Black Hills Power and Light, Decade of the 40's
In January 1942, the Company entered into agreements with employees setting up insurance and welfare accounts providing for group life and hospitalization insurance and for the purchase of war bonds. The agreements were for the duration of the War and the plan was designated as Em-ployee Insurance and Welfare Plan. The employ-ees authorized a 10 percent deduction from their payroll checks to be deposited in these accounts. The Company contributed an amount each month equal to 5 percent of the employee's monthly wage. In July of 1943, the Company entered into an agreement with Equitable Life Assurance So-ciety providing for pensions for employees. The plan did not require employee contributions.
Under a new plan in 1946, the employees transferred into the new accounts, war bonds and cash in an amount equal to one month's wages. The Company then contributed to the account each month an amount equal to 10 percent of the employee's monthly wage. After payment of the employee's share of life, hospitalization, and pen-sion premiums from these accounts, the balance was used to purchase Savings Bonds or such other securities as employees designated. The new plan was designated as Employees Savings and Wel-fare Plan and was authorized by 100 percent of the employees.
The exchange and redemption of 5 percent preferred stock and the sale of 4.2 percent pre-ferred stock and 15,000 additional shares of common stock as proposed in the prospectus of July 24, 1946, was completed successfully, and the proceeds were added to the general fund to be used as needed for the purchase of the Newcastle, Wyoming, electric property and for the purchase of equipment for the Osage and Provo plants.
The Company, at that time, was leasing office and warehouse buildings on the north side of St. Joe Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets. The lease expired in January 1946, but was ex-tended for one year. Some months before, the Company had purchased an old building and two adjoining lots at 621 Sixth Street, at a reasonable price and hoped to have it rebuilt in time for occu-pancy by the next November. The building would house the merchandise sales room, local office, and general office. The warehouse activities and line crew headquarters would be moved to the old abandoned generating plant building across from Halley Park and the railroad tracks.
Electrical properties at Newcastle, Wyoming, were acquired for $145,000 on November 1, 1946. The purchase consisted of about 700 customers with a peak demand of about 520 kW and $60,000 of annual revenue. Newcastle was isolated from the rest of the company's system for nearly a year and a half and operated with five McIntosh diesel "hothead" engines that were in very poor operat-ing condition. There were two 120 kW units, two 136 kW units, and one 240 kW unit. The employ-ees were represented by the International Brother-hood of Electrical Workers and they wanted to continue that affiliation. Management would not recognize this small group unless the total work force voted to be unionized. Individual contract agreements between each employee and the Company was suggested, but none accepted the offer. R. E. "Dint" Furois was transferred to Newcastle as manager in 1946.
Coal was first discovered at Cambria in 1887 and it brought many prospectors and miners to the area. In due course, more and more people crowded into the area as farmers, timber and saw-mill operators, and workers in many small indus-tries. In March 1890, Governor Warren approved an act creating the county of Weston with Newcastle as the county seat. The townsite of Newcastle is said to be the first tract of land that was ever patented under the placer mining laws as oil placer in the United States.
Because of the vast amount of coal that was being mined, some means of shipping the coal was needed. The CB&Q Railroad in Nebraska decided to change their route because of the coal. In 1928, the mines closed down, and coal produc-tion was halted. During the nearly 40 years the mines had been operating, about 13 million tons of bituminous coal was mined.
Newcastle was named by J. H. Hemmingway, who was the first superintendent of the Cambria Coal Company. He suggested the name Newcastle in reverence to his birthplace, Newcastle Upon the Lyne, England, which was a coal mining center.
The first oil well in Weston County was drilled in 1890. It was 480 feet deep, and was located within 2,000 feet of the present refinery in Newcastle. Wells were drilled occasionally after 1890 but the oil industry did not really begin to develop until 1947. At that time the town tripled in population overnight.
On June 6, 1889, the first ordinance was passed granting C. A. Peterson the right to con-struct and operate an electric system in the city of Newcastle. This franchise was revoked on Feb-ruary 6, 1899, and another one issued to Peter Kinney for the next six years. When the six years ran out, he was granted a ten-year extension. The franchise was revoked the following year and an ordinance was passed giving George C. Getcell a 25-year franchise. The fifth ordinance was passed March 8, 1926, granting the Newcastle Light and Power Company a 25-year franchise. This fran-chise was taken over by the Mountain States Power and Light Company on June 9, 1927, and they held it until November 1, 1946. On May 18, 1949, the Black Hills Power and Light Company was granted a 25-year franchise.
A big oil boom was soon underway as the Mush Creek oil and gas field began to develop in the late 1940's. The field was located 12 miles west of Newcastle or 12 miles south of Osage.
The first new Osage steam generating unit, originally intended to be a 7,500 kW unit, was changed to a 10,000 kW unit. It was scheduled to be on-line for the 1948 winter peak. A Nordberg duel-fuel engine originally ordered for the Provo plant and changed to meet the needs at the Osage plant went on-line in late 1947. The transmission line from Osage to Newcastle would be completed about the same time and the old units at the Newcastle plant could be shut down.
The distribution system for the community of Osage's 80 customers was under construction so that service would be available as soon as the Nordberg unit was put in service. What a difference it made at about 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. Previously, each house would start up their little electric generator engines and you could hear them putt-a-putt all over town. The night the Nordberg went on-line there wasn't a sound.
Construction on a 14-mile transmission line from Osage to Upton, Wyoming, was to be com-pleted in 1948. It would serve Upton at wholesale and provide service to three large bentonite plants.
The Company was fortunate in the location of the Osage Plant. A great many utility plants at that time were faced with serious price increases and delivery difficulties because of their fuel sup-ply. The Osage Plant is located within trucking distance of the unlimited supply of comparatively low cost sub-bituminous coal which is mined on a strip mine basis at Wyodak. It meant that when the plant went on-line at Osage, the fuel costs would be lower than other parts of the country where coal is mined from deep shafts requiring large amounts of labor.
During January of 1947, the Wyoming Pub-lic Service Commission issued the Certificate of Convenience and Necessity for the construction of the Osage Plant and for the building of trans-mission lines from the plant to Pactola, Newcastle, and Upton. The Company also worked out a sat-isfactory arrangement on territory with Tri-County REA which was expecting to serve rural areas in eastern Wyoming.