The Power of Snoqualmie Falls
We have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on a fascinating documentary for Puget Sound Energy. This hour-long, HD piece, captures the unbelievable story of Charles Baker, a young civil engineer at the turn of the 20th century, who designed, financed and built the first all-underground hydro-electric power plant in the world at Snoqualmie Falls. The plant and transmission lines, built in just 16th months, helped usher in the age of electricity to the Northwest and brought with it tremendous growth.
To capture this story, Stephen and Kyle went to Snoqualmie Falls on numerous occasions and actually traveled 250′ down into the cavern to film turbines and generators. When you look around at the solid rock walls, you begin to understand the magnitude of what it took to clear this gigantic hole in the ground– all the while remembering this took place a hundred and ten years ago. It’s pretty incredible to see the original equipment with patent dates on them from 1893.
Kyle was pretty psyched to wear a hard hat and safety vest.
Our interviews with local scholars and historians were staged in the original Snoqualmie machine shop and train depot. We loved capturing these stories in the old brick and wood buildings that have been standing for over a century - somehow that history resonates in these interviews.
We’ll be wrapping up this documentary in mid-Decemeber and will keep you posted on the screening as well as its debut broadcast.
Posted
on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pm in Current Projects, Production Reports.