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 6 - Stairs Station Hydroelectric Power Plant Historic District

Location: 12 Cottonwood Canyon Road

Date: 1895

Significance: The first hydroelectric power plant in Utah and one of the first in Utah to send electricity over a long distance using alternating current.  The Stairs Station began producing electricity the same year that Utah became a U.S. State.

Photo Title:  Stairs Station Hydroelectric Power Plant.[1]   The date Nov. 1914 is written on the photo.  Note the original canyon road curving around the left side, the car with people at the front door, and the water flume cutting across the mountain above.  

Read “Site 5 -The Granite Power Station” for a brief history of electricity in Utah.

 

Every day, several thousand cars pass the iconic “Stairs Station,” a small, rectangular brick building nestled in the curve of the road immediately before the steep uphill section.  Although many people recognize the building as a canyon landmark, its fascinating history remains mostly unknown.  Looking at the photo above, the hydroelectric station originally appeared as a small, castle-like structure standing guard in the lower canyon.  Actually, this seemingly archaic, castle-style building was ushering in the future: Utah would soon become a state and electricity would change the U.S. and the world in unimaginable ways.

 

As Salt Lake City’s population grew, civil engineer R.M. Jones was hired to construct the city’s new electric street railway to replace the horse-drawn streetcars.[2]  In this part of BCC, Jones found an ideal location for his hydroelectric power station – a flat area for a dam and reservoir surrounded on three sides by high rock walls.  The flat area sat perched above a short, steep hill that would deliver the reservoir water to the powerhouse.  The water was transported to the plant with a 350- foot drop in ¼ mile.  In contrast, the Granite Power Plant’s water had to travel 1.75 miles in length for the same vertical drop.    On June 15, 1896, power generated in BCC from the Stairs Station lit the streetlights in Salt Lake City making this station the first successful hydroelectric plant in the state.  It is still producing power and the building is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

 

The Stairs Station began sending electricity into Salt Lake City five months after Utah was admitted to the union.  In celebration, downtown buildings were covered with patriotic decorations, some several stories tall.  To prepare for the inaugural program on January 6, 1896, volunteers sewed an enormous flag, claimed to be the largest flag in the world, which was draped across the ceiling of the Salt Lake Tabernacle.[3]  In a highly symbolic gesture intertwining patriotism and technology, “Workers also constructed a special electric light fixture with an opening the shape and size of Utah’s star which was placed directly behind the Utah star.” [4]   At the proper moment of the inauguration program, “the light was turned on for Utah’s Forty-fifth Star to shine brightly in the banner’s blue.” [5]

 Interesting Fact:  There was intense competition between Stairs and Granite Power Plants to produce electricity.  Ownership of water rights was questioned resulting in late night sabotage attempts and on February 4, 1896, The Salt Lake Tribune and Herald both reported that men armed with double-barreled shotguns were posted at night with guns to protect the Stairs Station.[6]

Photo Title: View of the Stairs Power Plant from the canyon road, looking south.[7] 

 

Photo Title: View of the Stairs Power Plant main entrance, looking up canyon.[8] 

 

Photo Title: The original reservoir and dam located at a naturally flat area above the Stairs Station.  The high rock walls surrounded the reservoir on three sides. [9]  The modern dam has been significantly altered and is much smaller.

 

Photo Title: View from roof of building of flag-decorated Temple with Tabernacle in background.[10] The flag hanging on the south side of the Salt Lake Temple was originally draped across the ceiling of the Tabernacle for the program honoring Utah’s admission as a U.S. State.  This photo demonstrates the scale of the mammoth flag that was said the be the largest in the world at that time.  After the inauguration program, the flag was hung annually on the Salt Lake Temple from 1897 to about 1903.

 [1] Boucher, Jack.  Utah Power and Light Company Stairs Hydroelectric Station, Holladay, Salt Lake County, UT.   Documentation compiled after 1968. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington D.C.  Historic American Engineering Record, HAER UTAH, 18-HOLD, 1-.  https://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.ut0031.photos/?sp=7.  Accessed September 1, 2025.

[2] Keller, Charles L.  The Lady in the Ore Bucket.  Salt Lake City, University of Utah Press, 2001, p.241.

[3] Hartvigsen, John M. “Utah’s Mammoth Statehood Flag.”  Utah Historical Quarterly, Summer 2011, Vol 79, Issue 3, p. 258.

[4] Ibid. p. 260.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Keller, p. 246.

[7] Johnson, Max. View of the Stairs Power Plant from the canyon road, looking south.  May 24, 2025.  Photograph. Big Cottonwood Canyon Historical Society, Brighton, UT.

[8] Johnson, Max. View of the Stairs Power Plant main entrance, looking up canyon.  May 24, 2025.  Photograph. Big Cottonwood Canyon Historical Society, Brighton, UT.

[9] Supplement to Engineering New, October 1, 1896, Vol. XXXVI.  No. 14.

[10] View from roof of building of flag-decorated Temple with Tabernacle in background.  1896.  J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City.  P0184 . George W. Reed Photograph Collection, 1880-1889.  Photo Number P0184n01_05_60.  ark:/87278/s6rmy5sg.  Accessed September 22, 2025.

Learn More:

  • “Electrifying Zion – The Big Cottonwood Power Transmission, Salt Lake City, Utah.”  The Electrical Engineer, September 11, 1895, New York, New York, Vol. 20, no. 384, p. 245-259.  The Insulator Gazette, https://reference.insulators.info/publications/.

  • Hartvigsen, John M. “Utah’s Mammoth Statehood Flag.” Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol. 79, no. 3, Summer 2011, pp 250-263.

  • Haycock, Obed C.  “Electric Power Comes to Utah.”  Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol. 45.  Spring 1977.

  • “Hydro Hall of Fame: Honoring Three 100-Year-Old Facilities.”  Hydro Review.  November 1998, p. 1-7.

  • “Stairs Station: Competing for the Power Market 100 Years Ago.”  Hydro Review.  October 1995,  p. 20-22.

  • Utah Division of State History, Preservation Section. “72770.” December 9, 2020. J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City.  Utah Historic Buildings Collection, National Register Files,  ark:/87278/s61k52pc.

Written by Kim Johnson

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