#61 Michigan-Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric Plant
1902
Early, extremely large-scale, low-head hydropower plant using many small turbines
This low-head operating plant is representative of nineteenth-century hydropower-plant practice using many small turbines in contrast to twentieth-century use of few large turbines and generators. Its 40,000 horsepower capacity made it the largest in the country using turbines of American design (McCormick-Francis). The contemporary and larger Niagara installation used turbines of French design (Fourneyron). The entrepreneur of this plant was Francis Clergue, a lawyer, who employed as his chief engineer Hans A.E. von Schon, a German immigrant who had served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Michigan Lake Superior Power Hydroelectric Plant
Landmark Location
St. Mary's River nr. Ashum St.
Saulte Sainte Marie, MI
Related Links
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/MI0085
Ceremony Notes
May 1981