Heavy piece of history now graces end of Main Street

The Bonners Ferry Lions Club was looking for a project, so secretary Cal Russel went to a city council meeting to ask for ideas.

Someone mentioned an old Pelton wheel sitting all but forgotten in the city yard and the Pelton project was launched.

While there are still a few finishing touches pending completion, such as dedication of the plaque and a little more landscaping, the heaviest work is behind them.

Sitting just off the south end of the Kootenai River Bridge across the street from City Hall, the big iron wheel is a relic from our industrial past, both the nation's and the city of Bonners Ferry's.

Invented in the 1870s by Lester Pelton, a carpenter and millwright born in Ohio in 1829 and drawn to the promise of gold during the California gold rush In the 1850s.

According to historical records, his invention came about from an accidental discovery while watching a spinning water turbine.

A key holding the wheel to the shaft slipped, causing the turbine to go out of alignment, with water hitting the edge of water cups instead of the middle. With the water now deflected to come out opposite the way it did during normal operation, the water came out slower … but the wheel moved faster.

His resulting “Pelton wheel” remains one of the most efficient types of water turbines ever devised, and one such wheel turned the generator that brought the first electricity to Bonners Ferry in 1906.

Alex M. Winston established the first hydro-electric plant in Boundary County on Myrtle Creek about six miles west of the Village of Bonners Ferry.

After months of work, his Newport Electric Light Company began generating power, which he sold on a flat rate, based on the number and candlepower of the lamps his customers used.

Some opted to have their power metered, and those who did paid 20-cents a kilowatt hour.

That plant was subsequently purchased by A.H. Featherston, who installed a system to provide water to the village as well as power, and he changed the name to the Bonner Water & Light Company.

Frustrated with the poor service provided by Bonner Water and Light, the village hired an engineer in 1917 to look into the possibility of buying the company, which it did in 1921, paying Featherston $50,000, and passed a $125,000 bond allocating $85,000 for electric plant improvements.

Despite the efficiency of the Pelton wheel, the Myrtle Creek plant couldn't keep up with the growing demand, and later in 1921 work began on the design and construction of a new hydro-plant on the Moyie River.

When that plant came on line in 1922, the generator at Myrtle Creek, and the Pelton wheel, were mothballed, and many years later the plant was dismantled and the wheel moved to the Bonners Ferry city yard, where it sat and rusted for years.

After that discussion with the city council, the Lions Club formed the Pelton Wheel Committee, naming Russel its chair, and work began to put the old wheel in its more prominent location.

The committee raised donations to fund construction and over 171 manhours of volunteer labor went into the project, if you don't count the hour, according to an able but anonymous assistant, Cal spent writhing on the ground with a wrenched back!

After the plaque is set as the finishing touch, a dedication ceremony is planned, but as yet, no date has been set.