Show volt substation sub station energized E k TI I 1 i 3 A P K R z S 4 71 R A N 1 4 A t ar aw 12 M M N 4 7 the above picture of dan hunter was taken as he closed the volt switch on the new dove creek substation of the empire electric monday july 23 for many years mr hunter and others have worked to get central station power in unlimited quantities for dove creek and vicinity their first attempt ended in failure when they asked the highland utilities co then operating in cortez for power to dove creek later mr hunter W I 1 campbell of yellow jacket E C failing of acklen T W cox of cortez J C denton of pleasant view B R scott of cahone cabone C 17 hamilton of codone J fred allison of dove creek chas cha D snyder of dove creek W L larrance of dove creek harry rodgers of arriola and many others or gani zed the empire electric association and bk funds from th the rural electrification administration with which to build lines to dove creek and some of the rural areas in dolores and montezuma counties on may 5 1941 power from a small deisel generating plant at lewis colorado was turned into the 89 miles of line then completed even in those early stages of dove creek development the empire electric board of directors wanted plenty of three phase power duwer for dove creek and had difficulty in convincing the engineers that it was necessary the capacity of the deisel engines limited the use of electric power and the cost of operating the engines was excessive ces sive in 1944 the empire electric board of directors purchased the highland utilities system which made it possible to purchase power from the western colorado power company east of mancos colorado and sell the deisel engines since that time electrical use increased until the volt line into dove creek could not properly supply the power the completion of the volt transmission line into dove creek has made available to eastern utah and western colorado an unlimited supply of power to aid in the development of he area dan hunter expressed the thoughts of many of the early dove creek settlers when he remarked as lie he closed the switch we have waited a long time for this moment dove creek press photo |