The Powell River Dam
by Devan Gillard
The Origins
When Brooks, Scanlon, and O’Brien Logging Company decided to expand their Minnesota-based logging operation north to Powell River, they had not set out to build a paper mill. However, after establishing their logging operations, the partners learned of an available pulp and paper lease in the area.
Intrigued, Dwight Brooks, Anson Brooks, and M.J. Scanlon began negotiations to acquire the lease from its holder, The Canadian Industrial Company (CIC). After a year of negotiations, CIC merged with Pacific Coast Power Company, the holder of the lake’s water and power rights. This merger created a perfect opportunity to build a mill the first of its kind west of the Great Lakes.
With water and power rights secured, the newly formed Powell River Company began construction of both the mill and the dam in 1910. New York engineer George Hardy was hired to oversee the development, which included a 25,000-horsepower hydroelectric dam. According to the Powell River Company’s 1912 Annual Report, the cost of hydraulic development was listed as $722,651, which increased to $843,950 by 1916.
Powell River Dam in 1923 | 1967 1 622
Early photographs of the lake show the banks of the lake cleared in preparation for the flooding caused by the initial dam and its later 1924 expansion. According to the Town Crier article, this later rise in water level inundated nearby land, including the property of Billy Goat Smith, a local hermit and goat farmer.
Construction was not without challenges. During the build, one of the penstocks collapsed and had to be replaced. After the mill was in production, a canal also failed when the bottom fell out, requiring the installation of two new penstocks to replace it
The Expansions
By 1924, the Powell River Company was preparing for mill expansion and required additional power. The dam was raised by 12 feet, bringing its crest to 284 feet above sea level. The dam and its head gate were reported to be 802 feet long and 52 feet high. The extension reportedly cost an additional $416,832.
Further expansion came in the 1950s with the Theodosia Diversion Project, completed in 1956, which added 7,000 KW of hydroelectric capacity. In 1968, the original log-crib dam on the Theodosia River was replaced with a concrete structure.
In 1929, the Powell River Company also began the Lois River project, leading to the construction of the Lois Lake Dam, later named the Scanlon Dam.
Dam construction workers in
Dam construction in
Hand-drawn map of the Theodosia River Diversion, 1956| 2007 50 16037
Outside the Powell River Company
In 1959, the Powell River Company merged with MacMillan Bloedel. Nearly four decades later, in 1998, MacMillan Bloedel sold the dam, along with its mill assets, to Pacifica Papers.
In 2001, Powell River Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable Partners, acquired the dam from Pacifica. Brookfield continues to own and operate the dam to this day.
Sources
PowellRiver’sFirst50Years;PowellRiver,B.C.GoldenJubilee,1910-1960,p.152-153.
LAWSON,JAMESH.“ManyStrugglesMarkedInitialConstruction.”PowellRiverNews,Jan.1949,p.31. Varma, Shalta.“WhatMadeaLegendofBillyGoatSmith”.PowellRiverTownCrier.July16 1979, p.B-2. th, PowellRiverCompany,PowellRiver,1912,1912AnnualReport,foundinqMASArchives PowellRiverCompany,PowellRiver,1916,1916AnnualReport,foundinqMASArchives. PowellRiverCompany, 1927StatementofAFECosts,foundinqMASArchives. “Macblo Announces Profit, Sells Paper Subsidiary | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 14 Nov. 1998, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/macblo-announces-profit-sells-paper-subsidiary-1.159251.
BC Utilities Commission ~ Powell River Energy Inc.. Status as a Public Utility ~ Procedural Order - British Columbia Utilities Commission, www.ordersdecisions.bcuc.com/bcuc/orders/en/item/521525/index.do. Accessed28Oct.2025.
View of the river from the dam looking upstream toward Powell Lake, 1911 | 2007 50 148
A Poem from the Archives . . .
Found in A Rainbow of Verse by Nora McQuarrie Fonds 139
The Maple Tree
Autumn’s set the maple trees
Ablaze across the land, With gold that summer left behind And spilled with careless hand.
But winter winds soon scattered wide The leaves in winter’s skies, And grieving the empty tree,
Wrings its hands and cries.
But adverse winds can never kill That sturdy-hearted tree, For Spring comes like the breath of Hope
To trees and you and me.
Looking for something fun to do this fall/ winter? Check out our newly opened photography exhibition, The Island in the Middle of Everywhere. Curated by Ingenium, in collaboration with the Xwe’etay/Lasqueti Archaeological Project, the exhibition showcases the historic food-production innovations of the Northern Coast Salish peoples on Lasqueti Island.
