Digital Bob Archive

The first electric lights to shine on Gastineau Channel were at the Treadwell mines and were turned on in the summer of 1891. The mining company that summer enlarged and modernized its mill and according to a report in The Juneau City Mining Record on September 10, \"the entire works is lighted by electricity.\" There were 20 arc lights of 2000 candlepower each and 160 Swan incandescent lamps of 16 candlepower each. The electrician who made the installation was E.T. Margrie and in later years he became the manager of the Alaska Electric Light & Power Company in Juneau.

The Nowell Gold Mining Company installed the first plant to generate electricity on the Juneau side of the channel, but it was businessman Willis Thorpe who brought electric lights to downtown Juneau. In September 1893 a six-horse team hauled a big dynamo up Basin Road to the Nowell mill just below Silver Bow Basin. A flume carried water from Granite Basin to the mill to power the plant.

Thorpe, who had arrived in Juneau in 1886 and first opened a butcher shop, soon expanded into other areas. He built a slaughter house south of town near the present City Dock and began shipping in live beef cattle. He became a major owner of a weekly newspaper and got into gold mining by first leasing, then buying the Takou Mining & Milling Company property on Gold Creek.

In October 1893 Thorpe formed the Alaska Electric Light & Power Company and hired C.E. Dutcher, who had installed the Nowell plant, to string wires to and in town. Electric lights shown on Juneau streets for the first time on November 21, 1893. The first Juneau business firm to have an electric light was the Mining Record, Thorpe's newspaper.

Power from the Nowell plant proved unsatisfactory and was pretty much on again, off again. In the spring of 1894 the Alaska Electric Light & Power Company built a hydro-electric power plant in Evergreen Bowl, carrying water to it through a 28-inch pipe. It began furnishing power from this plant on September 20, 1894. The charge was $1.50 a month for each 16-candlepower light bulb, with service until 10 p.m. If all night service was wanted the charge was $2.

At that time Thorpe was president of the company, F.D. Kelsey was secretary and B.M. Smith was superintendent and manager. Early in 1895 Kelsey sold his interest to Thorpe, who became the sole owner. Gold Creek was not, however, satisfactory as the only source of water power and in March 1896 Thorpe announced that he would install a steam plant and a second dynamo.

Before that was accomplished, however, he became interested in making a cattle drive from Lynn Canal to the gold camps on the Yukon and in May 1896 he sold the Alaska Electric Light and Power Company to Robert Duncan, Jr., J.P. Corbus and A.W. Corbus of Treadwell and J.F. Malony of Juneau. The new owners moved and enlarged the power plant and today's major utility grew from Willis Thorpe's small beginning.