Finally, in the summer of 1894, it was happening!
Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company would soon be delivering electricity to the city, and the city fathers quickly moved to the task of deciding just where they would place the six large arc lights that would illuminate the downtown area. Contractors were already waiting to dig holes and set poles at the designated locations, so the council directed the “Improvement Committee” to interview property owners immediately and recommend exactly where the lights should be placed.
All of this evolving progress was a feather in the hat of George Favorite. The 1894 city elections were just around the corner, and the mayor announced his bid for re-election in the April 4 edition of the Queen City Mail.
The Mail stood staunchly behind the young businessman.
“His administration has been impartial and absolutely free from any corrupt influence. He has had no ‘axe to grind’ and no special favors to confer on anyone.
“It is in a great measure due to him that Spearfish is soon to be lighted by electricity. A franchise for electric lighting was granted to somebody nearly three years ago and our citizens stood ready to assist in making it a success, yet nothing was done. Mr. Favorite has succeeded in enlisting foreign capital to the full amount required for putting the works into successful operation.”
The following week, the Burlington & Missouri Railroad delivered two car loads of machinery – 40 tons of it – to the new power plant in Spearfish Canyon.
“The railroad company is putting in a switch at the plant, and as soon as that is done the two cars will be run back and set out to be unloaded on the spot where the machinery is to be used,” reported the Mail.
April storms slowed the stringing of wire through the canyon and in Spearfish, but by early May, Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company was in the home stretch for bringing electricity to town.
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| 1909 image of SEL&P -- the only photo we've seen of the facility.
(Courtesy of Gary Lillehaug and the Spearfish Area Historical Society)
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On May 24, the Mail reported that “linemen will have all the main wires in place when they quit work tonight,” despite some last minute changes. For example, the paper noted that the company “decided to change the line along Eighth Street from I street north, on account of the wires interfering with the trees on the west side of John Wolzmuth’s resident. The line now runs along the alley.”
With power lines run, the final task would be to wire businesses and residences.
“It will require about eighty lights for Hotel Spearfish…every business house in the city and many offices and private residences will soon be lighted by electricity.”
The plan was to electrify Spearfish on Friday, June 8, but it didn’t happen.
On the following Wednesday, June 13, 1894, in a special “Second Edition,” the Queen City Mail reported that “…the electric light was turned on today in all the business houses where wires and carbons had been placed. The light was brilliant, but seemed to be a mellow light with yellowish shade, which relieves it of that blinding brilliancy which was so marked a feature in electric lights a few years ago. There was not a particle of flicker about it.”
“Only think of it. Eighteen years ago the only lights seen in this part of the state were those of the sun, moon and stars, with an occasional signal light which was to call together the bloody, treacherous Sioux warriors to a scalping picnic.”
Seeing success at hand, the newly-arrived Burlington & Missouri Railroad paid to have “poles set and wires strung from the corner of Fifth and H(udson) streets to the depot, where another arc light will be suspended for the benefit of the B & M.”
A small office for the electric company was set up in part of the Cashner building, which was located at H and Fifth Streets, and the newspaper rightly predicted that “oil lamps will soon be things of the past.”
By the end of June, electricians were busy wiring private residences throughout Spearfish.
“Yesterday,” reported the Mail on June 27, 1894, “M.C. Conners’ house was wired, and today the residences of J.W. and W.W. Driskill are in process of wiring. H. G. Weare’s residence is also being wired. It looks now as if nearly every residence in the city will soon have the electric light.”
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| This is similar to the turbine that was installed in the SEL&P power plant in 1894.
(Courtesy of Gary Lillehaug)
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Apparently, the new “subtle fluid” of electricity presented lots of challenges, and the new electric company had more than just a few problems.
In mid-October, a reporter for the Queen City Mail was invited up the canyon to visit the new plant at the invitation of Superintendent Dotson. The unnamed writer provided one of the better descriptions found of the plant and its facilities.
“The plan was in full operation under the watchful eye of Electrician Chalfant, who came from Chicago a few weeks ago to take charge of the system and bring order out of the chaos into which it had been plunged through the apparent carelessness of a previous electrician.”
The flume delivering Spearfish Creek water to the plant was constructed of two-inch planks, 6x6 stringers and bound with heavy side and top braces.
“It will carry 4,800 cubic feet of water per minute,” wrote the reporter, who was particularly impressed by the James Leffel “double horizontal turbine, consisting of two wheels, each of seventy-five horsepower…(it) is a marvel.”
“After passing through the wheel, the water discharges into a mammoth pit, and thence through a flume back into the Spearfish.”
“A careful observer will be thoroughly convinced, after inspecting this dam, flume and wheel, that the Spearfish Creek is capable of supplying sufficient power for all the machinery which has been or ever will be placed in the Black Hills.”
Obviously, the writer was impressed and perhaps more than just a bit over-zealous in his observation. Nonetheless, wrote the Mail reporter, “The entire system is now working to the satisfaction of every one, and is said, by those who are competent to pass judgment in matters of this kind, to be the most compact, complete, and substantially constructed light and power system in South Dakota. The company has expended about $15,000 in putting this plant in operation, and while they have experienced several annoying and expensive delays by the accidental destruction of two armatures, the difficulties have all been overcome and everything is moving as smooth and regular as clockwork.”
Electric lighting permeated the community at such a rate that, within two years, SEL&P notified owners of large residences that they’d have to install meters to pay for the actual current used. The newspaper reported that some 230 electric lights were being used by 10 residences alone – an average of 23 lights per household.
There was soon talk about extending electric lines northward to Belle Fourche, which George Favorite said was “entirely feasible,” but that such a proposition would be costly and would require determining just how much Belle Fourche really wanted such service. It would require extending lines northward some 16 miles. Of course, electricity did later arrive in Belle Fourche – but it would not delivered by SEL&P.
In 1896, after serving as mayor of Spearfish for four years and arranging the financing for the private Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company, George Favorite was able to focus his time and attention on the operation of the electric company.
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| Front page ad in Queen City Mail - Aug. 4, 1897 |
With electricity flowing to downtown businesses and throughout the residential areas, the Queen City was enjoying recognition as a “progressive community.”
By mid-December of 1898, things were going so well with the electric company, that George Favorite and his wife were able to take a trip back to Chicago for Christmas. And two months later, he vacationed in Washington, D.C., whence came the news of tragedy, as reported in the Deadwood Pioneer-Times of February 21, 1899:
GEORGE FAVORITE DEAD
George C. Favorite of Spearfish died
Saturday afternoon at the Dewey Hotel in Washington ,
D.C.
He was just 33 years old.
Then during a September city council meeting, aldermen learned that Spearfish Electric Light and Power Company was for sale. After nearly six years of operation, the other owners – with the recent passing of George Favorite – notified the council that they were “desirous” of selling the plant to the city.
“No definite proposition was submitted, and no member of the council had any information on the subject which was sufficiently tangible to reach any conclusion,” observed the newspaper. But they reported that it was “understood that the electric company has placed the figure at $20,000 for the plant. It is the general opinion among the council members that this is too high several thousand dollars.”
Whether or not a formal proposal was submitted to the city is not known. But as the 1890’s were about to draw to an end, there were rumors running rampant about other plans for exploiting the value of Spearfish Creek and expanding electric services.
Go to: PART 3 "The Homestake Era"
