Ruralite Cafe: Published 04/04/02

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

Tiny power plant fueled development

Though tiny by today's commercial power production standards, the Dillsboro facility was huge when it comes to early growth and development - progress, if you will - for both Sylva and Dillsboro.

The current 12-foot-high rock and masonry dam, constructed in 1927, is at least the third dam to span the river and divert water through turbines to turn electric generators. Though it's the smallest power plant in Duke Power's Nantahala area, the 225-kw-Dillsboro facility continues to operate at a profit, according to company officials.

When Nantahala Power and Light (now Duke/Nantahala) purchased the Dillsboro Dam and powerhouse from Dillsboro and Sylva Electric Co. in 1957, the small power plant provided power to some 2,000 customers; however, given the electrical appetites of today's modern households, the historic facility's 225-kw capacity would probably be able to power only 20 to 30 homes.

Early industrialist and entrepreneur C.J. Harris built Jackson County's first public power plant in 1909, locating the dam and generator for Dillsboro and Sylva Electric Light Co. on the Tuckaseigee River above his roller mill in Dillsboro. The plant first provided electricity to power the Harris-Rees Tannery in Sylva and to illuminate the streets of both towns. The glow of street lights was first seen in Sylva on March 14, 1911, according to The Jackson County Journal, a weekly paper published at the time.

"Not only was power provided for lights in private homes, but people could also walk the streets at night 'without carrying a lantern,'" wrote John Bell in "The History of Jackson County," which lists three Sylva Main Street homes - Dr. Delos Hooper, Dr. Charles Candler and E. Lyndon McKee - as the first to receive power. Of those, only Dr. Hooper's house - the recently renovated Hooper House that now houses the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce - is still standing. The McKee house stood on the site of the present First Baptist Church; the Candler house next door was torn down some five years ago after the church acquired the property.

Harris's first wooden dam gave way in 1913 and a new dam was in place by the following year. Construction of the present dam followed in 1927, and the generating facility was upgraded in 1930 with the addition of a German-made 300-horsepower vertical turbine and new switches aimed at eliminating variations in electric current, according to the county history book.

By the 1950s, power lines ran from Dillsboro to all of Sylva as well as to Sunset Farms in Wilmot, along Scotts Creek to Woodfin Creek, Rolling Green, Webster and up Savannah to Sutton Branch, according to Bell's chapter on economic development.

An interesting document Dan Hooper of Sylva loaned The Herald back in 1989 sheds more light on the power company's early operations. Dan showed us a contract his grandfather, D.G. Bryson, had signed with D&S Electric in 1918 to obtain electric service at his Beta home, which was located near the present intersection of Cope Creek Road and U.S. 23-74.

According to that contract, witnessed by Dan's father, V.V. Hooper, the power company agreed to furnish electricity to each house on Bryson's "extension line" for the sum of $2 per month, based on six lights per house, until the extension line was paid for and then to continue to furnish Bryson with power at the same rates in effect in Dillsboro and Sylva.

"This power is to be furnished each day during the year, except Sundays during daylight hours," reads the contract.

It has been many years since Dillsboro's small power plant was able to supply the electric needs of all who lived in Sylva and Dillsboro. In fact, its entire yearly output could be made up in less than a day by Duke/Nantahala's other 10 hydroelectric facilities.

With regard to economic development in the two towns, however, the role of Dillsboro's hydroelectric plant was enormous.

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