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Harvesting Historical Riches Steamboat Springs Power Plant
In the winter of 1902-3, local kids discovered that they could play marbles and other summertime games in certain places where snow fell, but-amazingly-melted immediately, even when the rest of the town was adrift. The phenomenon, they discovered, was caused by the town's network of underground steam pipes that led from the newly constructed electric power plant to nearby schools and homes. This power plant, recently rehabilitated and adaptively reused with assistance from the State Historical Fund, played a significant role in Steamboat Springs' industrial development and is one of the few remaining commercial buildings in the city dating from the town's early years. 
By 1902 Steamboat Springs had three hotels, three livery stables, three banks, four general stores, two meat markets, and several other small businesses. As the hub of the Yampa River Valley's expanding cattle and tourism industries, the town had good reason to be optimistic about its future. The power plant's construction symbolized the community's growth and confidence. Norman Carver and his sons hired George Slater to build the simple front-gabled masonry structure using locally quarried stone, locally manufactured bricks, and lumber from a local sawmill. Fuel for the generators came from a nearby coal mine. Until the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railroad arrived in Steamboat Springs in 1909, the community's remoteness forced builders to use native materials. Since some of the town's other significant historic buildings have been razed or altered, the intact power plant is a rare example of this self-reliance. 
The power plant supplied electricity to Steamboat Springs for nearly forty years before subsequent owners converted it into a storage facility. In 1999 municipal leaders became interested in the property as a potential site for expanded city offices and public meeting rooms. Faced with a choice of expanding to a site on the city's outskirts or adaptively reusing an existing historic structure, the City decided to invest in its past. With financial and technical assistance from the State Historical Fund, the City repaired and restored the plant's roof, exterior and interior brick walls, original doors and windows, concrete and plank flooring, and mechanical systems. Nearly a hundred years after its construction, the newly restored power plant is now the focal point of a larger municipal "campus" located in the heart of downtown Steamboat Springs. And it just might remind a few old-timers of a day when snow melted in mid-winter. BY BEN FOGELBERG, Editor, Colorado History NOW |
Located
high in Colorado's northwestern mountains, Steamboat Springs is
famous for perfect snow. On average, three hundred inches of the
powdery stuff falls on the town and surrounding mountain slopes
every winter. Local cattle ranchers have been known to measure winter's
severity by counting the number of wires the drifts reach-and bury-on
their barbed-wire fences. "Three-wire winters" are common.
Of course, snow has been a blessing to Steamboat Springs. After
Norwegian-born skier Carl Howelsen designed a ski jump on Woodchuck
Hill for the inaugural Winter Carnival in 1914, Steamboat Springs
leapt into prominence as a haven for winter recreation. Before that,
snow was mostly just a nuisance, especially for children.