many other facets of its massive and growing mining operations in the Black Hills. 

Completion of the new Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company plant (Homestake 1904) and a new 400-kilowatt plant hydroelectric plant built in 1906 at Englewood, Homestake were both important, but Homestake recognized it needed more electricity, especially following construction of its massive Deadwood Slime Plant in 1907.  

The future of hydroelectric power in Spearfish Canyon would belong to two new plants.

"Camp 1" for workers involved in diverting Spearfish Creek via tunnels.  
The old Spearfish Electric Light & Power building can be seen at center.
(Photo courtesy of Gary Lillehaug and the Spearfish Area Historical Society)

By 1908, plans were underway for a larger hydroelectric plant near Spearfish:  Homestake Hydro No.1.  The smaller 1904 plant would play a key role in providing electricity for drilling and ventilating tunnels for diverting Spearfish Creek from near Maurice to Spearfish.   

The old SEL&P site -- severely damaged by the 1904 flood -- also played a role in helping create the huge new Homestake No. 1 plant in Spearfish.  Temporary buildings were constructed to house equipment and workers engaged in drilling the large concrete-lined tunnels needed to divert Spearfish Creek.   The location was known as "Camp 1" and was among several "camp" and "station" sites used in the massive five-mile tunnel construction project. 

Homestake Hydroelectric No. 1 was completed in 1911 and commissioned in April 1912 and served Homestake Mine continuously until 2004.  It was then bought by the City of Spearfish, and the plant continues to provide supplemental electric service to the city.

In 1917, another Homestake hydroelectric plant -- No. 2 -- was built near Maurice, some seven miles up Spearfish Canyon.  Commissioned in 1918, it was comparable to the No. 1 plant in Spearfish and remained in service until 2003.  The structure lies along the east side of Highway 14A, enticing curious travelers winding their way through the canyon. 

Retired Homestake Mine engineer Don Matthesen explores the site of the old Spearfish Electric Light & Power Co. plant.

Not far away, nestled on a small plot of ground a few miles below the No. 2 Homestake Hydroelectric plant in Spearfish Canyon, is the long-forgotten site of the old Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company.  

A few pipes, bricks, and isolated concrete pads/metal anchors -- there's little to suggest this was the location of the first viable hydroelectric facility in the northern Black Hills of South Dakota.