ABSTRACT
The world's first successful, long-distance commercial transmission of high voltage, alternating-current electricity, took place in 1890-1891, in the San Juan country of southwestern Colorado. In 1888, Lucien L. Nunn, a Telluride lawyer, had been retained as a manager by the owners of the nearby Gold King Mine, which had been attached by court order to pay its debts. Stream flow measurements show, for example, that approximately half of the Colorado River's total annual flow occurs in a two-month period, commencing in early May. Reservoirs smooth out the stream flow by taking late spring floodwater into storage and releasing water later in the year when the normal stream flow is low and surplus water is needed for crops. The vast amount of coal in the state, which can be placed in the service of power generation, makes it natural that Colorado should produce almost 80 percent of its total electric power from coal.
