The Lake Zumbro Hydroelectric Generating Plant, also known as the City of Rochester Municipal Hydro-Electric Plant, is a hydroelectric facility on the

Zumbro River The Zumbro River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the Driftless Area of southeastern Minnesota in the United States. It is longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, access ...

Mazeppa Mazepa or Mazeppa is the surname of Ivan Mazepa, a Ukrainian hetman made famous worldwide by a poem by Lord Byron. It may refer to: Artistic works Poems * "Mazeppa" (poem) (1819), a dramatic poem by Lord Byron * "Mazeppa", a poem by Victor Hugo, ...

and Zumbro Townships,

Wabasha County, Minnesota Wabasha County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,387. Its county seat is Wabasha. Wabasha County is part of the Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The recently organized Min ...

, United States. The facility consists of a gravity dam and a powerhouse, and formerly included three houses for the plant operators. The houses were removed in the 1960s when the dam was retrofitted to allow remote operation of the generating equipment from Rochester. The impoundment created is called

Lake Zumbro A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

. This dam spans and is high, creating a reservoir with about of

hydraulic head Hydraulic head or piezometric head is a specific measurement of liquid pressure above a vertical datum., 410 pages. See pp. 43–44., 650 pages. See p. 22. It is usually measured as a liquid surface elevation, expressed in units of length, ...

. The idea of building a hydroelectric plant on the Zumbro River north of Rochester had been discussed at least as far back as 1904, when several entrepreneurs surveyed the river, going so far as to buy land for a dam site. An effort was made to secure funding for a dam and transmission line to enable sale of electricity to the city, but the city council declined the arrangement as they did not feel that Rochester's power consumption did not justify it. In 1915, a bond issue for a new hydroelectric plant was put before the city council, possibly spurred by the recent loss of the coal-fired municipal power plant in a fire. Voters overwhelmingly approved a $360,000 () bond issue in a special election held in January, 1916. The facility was designed by pioneering hydroelectric engineer

Hugh Lincoln Cooper Hugh Lincoln Cooper (April 28, 1865–June 24, 1937 Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic. Ac ...

, to the south. The Lake Zumbro Hydroelectric Generating Plant was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1991 for having state-level significance in the theme of engineering. It was nominated as a representative work of Cooper—one of the nation's leading hydroelectric engineers in the early 20th century—and his only project in his home state of Minnesota. On the night of August 24, 2019, a

pontoon boat A pleasure boat with two lengthwise pontoons A pontoon boat is a flattish boat that relies on floats to remain buoyant. These pontoons (also called ''tubes'') contain much reserve buoyancy and allow designers to create large deck plans fitted wi ...

with three people on board went over the dam. They were casting off from the lake shore after patronizing a business below the dam but got caught on the lip of the spillway. A fourth person jumped off and swam to a buoy, where she yelled for help, while the other three went over the edge in the boat. It lodged right-side-up near the base of the dam, causing the people on board only minor injuries. Firefighters, sheriff's deputies, and civilian boaters rescued all four individuals. The Wabasha County Sheriff's Office ascribed the incident to alcohol and darkness, charging the driver with boating while intoxicated.

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Power Facilities
��Rochester Public Utilities {{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota 1919 establishments in Minnesota Buildings and structures in Wabasha County, Minnesota Dams completed in 1919 Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Energy infrastructure completed in 1919 Energy infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places Hydroelectric power plants in Minnesota Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Wabasha County, Minnesota Neoclassical architecture in Minnesota United States local public utility dams Zumbro River

See also

References

External links