Report of the Superintendent of the Crater Lake National Park, 1910
Hydro-electric Power Development.
The water supply for the proposed power development will be taken from Anna Creek, which has its source in a large spring issuing from a hill which forms the base of the Crater Lake rim, near Camp Arant. The spring is approximately 5 miles from the camp at Crater Lake.
The writer visited Anna Creek during, perhaps, the extreme low water (September 3 and 4) and estimates the flow at that time to be approximately 6 second-feet. By going down the stream approximately 1,500 feet a head of about 80 feet may be attained. With a flow of 6 second-feet and an 80-foot head these will produce approximately 54.5 theoretical horsepower. With an efficiency of 70 per cent the output of such a plant is approximately 38.1 horsepower. One electrical horsepower is equal to one mechanical horsepower, which is equal to 746 watts. As the common 110-volt lamp consumes approximately 56.1 watts, one horsepower will furnish light for 13.3 lamps. Therefore a plant of 38.1 horsepower will operate 507 110-volt, 16-candlepower lamps.
Mr. Alfred L. Parkhurst, manager of the Crater Lake Company, informs me that his company will need about 300 110-volt, 16-candle power lamps. Such a plant as described above would operate the 300 lamps, and supply in addition approximately 15.5 horsepower for power purposes. It will be seen that such a plant would be useful only for lighting purposes, and this on a very small scale.
If such a plant is constructed it will take all the water from Anna Creek, and convert a very pretty little stream, crossed by the main road to the lake proper, into a dry gulch. By throwing an artistic dam across Anna Creek a very pretty little lake could be formed in Anna Creek canyon, and the small reservoir would be an advantage in the operation of such a plant.
The evil of depriving Anna Creek of its waters at this point can be overcome and a plant of larger capacity can be built at the falls of Anna Creek, about 5 or 6 miles below Camp Arant. Numerous springs which enter Anna Creek between its head and the falls materially increase the discharge of the stream at the falls. I did not gauge the stream at the falls (because I did not have this information until I was leaving the park, not having seen Superintendent Arant before). Superintendent Arant told me that the fall at this point on Anna Creek is between 60 and 70 feet, and that the discharge is five or six times that of the spring at the head of Anna Creek. This would give a low-water discharge of about 30 or 40 second-feet. With a head of 60 feet and a discharge of 30 second-feet, a plant at this point would develop approximately 205 theoretical horsepower; with an efficiency of 70 per cent the output of such a plant would be approximately 145 horsepower, or an increase in the output of the plant over the one at Camp Arant of 107 horsepower.
The plant at the falls on Anna Creek would require a transmission line 5 or 6 miles longer than a plant located at Camp Arant, but the falls or near the falls is the logical point for such a plant, and I recommend that any further investigation of such a project be made at the falls of Anna Creek and not at Camp Arant.
Before permission is granted to this company to install such a plant it should submit to the Secretary for his approval complete plans and specifications and the report of the engineer who prepared them. During the progress of the work a representative of the department should be on the ground to see that the work is properly done in accordance with plans and specifications, or else occasional inspection trips should be made by the department’s representative.
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