The Bowersock Mills & Power Co500 South Powerhouse Road, Lawrence, Kansas, United States

Comprised of 11 hydroelectric turbines, the plant is capable of producing 7 MW of environmentally friendly energy. This picture is taken from the north side of the plant on the south side of the Kaw (Kansas) River.  The Bowersock Mills & Power Company is the only operating hydroelectric plant in Kansas.  We welcome the public to visit and tour the plant.  Visiting Bowersock is a great way to learn about Kansas history and demystify the production of electricity.  Learning more about this over 140 year old project can help you understand electricity and the history of its production – but perhaps more importantly, it can help you think about the future of energy – something we all need to consider.

In business since 1874, Bowersock currently provides the City of Lawrence with much needed river flow control for the public water intakes.  Additionally, the water that passes through the plant produces up to 2.35 Megawatts of renewable non-polluting electrical power – enough to power nearly 1800 homes! Bowersock is proud to be certified as a Low Impact Hydropower Facility.  Achieving Low-Impact status is difficult, and as of Spring 2015, there were only 118 hydroelectric power plants in the nation that had achieved this certification.  The public can support Bowersock’s green energy production by purchasing renewable energy.  The links to the left will give you an overview of our plant and tell you more about hydroelectric power.

• During the past 130+ years, the mill has ground grain into flour, produced the first ready-make gingerbread cake mix, hosted a radio station, been a paper mill, made barbed wire, and produced power – both electrical and mechanical.
• Before electrical power was widely available, leather belts were connected to the waterwheels at Bowersock and ran either on tall poles or through tunnels to their respective businesses. The famous Eldridge Hotel on 7th and Massachusetts is said to retain its generators in the basement, where the belts used to be attached.
• The Springhill Suites, Abe & Jakes, and City Hall are all built in or on top of former Bowersock properties. As the focus of the mill’s business changed, the extra space was leased or sold outright, and new businesses emerged.

Our History

One of the more interesting bits of folklore surrounding the Bowersock Dam comes from the local fishermen’s tales about the fish they have caught, and of course, about the ones they did not. The next page tells the story behind this part of our dam’s reputation.When people think of the Bowersock Mills, most believe that Justin DeWitt (J. D.) Bowersock was the man who built the original dam across the Kansas River, or the “Kaw.” In fact, this honor goes to Orlando Darling, a post-Civil War businessman in Lawrence. Darling owned several manufacturing businesses and the Kaw’s only ferry service. Darling, along with many other Lawrence manufacturers, desperately needed a source of power for his businesses.  The mid-1800’s saw the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the United States, and by the post-Civil War era, industrialization had spread to the frontier, including Kansas. Undeniably, industrialization required a source of power. For many years, the city of Lawrence relied primarily on the Kaw Valley’s wood supply. By the early 1870’s, however, most of the wood within a one-day’s wagon haul from Lawrence had been depleted. The rising cost of wood brought Lawrence’s first energy crisis.  The city of Lawrence sought to lower the cost of power for manufacturers such as Darling, and as Kenneth Middleton observed in his treatise, Manufacturing in Lawrence, Kansas, “two or three organizations were formed to prospect for coal and one gets the impression that there must have been in Lawrence and vicinity an abandoned coal shaft in every other back yard.” Yet the search for coal quickly proved abortive, and Lawrence’s hopes turned to the potential source of water power.  From the town’s perspective, the completion of a dam across the Kaw would set Lawrence apart from other frontier towns. At that time, Lawrence, Leavenworth, and Kansas City were roughly the same size in population and competed head to head for new business. With a dam, Lawrence would have the necessary power source to become one of the largest frontier manufacturing centers.  Orlando Darling, a civil engineer by profession, was a builder who also owned a sawmill, a flour mill, a stone quarry, and, as mentioned above, the local and only ferry service across the Kaw. In order to run his businesses, Darling leased much of the levee land surrounding the river. Seeing an opportunity in Lawrence’s energy crisis, Darling proposed building a dam of stone across the Kaw. A dam would provide a constant source of power for Lawrence’s growing economy, including Darling’s own businesses. Facing ever-increasing fuel prices, Lawrence agreed to help Darling.  On September 23, 1872, Darling signed an agreement with the city to build a dam. Darling then combined his interests with several other Lawrencians, including the then mayor of Lawrence, Washington Hadley, and founded the Lawrence Land and Water Company (LL&W Co.). Under the terms of the contract, Darling would fund the construction of the dam. In addition, Darling would charge no more than 25% of the cost of steam power and was liable for damages if the dam forced the Kaw over its banks. In return, the city granted Darling ownership of the levee in perpetuity. The town also agreed to buy enough power to operate the town’s water works and to give Darling $6,000 to help cover expenses. The city of Lawrence further specified, however, that upon failure to provide adequate water power, Darling would lose the right to the dam and to the lease.  Fate stood against Darling, for in the winter of 1873, a large ice-gorge gave way, destroying the northern flume and demolishing a good part of the dam. Completely frustrated with the turn of events, Darling resigned and the Lawrence Land and Water Company took over the property, completing the dam without his help. By 1874, Lawrence had a dam providing the city with mechanical power. (The first centralized electric power generating station in the world was not completed until 1882 by Thomas Edison in New York City.)  The flood of 1873 proved to be the first of many floods to destroy or severely damage the dam across the Kaw. The Lawrence Land and Water Company, too, failed to make the dam hold. With every spring and the return of high waters, a considerable section of the dam washed out, and in 1876, the LL&W Co. went into receivership. Yet the power company did not suffer alone, for those who had counted on the dam’s success faced imminent failure as well. Before the initial completion of the dam in 1874, the 2,500 horse-power had been fully contracted, and immediately upon the dam’s completion, Darling had strung 1,200 feet of cable from the water wheel to power the machinery of various enterprises. Multiple Lawrence businesses, then, even if they had not already learned to rely on the dam’s motive power, had looked forward to its arrival. As many observed, few would profit or could even draw power from the dam for the first five years. An article in 1877 remarked, “We always notice that it cheers up the laborers when there is dam building going on. They are the only class as yet that have got much out of the dam and some of them have made a pretty good thing of it.”  Shortly after the dam was completed in July of 1874, James H. Gower (father-in-law of J. D. Bowersock) arrived in Lawrence, Kansas, from Iowa City. (Gower did not relocate his family until 1877.) In connection with other parties, Gower erected a flouring mill known as the Douglas County Mills and contracted for water power from LL&W Co. Gower, too, along with the other manufacturers in Lawrence who needed cheap energy, had a stake in the struggle to make the dam hold.  In a statement given the year before his death in 1922, Bowersock summarized his family’s arrival and entrance into the Lawrence business community:  I, J. D. Bowersock, and family, including James H. Gower, came to Lawrence in 1877. A few days after our arrival in Lawrence in 1877 there was another washout of part of the dam, which compelled the appointment of a Receiver for the Water Power Company, and, under the Receiver, the Court ordered Debentures to be issued and sold to complete the work.  The Water Power was, by order of the Court, directed to be sold for the benefit of the Debenture holders. The property was sold by the Sheriff on the 9th day of January, and was purchased by James H. Gower in my name, J. D. Bowersock, and the Sheriff’s Deed was issued to J. D. Bowersock and sale confirmed by the Court.  Gower had purchased the debentures of the dam, so in effect, in purchasing LL&W Co., Gower had assumed his own debt. Ultimately, Gower never got a chance to work on the dam. Upon Gower’s death in 1879, Bowersock stepped in and took charge of the company and the dam’s repair.  Fortunately for Bowersock, this time around efforts to create a solid dam came to fruition, and immediately upon the completion of the dam, Bowersock began to sell power to Lawrence merchants. The 1878 repairs held firm until a small break occurred in 1885. This break both proved much smaller than earlier breaks and proved easily reparable. In the eyes of Lawrence citizens, Bowersock had earned his new name, “Master of the Kaw”.  The success of the dam made Lawrence stand out as a frontier town. In 1880, the only two states west of the Mississippi using water power were Minnesota and Kansas. While at that point only two Lawrence businesses, Douglas County Mills and Delaware Flour Mill, relied entirely on water power, by the mid-1880s, the dam had been stabilized and Lawrence had a reliable source of cheap mechanical water power. By 1885, twelve water wheels drove two flouring mills, a paper mill, two elevators, a twine factory, shirt factory, two machine shops, the Leis chemical works, two printing offices, the barb wire works and a few other minor industries. Two of the customers were the Lawrence Journal and the Lawrence World, predecessors to today’s Lawrence Journal World. The two flouring mills included, of course, Bowersock’s Douglas County Mills, which was very successful by this time, producing 500 barrels of flour per day.  Yet the Kaw still had a few surprises in store. In February 1888, a huge ice jam up the river from Lawrence broke, sending a large wave of water and ice down stream. The dam held, but most of the water and debris rushed under the mill, tearing out turbines, belts, pulleys, and some of the retaining walls of the dam. At this point, the dam was still providing mechanical, not electrical, power. An 1889 Sanborn map shows elevated cables running along the south side of the Kaw. These cables connected the driving force of the Kaw to the businesses the dam powered. Cables intermittently passed through pulley stations, transferring the motion on to the next station until the power reached its site. As such, what the river tore out from under the Douglas County Mills was attached to the businesses they powered. Neighboring businesses, too, saw their machinery first carried down the streets of Lawrence, then down the Kaw.  Since 1880, no major structural changes had been made. Rebuilding from the ice damage of 1888 provided Bowersock with an opportunity to improve his mill. This time Bowersock built the mill out from solid ground and into the river. In addition, Bowersock introduced four dynamos that turned raw power into electrical energy. (Remember, Edison completed the very first power generating station six years earlier in New York City.) Now, in addition to providing motive power, the Kaw was generating electricity. Notably, booster publications that sought to attract eastern business and investment gave the Bowersock Dam a full-page treatment.  Once again, the Kaw dealt Bowersock a significant blow. “The 1903 flood,” said Justin Hill, J. D. Bowersock’s grandson, “carried driftwood under the mill. There were men down there 24 hours a day pulling out driftwood to try and save it, but the driftwood finally pulled out the bottom and the whole thing fell in the river.” The damage was estimated at around $100,000, all uninsured. Bowersock repaired the dam, and again, Bowersock rebuilt bigger and better to withstand future floods. By this time the energy needs of Lawrence had far outstripped the 2,400 horse power capacity of the water wheels, but several local businesses continued using water power up until 1972. These businesses included the Flour Mills, the Lawrence Paper Co., the Lawrence Ice Plant, the Journal World, and the Bowersock Iron Works.  Disaster was forever looming on the frontier. In 1911, the Opera House that Bowersock had built burned and that same year a tornado swept through the riverfront area, doing damage to many of Bowersock’s properties. Bowersock pledged that this would never happen again. He rebuilt with concrete and brick. His new Opera House opened in 1912 (today known as Liberty Hall), and between 1903 and 1916 Bowersock Mills and Power replaced all but one of their buildings with concrete and brick structures, installing up-to-date dynamos for electrical generation to keep pace with the current trends in energy usage.  Justin DeWitt Bowersock went on to become the mayor of Lawrence from 1881-1885, was elected to the Kansas legislature in 1887, the Kansas Senate in 1895, and was the 2nd District’s Representative to Congress from 1899-1907. He died on October 27, 1922 and is interred at Oak Hill Cemetery in Lawrence.

Modern Day Bowersock Mills and Power Co.

By 1941, the only manufacturers using electrical power from the Kaw were Lawrence Paper Company, Lawrence Iron Works, Bowersock Mills, the ice plant and the hydroelectric plant. After WWII, the Lawrence Iron Works was razed to make room for the new office and plant of the Lawrence Journal-World at 609 New Hampshire.  In 1951, the Kaw again flooded. This time the water was so high that the dam — or even ripples of disturbance on the surface as water rushed over it — could not be seen. Damage was done, but thanks to sturdier construction it was far less than in the 1903 flood.  The 1960’s and 1970’s saw deterioration in the Lawrence riverfront area. Businesses moved, including the Lawrence Paper Company. Its buildings were converted to small fleamarket/craft type shops. The Bowersock Opera House that had been sold to Dickinson Cinema after Bowersock’s death, and renamed the Jayhawker Theater in 1940, ceased operation in 1956 and was resurrected as a college tavern/nightclub (The Red Dog Inn) in the 1960’s. Consideration was given to razing it for a downtown motel during that same period. On June 13, 1968, Bowersock Mills and Power ceased operations as a mill. Their buildings were leased to a discount carpet store and KU Crew, the Jayhawk rowing team. Subsequent to 1972, all energy from the Bowersock water wheels was sold directly to Kansas Power and Light (now Westar Energy).

Management Team

The BMPC Team has the key elements that are critical to the successful completion of a hydroelectric power plant, including business management, community relations, licensing, construction, and hydroelectric project management.  The team is led by Stephen Hill, whose family first established The Bowersock Mills and Power Company in 1874. Mr. Hill has extensive business and hydropower experience, as he has run BMPC since 1972, while maintaining primary employment as a financial advisor. A graduate of Harvard Business School, Mr. Hill has academic credentials to match his business experience, and has established a business plan for the Existing BMPC Plant as well as the Expanded Project – both of which rely on his strong business background. Stephen Hill’s partner in the management of Bowersock is his daughter and co-owner, Sarah Hill-Nelson, who has been running BMPC along with her father since 2002.  In addition to her experience running the plant for thirteen years, Hill-Nelson was one of the first Kansas energy business leaders to leverage renewable attributes through Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs or Green Tags), and she has been actively involved in legislative issues relating to renewable energy. Ms. Hill-Nelson’s most important contributions to the BMPC Team lie in her long-term commitment to the Lawrence community and the environment. Ms. Hill-Nelson acts as the primary manager of Bowersock Operations, including all business relationships, and manages the FERC licensure process, which calls upon her extensive academic and professional experience in research and writing.

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy technologies are Green Power sources. Renewable energy is any source of energy that is constantly being replaced, or at least, a source of energy that will not be depleted in any reasonable time frame. By convention, renewable energy sources are also environmentally friendly; it is Green Power. For example, solar energy is a renewable energy, but in a few billion years the sun will consume all of its fuel. However, for all practical purposes, the energy supply from the sun will always be available to us.  The major types of renewable energy are: wind, photovoltaic (solar), solar thermal, geothermal, oceanic, biomass, and hydroelectric.  Hydroelectric power is the kind of green power produced by Bowersock Mills and Power Company. It produces no toxic emissions, nor does it contribute to global warming or acid rain. In fact, by using hydropower instead of fossil fuels, Bowersock substantially reduces the amount of pollutants in our air.  The pool above the Bowersock dam provides the City of Lawrence with a reliable source of drinking water, even during periods of drought. The area around the Bowersock dam has also become a favorite hunting and nesting area for our national symbol, the bald eagle, during the winter months. This is green power at its best! If your house was powered by hydro power rather than coal you would prevent 7.2 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year. How “green” is Bowersock? While there is some debate over the environmental impacts of hydroelectric power, Bowersock has been designated as a “low-impact” hydropower facility. This means that in comparison to other hydroelectric power plants, Bowersock’s environmental impacts are limited.