In 1888, through the ingenuity of developer and engineer Walter B. Devereux, the City of Glenwood Springs was provided with electric lights.

Devereux had been a local leader for the development of hydroelectric power. By 1886, he had successfully lighted Aspen's mines, homes and businesses. By doing so, he made Colorado history by being among the first to supply a town with commercially available electricity.

In 1886, on the north side of the Colorado River near the foot of today's Grand Avenue bridge, Devereux erected a coal-fired, steam-driven electric power plant. For the consumer, with a flip of a switch, the days of kerosene lamps were gone. In December of 1887, Devereux replaced the coal-powered plant with a new hydroelectric structure.

Today, the hydroelectric building just east of the Hot Springs Pool is on the National Register of Historic Places. It houses the Glenwood Springs Center for the Arts.

The electric light has caused me the greatest amount of study and has required the most elaborate experiments... Thomas Edison

Photo captions
Left: A new electric powerplant brought light to the Fairy Caves, now Glenwood Caverns.
Middle: Walter B. Devereux

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Show me all markers in:  Glenwood Springs, CO  |  Garfield County  |  81601  |  Colorado  |  United States of America

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