Grab your flashlight and bug spray before heading out to the free Twilight Tour offered by the Cedar River Watershed Institute. The third annual tour will showcase the historic Cedar Falls town site, the birthplace of Seattle City Light.
The tour will be held from 6-8:30 p.m. Sept. 12 and from 4-6:30 p.m. Sept. 13. For parking, drive to the Cedar River Watershed, at 19901 Cedar Falls Rd. S.E., North Bend. Participants can walk the 1.5 miles from the institute to the town site or take a shuttle.
The tour is open to people of all ages and no registration is required. Dogs are not allowed.
The curious can wander throughout the town, inspecting the three still-standing houses and listening to lectures from local historians.
Linda Carlson, author of “Company Towns in the Pacific Northwest,” will give a photo presentation about Cedar Falls and other local company towns.
Celese Spencer, the senior public education program specialist with Seattle Pubic Utilities, explained the area’s significance. Thanks to the Cedar Falls hydroelectric plant, Seattle received a new current of electricity Jan. 10, 1905. As a public owned electric utility, Seattle City Light initially made the plant to counter the monopoly held by other electrical services. Before the plant started, consumers paid about 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, a rate high even by today’s standards.
Today, Seattle City Light customers pay 6.4 cents per kilowatt-hour. A typical house averages 9,000 kilowatts per year, said Mark VanOss, Seattle City Light senior public relations specialist.
When the plant came, so did the workers. The engineers working at the Cedar Falls plant lived right near their place of employment.
“At that time, people did not commute the way we do today,” Spencer said. “They pretty much had to live where they worked.”
At first, its inhabitants called the site “the camp,” an area consisting of a mess hall and dormitories. Most of the dwellers were single men. Married men would visit their wives and children, many of whom lived in Seattle, when they could.
“It wasn’t very fun if you were a single guy,” Spencer said. “There wasn’t a whole lot happening in North Bend back then.”
Eventually, the men’s families began moving in with them. In 1910, the population established the Cedar Falls School District. Soon, the town had an indoor swimming pool, a gymnasium and tennis court. In 1911, people could take a train to Cedar Falls.
As single teachers moved in to teach students, they met and married the single engineers.
“It was really a thriving community,” Spencer said.
Renowned teacher Clara Vinup taught at Cedar Falls School District. Vinup started teaching at age 18 and organized the local 4H clubs and bands and even recruited girls to the boys basketball team, which was unheard of at the time. Today, the Twin Falls Middle School Library is named for her.
Eventually, the Cedar Falls School District consolidated with North Bend’s, forming the Snoqualmie Valley School District in 1944. As time went on, people began moving closer to the new school district. Also, the plant did not require as many workers as it became more advanced and semi-automated.
The community still had residents, with the last one staying until 1996.
Spencer recommended the Twilight Tour, especially since the town site has been closed to the public since 9/11. The institute holds the tour right at sunset, right at the time when the town’s antique lampposts light the streets.
“Some people like the ambience of the lights with the evening coming in,” Spencer said, reminding participants that the sun will set will at 7:25 p.m. Sept. 12.
“The town is just incredibly pristine, it was old sidewalks and old fashioned light fixtures,” Carlson said. “There are grassy lawns. It’s a very pretty site.”
Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
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