The life of L. L. Nunn  as recorded in the Western Colorado Power Company Collection (Collection M 002)

L. L. Nunn timeline	Views of areas where he worked
Items of interest in the Nunn business correspondence
Self-representation of Nunn as noted in his business correspondence
Business life vs. private life of L. L. Nunn
Public service and business success of L. L. Nunn
Bibliography of Nunn materials at the Center of Southwest Studies
Selective calendar of Nunn correspondence, 1885-1893

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 ©2003 by Fort Lewis College Foundation, Center of Southwest Studies account

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L. L. Nunn timeline

1853 Mar. 16	Medina, Ohio	Lucien Lucius born to Miriam and Charles Robert Nunn
1865	Peru, Ohio	Nunn family moves to another farm
1866	Oberlin, Ohio	Nunn meets and is profoundly influenced by revivalist preacher Charles G. Finney
1867	Oberlin, Ohio	Nunn begins studies at Cleveland Academy under Linda T. Guilford
1869	Oberlin, Ohio	In business with oldest brother Fred, including the cultivation of bees for honey
1873 fall		Travels to London with Fred
1874	Oberlin, Ohio	Fred dies
1876 fall		Travels to Germany to recuperate after financial troubles
1877 fall	Boston, Mass.	Nunn begins working in the law office of Henry W. Paine
1878 fall	Boston, Mass.	Nunn enters Harvard Law School
1879 summer	Peru, Ohio	Works at family farm
1879 fall/winter	St. Louis, Mo.	Studies extensively in public library
1880 spring	Leadville, Colo.	Nunn moves west, opens Leadville Restaurant
1880	Leadville, Colo.	Opens a more upscale restaurant, The Pacific Grotto
1880 Nov.	Leadville, Colo.	Leaves town with partner Malachi Kinney after the failure of Pacific Grotto
1880	Durango, Colo.	Opens new Pacific Grotto, enters the real estate business with Kinney and Tom Hall as Hall, Nunn, and Kinney
1881 spring	Durango, Colo.	Closes businesses and walks to Telluride with Kinney
1881	Telluride, Colo.	Begins working in construction and carpentry
1881 winter	Telluride, Colo.	Contracts typhoid fever; with Kinney, builds first bathtub in Telluride
1881	Telluride, Colo.	Organizes the Ilium Gold Mining Company, builds ten-stamp mill at Ophir
1882	Telluride, Colo.	Opens law practice under the name of Nunn & Kinney, begins developing real estate
1882	Delta, Colo.	Develops homestead and begins cattle ranching
1887	Telluride, Colo.	Partnership dissolved as Kinney leaves for Salt Lake City
1888	Telluride, Colo.	Nunn acquires controlling interest in the San Miguel Valley Bank
1881	Ophir, Colo.	Becomes manager for the Gold King mining interests and unites business interests under the name “Office of L. L. Nunn”; San Miguel Gold Placers Company organized
1889 Sept.	Telluride, Colo.	Hires Stephen Bailey as secretary
1889 winter		Travels through England and the Eastern U.S. on legal business
1890 summer	Ames, Colo.	Electrical generator and motor received from the Westinghouse Company, installed in the winter; Nunn makes Paul N. chief engineer of the Telluride Power Company
1890 winter	Ames, Colo.	First commercial long-distance power-transmission plant built (begins operations early 1891)
1890	Telluride, Colo.	Nunn organizes First National Bank of Telluride
1890 Nov. 20	Telluride, Colo.	San Miguel Consolidated Gold Mining Company incorporated (official date of incorporation Feb. 7, 1891), succeeds San Miguel Gold Placers Company
1890	Telluride, Colo.	Rio Grande Southern Railroad built, Nunn sells (??) in construction company
1891 Feb. 13	Boston, Mass.	First meeting of the Board of Directors of SMCGC; Nunn elected General Manager
1891	Bear Creek Mill, Colo.	Instruction begins for first student class of Telluride Institute
1891 June	Ames, Colo.	Plant begins regular functioning work
1891 Oct. 6	Telluride, Colo.	Nunn acts as chairman for first annual meeting of the SMCGCS
1891 Oct. 6	Telluride, Colo.	Original power transmission line extended from Ames to Telluride
1892 spring	Telluride, Colo.	Nunn builds 120-stamp mill on Bear Creek
1892 summer		Travels to Europe with Stephen Bailey
1895	Ames, Colo.	Experimental line constructed from Ames Station to Gold King Mill to test higher-transmission line voltages
1895	Logan, Utah	Buys the Hercules electric plant on the Logan River
1896 Feb. 15		San Miguel Consolidated Gold Mining Company becomes the Telluride Power Transmission Company
1896		Transmission system is converted to three-phase, with induction motors replacing synchronous ones
1897 Feb. 11	Denver, Colo.	P.N.’s daughter dies of measles and other complications
1897 Aug. 8	Telluride?	P.N. and wife move to Provo
1897	Provo, Utah	Builds Nunn’s Station, first power installation in the Provo Canyon
1898 Feb.	Provo, Utah	Olmsted Power Station begins operations
1900	Norris, Mont.	Nunn builds plant on Madison River
1900	Ophir, Colo.	New powerhouse constructed at Ilium
1902	Ontario, Canada	With Paul, builds hydroelectric station at Niagara Falls for Ontario Power Company
1903	Logan, Utah	Logan Power Company absorbed into the Telluride Power Company
1903	Nellie Mine, Colo.	Miners’ strike
1904	Provo, Utah	Telluride Institute is expanded to the Olmsted Station
1907	Grace, Idaho	Builds power plant as part of the Bear River system
1907	Chihuahua, Mexico	Builds plant on the Fuerte River for the Lluvia de Oro Mining Company
1909 Feb.	Granville, Michigan	Niece Florence dies
1909	Ithaca, N.Y.	Telluride House built at Cornell (opens in 1910)
1909	Ophir, Colo.	Ilium plant destroyed in flood
1909	Telluride, Colo.	Dam at Trout Lake bursts
1910	Ithaca, N.Y.	Builds Telluride House at Cornell University, installs first students in fall
1910 Sept.	Telluride, Colo.	Dam at Trout Lake completed
1910 Nov.	Chicago, Ill.	Nunn is diagnosed with tuberculosis
1911	Olmsted, Utah	Signs constitution of Telluride Association along with 87 employees of the Telluride Institute
1912 May 23	Bear Creek Mill, Colo.	Fire shuts down operations at mill
1912 summer		Telluride Power Company taken over by the Electric Bond and Share Company of New York; Telluride Association split from the power company
1913 March 12		Western Colorado Power Company organized, takes over Telluride Power Transmission Company
1916	Claremont, Virginia	Nunn attempts unsuccessfully to fund another school
1916 Sept.	Deep Springs, Calif.	Purchases property to build Deep Springs School
1919	Teague, Texas	Sells diesel plant
1923	Casper, Wyo.	Sells diesel power company
1925 April 2	Los Angeles, Calif.	Nunn dies at the age of 72

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Views of areas where Nunn worked in Southwest Colorado:

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Items of interest in the Western Colorado Power Company business correspondence:

1)      Telegram codebook of the “Institute” club, kept by Frank R. Sherwin, September 1890 – Box 2, Folder 1

2)      Survey reports on “Stairs Water Power,” made by R. M. Jones, 1893 – Box 3, Folder 42

3)      Newspaper articles: “A Beach Resort Monopoly – Garfield Surrenders to the Big Pavilion,” “British Light Syndicate in Salt Lake compels the public to get on its knees and beg for service,” “Here to Build a Plant – Mr. Boettcher promises competition in Light,” “Water eats Gold – millions in the Yellow metal recovered by Percolation,” 1895 – Box 6, Folder 10

4)      Map of grants made by Governors Nichols and Dongan to the freeholders of Upper Manhattan Island, 1895 – Box 6, Folder 43

5)      Diagram of tension work apparatus, 5 May 1896 – Box 9, Folder 27

6)      L. L. Nunn’s correspondence notes, circa 1896-1899 – Box 9, Folder 42

7)      Salt Lake City newspaper articles: “To use Draper Canal: City Water Turned into East Jordan Waterway,” “Jordan Water Fizzle: City’s Share No Longer Runs in Draper Ditch,” “Jordan Water Meeting: Another Conference Held in Mayor’s Office,” October 1899 – Box 13, Folder 42

8)      Report on Waggoner ditch, 1900? – Box 17, Folder 16

9)      Diagrams of Ames transformers, 1900 – Box 17, Folder 49

10)  Daily work reports of construction done on Lake Hope and Ilium power lines, November 1900 – Box 18, Folder 1

11)  List of electrical supplies at Provo station, 9 August 1900 – Box 18, Folder 2

12)  Questionnaire for Pinhead occupational/educational placement, 1901 – Box 21, Folder 19

13)  Notes of negotiations for sale of Camp Bird power, 4 August 1902 – Box 23, Folder 10

14)  Survey of Bear Creek pipeline and adjacent properties, by H. C. Lay, 18 June 1903 – Box 24, Folder 33

15)  Rough diagram of Trout Lake reservoir, 1904? – Box 25, Folder 1

16)  Report on the Nellie Mine fire of January 6, 1905, with diagrams of wiring arrangement of Nellie Mine, report of operations for December 1904, San Miguel Examiner article of January 9: “Bad Blaze at the Nellie: Mine Building a Complete Loss By Fire,” January 1906 – Box 25, Folder 1

17)  Senate bill no. 370, “an act to amend Sections 1 and 3 of an act entitled ‘an act concerning water rights’” – Box 26, Folder 35

18)  Blueprints for Lake Fork pipelines, 1910 – Box 27, Folder 4

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Self-representation of L. L. Nunn as noted in his business correspondence: An evaluation by Christine Ro, Telluride Association Intern at the Center of Southwest Studies, July-August 2003  

It’s difficult to tell whether Nunn was as genuinely generous as he appears in his letters (he writes of shouldering the medical expenses for numerous unrelated people, for instance), or whether, as Sweeting suggests, he was always intensely aware that in writing he was creating his own historical record.  How aware was he that his actions and correspondence would be examined by future generations?  Is it unfairly cynical to question his motivations?

            The correspondence is full of requests for help, whether financial, occupational, or otherwise.   And even with those pleas for money that apparently went unanswered, Nunn was still very openhanded with his funds as well as his attentions, to the extent that such liberality began to take a personal toll.  In a letter to A.M. Wrench dated April 12, 1895, for instance, he writes, “I have been so driven to desperation by my sick and lonely condition, and the ever increasing demands made upon me that I begin to hope that the suffering has rought [sic] its own cure.  I am here careing [sic] for three invalids, Mrs. Whitman, Fred and Urban.  If I had a companion with me who could assist me in attending to business matters, which I cannot neglect, I would feel strong but I am alone and have to be alone except as I am with the sick.”[i]  Similarly, while discussing a Miss Kibbe in a November 18, 1899 letter, he complains that “Every affair of the kind is a burden to me, and I feel that the Hospital would not be a bad place for me to go to.  However, I have no intention of throwing off the responsibilities that seem plainly to be put upon me.”[ii]

            It’s hard not to admire the evident generosity behind such statements, or the sense of social obligation obvious when Nunn refers, in a January 19, 1901 letter, to “the difficulties of winter construction,” but notes that the company’s customers depend upon the power station being built: “Our failure to serve them would interrupt the employment of 4,000 men and a product of over $20,000 per day.”[iii]  Even the seemingly mundane correspondence reveals a commendable sense of charity, as in the bills, telegrams, and receipts from the Keeley Institute of Chicago,[iv] where Nunn paid for the rest cures or addiction rehabilitation of at least four people.

            Nunn, then, was clearly a bighearted man.  The complication is that he was also ideally situated for self-representation, and it isn’t obvious where the line between Nunn the private altruist and Nunn the public philanthropist lies.  For not only in the correspondence, of which even the most trivial of telegrams, rate statements, bills, etc. he apparently retained, but in the contemporary media, which seemed to have a fascination with him and other important mining figures, Nunn could fairly assume that a record of his deeds and words would be kept. 

            And indeed, even in the late 19^th century, Nunn must have been acutely aware of the power of the media to influence his business dealings and public reception.  Besides owning a newspaper himself, he used the forum to advance business propositions, as in a letter published in The Telluride Journal, dated June 15, 1891 and addressed “to the citizens of Telluride,” in which he advocates the construction of a local hotel.  While attempting to foster a sense of community (he includes himself in the town’s “us”), Nunn writes that “my only desire in the matter is to advance the general prosperity of the town.”[v]  Likewise, a March 18, 1892 letter to the editor of the Journal, printed in his own newspaper, the rival Telluride Republican, declares, “No one knows better than you do the vast benefit which the work which I have done in this county has been to the entire community.  Admissions on this score have been wrung from my opponents.”[vi]  Nunn clearly understood the means and potential of manipulating public opinion.

            Reciprocally, the newspapers loved him.  The Telluride Journal declares on July 18, 1891 that “to Mr. L.L. Nunn, general manager of the Gold King Property, is due the credit for the inception and successful demonstration of this enterprise,”[vii] and refers to him on June 29, 1911 as “the founder, father, creator and since its birth, the directing genius to whose indefatigable energy, determination and resourcefulness is due the marked success achieved by the Telluride Power Company…it will be gratifying to the many old friends of Mr. Nunn in Telluride and vicinity to learn that he has the confidence and support of a two-thirds majority of the board of directors of the Telluride Power Company.”[viii] 

Even gossip columns carefully tracked Nunn’s movements, while editorials from every mining district applauded the technological progress that Nunn seemed to typify.  Even aside from any possible concurrence of newspaper and business interests, Nunn was apparently lionized both in his day and ours.  That the mythology endured long after his death is apparent in a 1977 issue of Colorado Country Life, which states: “L.L. Nunn, whose picture graces our cover this month, was a Very Important Person in his day.  His contribution to the electric utility industry was a significant one…We happen to believe that the kind of courage and innovation which Nunn displayed was not untypical of his day, and hopefully of today.  Perhaps there are enough Nunn-like individuals around today, willing to endure the criticisms and the skepticism, that the answers will be found to many of our problems – including the energy crisis.”[ix]  For a very long time, if still not today, Nunn was remembered the way he wanted to be remembered.   

Ultimately, it may not matter what Nunn’s motivations were, or the extent to which consciousness of his own massive legacy influenced his personal dealings.  Nunn did contribute to his own public image in ways unavailable to most people.  But in his private gifts, as with his public endowments, Nunn may have been acting under the same stimulus: the desire to leave something worthwhile for the future, whether that took the form of the Telluride Association or an elevated, possibly even romanticized, view of himself.  A Ouray Herald article of June 16, 1911, titled “Nunn’s Gift Aids Education – Telluride Institute of Electrical Engineering Receives Immense Sum,” notes that “L.L. Nunn has long been known as a practical, unostentatious philanthropist.”[x]  Then, as now, the philanthropy seems to matter more than the reasons behind it.

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The business life vs. the private life of L. L. Nunn, as noted in his business correspondence at the Center of Southwest Studies:
An evaluation by Christine Ro, Telluride Association Intern at the Center of Southwest Studies, July-August 2003

            For a man surrounded by associates and acquaintances, and so seemingly preoccupied with details of business and industry, Nunn’s letters express a surprising amount of despondency.  On March 19, 1895, he writes:

My dear Wrench:

I am going to try to write you a letter but this burning feeling on top of my head suggests a failure, I am very ill.  No one believes it but I am really very ill, and I cannot do much and when I try to do a little more than what I can do easily I am completely knocked out.  I want to say a word about the way you treat our mutual relation.  You continually assume and ascert [sic] that I am changed in feelings toward you, and then you act upon your assumption and change in hundreds of different ways your self, while I am made sensative [sic] to those changes.  Just think of the deep insinuation in changing your heading from “My dear Nunn” to “My dear Mr. Nunn.”  And yet you do this to me at a time where my entire soul is burdened with the sense of isolation and lonelyness [sic].  Such things turn me faint and often leave me with hardly strength enough to walk.  You speak of discontinuing our friendship.  Surely this is not the time for you to leave me.  I should either be better or dead soon.  I have not changed in my feelings toward you.  If I am to ill to do as I did formerly I am not to blame, but should have more support not less.  I cant write you constantly I have many duties and I cant do much, but I am sure I do as well as I can.[i] 

The sense of isolation expressed in this letter recurs in others.  Nunn even appears suicidal at times, as when he writes, and appears to identify with, an employee’s suicide:

Marshall Goudy was twenty years old – thoughtful sincere and generous but apparently lonely…I am satisfied that he felt awful oppression which came from a sense of complete isolation and only did what I have so often yearned to do but did not have the courage; perhaps lacked the faith in freedom from the flesh.[ii]

In fostering this isolation, Nunn’s personal relationships were clearly a source of depression.  And complicating those relationships may have been his inability to separate his business and personal worlds.  (Paul N., in alternately addressing L.L. as “My dear brother” and “Sir,” exemplifies this ambiguity.)  Even in letters to A.M. Wrench, for instance, who along with being a director of the San Miguel Consolidated Gold Mining Company, cashier of the First National Bank of Telluride, and Nunn’s partner in real estate and power ventures besides, was perhaps his closest associate, Nunn shifts from business matters to personal issues with odd abruptness.  On June 2, 1891 he writes Wrench a stirring, deeply personal letter (“I want to see you and feel so lost without you and still I know I cannot claim you”[iii]), followed four days later by a 7-page account of Gold King financial interests.[iv]  Even within that letter, Nunn moves suddenly from reports about business colleagues to professions of affection; did he even conceive of a separation of private and public life?

            For not only with Wrench, but with all Nunn’s closest friends, business and companionship were inevitably intertwined.  Paul N., his brother, was also chief engineer of the Telluride Power Company, while Nunn numbered among his other good friends Stephen Bailey, his secretary; Malachi Kinney, his business partner in Leadville and Durango; and Cooper Anderson, the superintendent of the Olmsted plant.

            It is perhaps not surprising that someone as monumentally busy as Nunn should have combined friends with partners, if for no other reason than convenience.  But Nunn’s apparent feelings of betrayal, as with Anderson’s opposition to his educational interests, or abandonment, as with Bailey’s perceived attachment to his job rather than his employer, seem to have stemmed from these dual relationships.  Nunn writes on March 30, 1895:

You write as though Bailey was with me.  No one is with me.  Bailey left me nine days ago.  No one wishes to be with one like me…I have absolutely failed every where.[v] 

and on April 12, 1895: 

Bailey brought Urban here one evening at 8 o’clock and left the next morning at 10.  He may have said he wanted to be with me, but he meant that he wished to have me go with him where ever he wished to be in order that he might have the satisfaction of feeling that he was doing a great deal for me and at the same time suffering an inconvenience… my life so far warrants me in saying that I have not an associate who wishes to be with me, or will be with me when not absolutely compelled to be so.[vi]

In this letter, Nunn himself seems to recognize the problems with an employer-employee relationship that doubles as that between friends.

            And given the number of associates who were dependent upon him for assistance – the correspondence is full of requests for loans and jobs from strangers as well as old friends – the complications in Nunn’s emotional life become even clearer.  “The most difficult part of my life, and that which is bringing me to a premature old age, is dealing with such matters where my intense feeling is being continually wrought upon,”[vii] he writes on December 29, 1898, in speaking of a friend’s appeal for money.  As this aspect of Nunn’s life has been relatively neglected for so long, it seems a worthy subject of investigation, one that will help to humanize an often idealized figure.

            Even more, insight into Nunn’s personal life may shed light on his business dealings.  That is, for someone as technologically and financially sophisticated as he was, Nunn displayed a surprising amount of emotional volatility.  It seems as though Nunn’s passions simply changed shape, shifting from the romantic jealousies and dramas that characterized his relationships with the Wrenches and even Bailey toward the educational mission he later operated with similar zeal.  Upon Nunn’s break with Wrench, McDermott writes that “henceforward Nunn's emotional impulses would be channeled through the Telluride Institute, which until that point had been largely P. N.’s preserve.”[viii]  And just as the Institute seemed to supplant the complications of his emotional attachments, so too did Nunn’s romantic life replace his earlier fervor for religion.  Did he just have a fanatical side?  It will be interesting to attempt to answer a question like that.

            What is certain, however, is that Nunn’s business practices, like his pioneering work with the alternating current or his innovative approach to practical education, were not conventional.  Aside from the inevitable consequence of allowing business interests to intrude upon his private life (everything becomes personal, as when business rivals become “conspiracies” to ruin him), Nunn’s customs created new standards for “business” relationships.  An October 28, 1902 letter to Cooper Anderson reads:

            My association in taking in those who belong to our industries, who have worked loyally for them, may be a little broader than the                         

        ordinary family, in extent, but need not be any the less intense.  I have not, nor will I, neglect any personal matter for business, except as my        

        judgment informs me that the business is of more importance intrinsically than the other.  It is merely, with me, a matter of degree.[ix]

As in so many other fields, Nunn here is an original.  His commitment to companionship, to loyalty, and to the needs of those closest to him, even at the potential expense of business interests, marks him out as unusual among people with business concerns as far-reaching as his.  “Will we soon begin to tire of the grind of business…?” he asks James Campbell in a 1900 Christmas letter.[x]  The implication seems to be that business was never Nunn’s priority.

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A bibliography of L. L. Nunn materials at the Center of Southwest Studies:
Compiled by Christine Ro, Telluride Association Intern at the Center of Southwest Studies, July-August 2003

Books:

Bailey, Stephen A.  

LL Nunn -- A Memoir 

published by Telluride Association, 1933

definitive Nunn biography – excerpts many primary sources and covers every period of Nunn’s life but lacks thoroughness or impartiality (written by Nunn’s secretary and commissioned and published under the auspices of the Telluride Association)  

SW Special Collections M002

 

Clark, Denis E. (compiler)

Telluride Power: A Brief Illustrated History of the Early Days

published by the Telluride Association History Committee, 2001

“This brief history covers the early development of LL Nunn’s hydroelectric business and the educational enterprises that went along with them.” – includes a timeline, maps, and many photographs

SW Special Collections M002

 

Cummins, Mrs. M.L.

“An Industry and an Institution of Higher Learning are Born at Ames, Colorado – 1891”

pages 130-4 in Pioneers of the San Juan Country, 1961, Volume IV

published by Big Mountain Press for Sarah Platt Decker Chapter, N.S.D.A.R. (Denver)

discusses the installation of the Ames plant and the beginnings of the Telluride Association

SW F782 S19 D35 v. 1-4

also F782.S19 D35 v. 1-4 c. 2 (in Reed Library of Fort Lewis College)

       SW F782.S19 D35 v. 3 c. 3

       SW F782.S19 D35 v. 3-4 c.2

 

Fetter, Richard L. and Suzanne

Telluride: From Pick to Powder

published by the Caxton Printers (Caldwell, Idaho), 1979

lightweight, entertaining history of Telluride, from the 1870s to 1970s – Nunn is represented as integral to the town’s development

SW F784 .T4 F47 1979

 

Marshall, John B.

“The Story of J.A. Porter”

pages 76-86 in Pioneers of the San Juan Country, 1952, Volume III

published by Big Mountain Press for Sarah Platt Decker Chapter, N.S.D.A.R. (Denver)

short biography of mine manager John A. Porter briefly mentions Nunn’s provision of power to San Juan mines

SW F782 S19 D35 v. 1-4

also F782.S19 D35 v. 1-4 c. 2 (in Reed Library of Fort Lewis College)

       SW F782.S19 D35 v. 3 c. 3

       SW F782.S19 D35 v. 3-4 c.2

 

Mott, Mary Kirker

“At Lake City and Telluride”

pages 87-100 in Pioneers of the San Juan Country, 1946, Volume II

published by Big Mountain Press for Sarah Platt Decker Chapter, N.S.D.A.R. (Denver)

Telluride resident reminisces about her experiences in the area, from 1870s to 1890s – Nunn is briefly mentioned in connection with the Telluride Power Company

SW F782 S19 D35 v. 1-4

also F782.S19 D35 v. 1-4 c. 2 (in Reed Library of Fort Lewis College)

 

Rathmell, Ruth

Of Record and Reminiscence – Ouray and Silverton

published by North Suburban Printing & Publishing, Inc., 1976 (Westminster, Colorado)

good photos

SW F784 O 82 R3

 

Sweeting, Orville J.

Telluride: Power for the Intermountain West: A History of the Telluride Power Company, Predecessor of the Utah Power and Light Company

manuscript microfilm, 395 pages

unpublished manuscript, completed January 1975

final revision (ribbon copy of final manuscript) of The Education Experiment of L.L. Nunn, unpublished manuscript, 1970

comprehensive history of Nunn’s life and developments in mining, power, and education, with many excerpted letters and other primary sources

SW Center Microforms Coll I 063 

 

Weber, Rose

A Quick History of Telluride

published by Little London Press, 1974 (Colorado Springs)

thin volume of mining-era reminiscences, with great photographs – includes account of Nunn’s electrical developments

SW F784 T4 W4   

 

Wenger, Martin G.

Recollections of Telluride, 1895-1920

published by Basin Reproduction & Printing Company, 1978 (Durango, Colorado)

thin volume of mining-era reminiscences, with great photographs – includes account of Nunn’s electrical developments

SW F784 T4 W42

 

Pamphlets:

“A History – Utah Power & Light Company,” 21 pages

published by the Utah Power & Light Company, circa 1986

same Nunn-related content as “Utah Power & Light Company”

SW Special Collections M002 RG1 S1.2 Box1 Folder19

 

“A Romance of Electricity on the Western Slope,” 21 pages

published by the Western Colorado Power Company, 1968

illustrated volume charting the history of the WCPC, – mentions Nunn’s innovations with the alternating current (republished version of “The First 50 Years: A Romance of Electricity on the Western Slope” – content unchanged)

SW HD 9685 R65

also SW Special Collections M002 RG1 S1.2 Box1 Folder14

 

 “Power for the People,” 16 pages

published by the Utah Power & Light Company, 1969

booklet that “attempts to describe the scene behind the switch at Utah Power & Light Company” briefly mentions, under the heading “The Coming of Electricity,” Nunn’s innovation with the alternating current

SW Special Collections M002 RG1 S1.2 Box1 Folder 15

 

“The First 50 Years: A Romance of Electricity on the Western Slope,” 16 pages

published by the Western Colorado Power Company, 1963

illustrated volume charting the history of the WCPC – mentions Nunn’s innovations with the alternating current

SW Special Collections M002 RG1 S1.2 Box1 Folder 10

 

“Utah Power & Light Company,” 14 pages

published by the Utah Power & Light Company, circa 1962

in the context of its own history of electrification, explores Nunn’s involvement in the mining districts, the success of the alternating current at Ames, and the Telluride education program

SW Special Collections M002 RG1 S1.2 Box1 Folder 9

 

Periodicals:

Alder, Douglas D.

“The Ghost of Mercur”

pages 33-42 in Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol.29, 1961

published by the Utah State Historical Society

discusses the unique nature of the Mercur mine and its centrality of electricity to mining operations there – Nunn is briefly mentioned as the provider of electricity to the Golden Gate Mill

SW Periodicals

 

Britton, Charles C.

“An Early Electric Power Facility in Colorado”

pages 185-95 in Colorado Magazine, Vol.49, No.3, Summer 1972

published by The State Historical Society of Colorado

explores the growth of the Telluride power system, particularly the developments at the Gold King Mine

SW Periodicals

 

Buys, Christian J.                   

“Power in the Mountains: Lucien Nunn Catapults the San Juans into the Age of Electricity”

pages 25-37 in Colorado Heritage, Issue 4, 1986

published by the State Historical Society of Colorado

summary of Nunn’s technological achievements – offers little in the way of new information but provides a good introduction to his power developments – draws heavily on the Bailey biography and offers the same favorable account

SW Periodicals

 

Easton, Dick (ed.)

“That Good Ol’ American Ingenuity”

pages 4-5 in Colorado Country Life, Vol.25, No.1, July 1977

published by the Colorado Rural Electric Association

short article about the alternating current excerpts “A Romance of Electricity on the Western Slope” (see under Pamphlets)

SW Periodicals

 

Haycock, Obed C.

“Electric Power Comes to Utah”

pages 173-87 in Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol.45, No.2, Spring 1977

published by the Utah State Historical Society

“This article will describe the growth of electric power – primarily before the formation of Utah Power and Light Company – and the contributions of the Nunn brothers and others to the state’s development.” – summarizes the origins of electric power in Utah, up to the formation of the Utah Power & Light Company in 1912 – discusses the Grace, Olmsted, Ames and Nunns plants

SW Periodicals

 

McCormick, John S.

“The Beginning of Modern Electric Power Service in Utah, 1912-22”

pages 4-22 in Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol.56, No.1, Winter 1988

published by the Utah State Historical Society

explores the advent of electricity in Utah from the formation of the Utah Power & Light Company – Nunn and the Telluride Power Company are mentioned briefly in connection with the UP&L’s acquisition of electric power companies

SW Periodicals

 

Topping, Gary (ed.)

“An Adventure for Adventure’s Sake Recounted by Robert B. Aird”

from Utah Historical Quarterly, Vol.62, No.3, Summer 1994

published by the Utah State Historical Society

the author very briefly mentions visiting some Nunn-related sites during a trip to Telluride

SW Periodicals

 

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This report was produced by Christine Ro, Telluride Association Intern at the Center of Southwest Studies, July-August 2003.  Editorial assistance by Todd Ellison in August of 2003 and in April/ July of 2004.

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Doing your own research: This description of a portion of one of the collections at the Fort Lewis College Center of Southwest Studies is provided to inform interested parties about the nature and depth of the repository's collections.  It cannot serve as a substitute for a visit to the repository for those with substantial research interests in the collections.  

These collections are located at the Center of Southwest Studies on the campus of Fort Lewis College.  Interested researchers should phone the archivist at 970/247-7126 or send electronic mail to the archivist at: Ellison_T@fortlewis.edu .   Click here to use our E-mail Reference Request Form.  The Center does not have a budget for outgoing long-distance phone calls to answer reference requests, so if you do not provide an email address for our response you will need to be willing to accept a collect call from the Center.

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