IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014 - 96

for poles along the sides of the steep
mountains would be the best design (see
figure 18). It would require deadend
structures with adequate strength to be
designed and constructed. In addition,
a method of deadending the conductors
would need to be developed, since strain
insulators as we know them today had
not been invented.
To meet this challenge, multipole
structures were designed and situated at key points on ridge tops where
conductors could be deadended. The
longest span was 1,100 ft. (335 m),
constructed with no. 1 copper conductor supported by a 0.5-in (1.3-cm) plow
steel messenger. The attachment of
conductors was achieved with a unique
inline crossarm arrangement attached
to the structure with a large hingetype bracket. The crossarm had 12
pin-type insulators mounted on wood
pins, equally spaced in a row with the
conductors, attached in a manner that
distributed the strain equally between
each insulator, a classic example of the
foresight and innovation demonstrated
by these early pioneers (see figures 19
and 20). The original Telluride power
line hinged crossarm shown in figure
20 was found sticking out of a snowdrift high in the San Juan Mountains
by Christian Buys, author of Historic
Telluride in Rare Photographs. After
seeing a photograph in the book, the
author was able to arrange a trade, and
the crossarm is now on permanent display at the Meridian, Idaho, campus of
Northwest Lineman College.
Construction of the lines was a
backbreaking manual effort, aided by
teams of mules used to transport materials, tools, and supplies. Mules were
also used for stringing the conductors
and bringing them up to tension.
The maintenance and operation of
these lines provided further significant challenges, as access to the lines
was difficult, with heavy snows blanketing the area for several months (see
figure 21). Wisely, switching stations
were established at key line junctions, where faulted sections of line
could be isolated and service restored
to the remainder of the system (see
96

ieee power & energy magazine

figure 19. A ridge-top structure located on Camp Bird Summit showing hinged
inline crossarms and the arrangement of pin-type insulators to deadend the
conductors. Note the use of 1/2-in (1.27-cm) plow steel wire to support the
no. 1 copper conductor (photo courtesy of the Fort Lewis College Center for
Southwest Studies).

figure 20. An original hinged crossarm from a Telluride power line, now
on display at Northwest Lineman College (photo courtesy of the Northwest
Lineman College photo collection).

figure 22). The design of the switching junction shown in figure 22
featured a sliding wooden rack with
insulators and contacts that was operated from an insulated platform. As
was typical during these early years,
the design was homemade, developed
via trial and error. In this phase of
expansion, the Telluride Power Company gained valuable experience in
constructing and maintaining lines in
the mountains.

Conclusion
Thinking about the pioneering days of
the Telluride Power Company, one can
only imagine how it must have been for
these early pioneers, confronted with
extinguishing electric arcs, fires, lightning, blizzards, ice avalanches, and -40 °f
temperatures. To construct and operate
a power system under these conditions
with no experience is nothing short of
amazing. The one element that was
beyond the scope of this article, but
january/february 2014
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - January/February 2014
