Located near Metaline Falls, in the northeastern corner of Washington, the Sullivan Creek Hydroelectric Project was constructed in 1909 by the Inland Portland Cement Company (later the Lehigh Cement Company) located in Metaline Falls. The original project included a timber crib dam, which raised Sullivan Lake above its natural level, and two dams downstream (one earthen and one timber), which combined to create Mill Pond. The hydropower project provided power to both the cement plant and the town itself until the mid-1950s when power-generation ceased.

In the early 1920s, the three original dams were replaced with two concrete dams. By 1956, frequent failures of the wooden flume and the availability of inexpensive power from the Bonneville Power Administration, foreshadowed the shutdown of the Sullivan powerhouse. The generating equipment and fixtures were removed and the turbine pits were filled in with gravel and concrete. The original log intake structure in Mill Pond was also removed at that time, and the deteriorating flume has since lain in overgrown vegetation on the hillside.

The Federal Power Commission (now Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) licensed the Project to the Pend Oreille Public Utility District in 1958 as a storage project for the benefit of downstream generation. Although the District attempted in the 1980s and again in the 1990s to refurbish the Project and reestablish hydropower generation there, the rebuild project was scrapped both times as uneconomic. Today, the Sullivan Creek powerhouse and the nearby ruins of some of its related structures stands as a reminder of the significant role it played in hydroelectric power generation related to the early twentieth-century industrial development of the Metaline Falls area.

Credits and Sources:

Nordstrand, John. “Metaline Falls – Thumbnail History.” HistoryLink.org Essay No. 9216. www.historylink.org. n.d.

Perrin, Natalie, and Heather Lee Miller. “Sullivan Creek Hydroelectric Project, Powerhouse.” Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Level II Documentation report, February 28, 2013. Prepared by Historical Research Associates for the Pend Oreille Public Utility District. On file with Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Olympia.

Photographs courtesy of the Pend Oreille County Library District.