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,\ > " 0263 " " "'. , - 2- Of the many plants absorbed by the present system all but two have been torn down or abandoneq. One of these, stl11 operating, is at Pueblo. The other is' the S~aguay Hydro plant, a sturdy youngster nOl~ more, than half a century old, dangling at the end of two steel rails deep in an inaccessible canyon. The story of the thirty-five organizations joined in what is now the Southern Colorado Power Company, is the story of men and events that marched across the pages of Colorado history. None of the units woven into the company has the rugged setting and fabulous origin of this small Skaguay Hydro plant, located deep in the mountains about ten miles from Victor. The story of Skaguay is tied in with the story of Cripple Creek - that glittering, golden, unbelievable mining camp that roared into life with the finding ?f gold, and went into a decline when the golden flood became a trickle and slowly petered out. When Cripple Creek was almost , a deserted field, the Skaguay plant, snuggled deep in its craggy setting, was still going strong. Now after more than half a century of operation, it still hurls its load of kilowatts into the general lines of the company. The real struggle for domination of the electric field was blown into a blaze by the discovery of gold at Cripple Creek. Power plants and 1 ra~lroads began to be built to serve this gOlden field. Poles sprouted overnight croWned by thin strands of copper, and, marching over mountain and valley, swept onward to a distan~ goal. In 1897 Andrew Mellon and associates organized the Colorado Electric Power Company, built a plant at Canon City to serve the coal mines in Fremont County, and sent their . /'. \ '..,' lines up Four t.li1e to Cripple Creek. Along about this same year David H. Moffat and associates built a modern electric plant at Goldfield, giving their company the fancy name of La Bella Mill Water and Power Company, ..~~,