Have you ever wondered what it was like just over 150 years ago living in the small settlement of Traverse City without electricity? Picture no streetlights after sunset, no computers, no televisions and no convenient appliances!

Electric lights would not come until 1879 when Thomas Edison invented the incandescent bulb and the means to distribute electrical power to light it. However, it was only the larger populated areas that were installing power plants and electrical lines at that time.

It took another 10 years for H.D. Campbell and Sons Water and Electric Light Co. to give Traverse City its first steam-powered electric power plant, lighting up the streets, businesses and homes in the downtown area. This electric generating plant stood at the foot of Union Street in the waterworks building, which would later become the site of the Traverse City Light and Power (TCL&P) coal-fired Bayside Power Plant.

Soon after the turn of the century, a group of local citizens began purchasing property along the river as dam sites for yet another electric power plant, the Queen City Light and Power Co. In 1908, it announced plans to construct a hydroelectric dam at the Keystone settlement six miles south of Traverse City.

The Queen City Light and Power Co. was in operation just a few short years when a proposal for its purchase was submitted to the voters of Traverse City. The purchase included the Keystone Dam and flowage rights seven miles upstream to and including what was the Brown Bridge Dam and pond. The proposal was approved by voters through a bond issue of $125,000 and a down payment of $10,000 in 1912. It was the birth of the Light and Power Department of Traverse City.

Milestones in TCL&P's 100-year history:

1921 - TCL&P began producing electricity at the Brown Bridge Dam.

1928 - the first steam turbine was added to the Traverse City Waterworks building.

1965 - voters approved the power plant bond proposal for the expansion of the Bayside Power Plant.

1979 - after a three-year analysis initiated by the City Commission, city residents voted to establish the permanent structure of a separate board of directors for TCL&P.

1980 - TCL&P began producing electricity at the Boardman and Sabin Dams.

1996 - TCL&P pioneered America’s first utility-grade wind turbine on M-72. At the time of installation, the wind turbine was the largest in the United States.

2005 - the Bayside Power Plant, which had been relegated to peak power support, was removed.

2009 - TCL&P signed a contract to purchase all generation output from five two-megawatt wind turbines located southeast of Cadillac.

2011 - TCL&P met the state mandate of 10 percent renewable energy four years ahead of schedule. Because of its energy efficiency programs, TCL&P saved over 2.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity, which is the equivalent to powering 417 homes for an entire year.

Click on the photo above to view a slideshow of TC's electrifying beginnings...