
Drive up to La Grande and you can’t miss the Alder Dam, built in the 1940s. But there was another dam before this one — smaller and built in the 1910.
“The water was forced through a pipe bridge that carried the water across the valley and then down four large pipes (5 feet wide) to a powerhouse 410 feet blow.
Inside the powerhouse the four sets of Allis-Chalmers turbines and generators each produced 8,000 horsepower.” (Per Upper Nisqually Valley)
Photos courtesy Rich Williams
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- Transformers inside La Grande Powerhouse
