In what was called ”The best one ever”, 14 members of the Fraser Valley Power Pioneers headed over to the Stave Falls Generating Station Museum on Wednesday, May 22. Dave Devitt, a former employee of SFL, gave us a very exclusive and informative ”inside” tour of this magnificent generation site. After the tour, we headed down to the Mission Springs Brewery Pub for a great lunch.
Decommissioned in 1999, this plant was originally planned in 1895 by the Stave Falls Electric Co., and construction was started by Western Canada Power Company in 1909 to meet the needs of an ever increasing population of Vancouver. In 1921, BC Electric Railway bought Western Canada Power and continued to develop the power company. After the fifth unit was commissioned in 1922, this once largest hydro-electric power source in British Columbia had a final output of 52.5MW. This site is now an official National Historic Site of Canada and open to the public for tours in the spring and summer months.