Did you know that TAPCO (The Arizona Power Company) was considered a town?  According to a small announcement in the February, 1917 issue of Yavapai Magazine, TAPCO was home to several hundred employees.

Their main customer? William Andrews Clark's United Verde Copper Company. California crude oil was brought by rail where it was burned in four boilers and a 4,600 ft. concrete gravity flume brought water from the Verde River to cool the condenser.  Eventually a 450 ft. pedestrian swinging suspension was built across the Verde to help deal with occasional flooding. Senator Clark had quickly realized the advantage of cheaper hydroelectric power over the coal and oil he was having to import 1,500 miles over harsh terrain and signed a contract for more than a third of the generating capacity of distant Fossil Creek. By the end of 1909, of the 2,700 horsepower produced, 1,600 of that was delivered to the United Verde Copper Company still located in Jerome.  With both the Irving and Childs (Fossil Creek) plants producing power, it was evident once again that additional power would be needed. Construction was started on a modern steam plant called TAPCO in 1917, about three miles north of Clarkdale on a large bend in the river. The new plant created another 10,000 horsepower, more than doubling Childs and Irving hydro plants. In 1920, a transmission line was extended south and supplied 70% of the power needs of the Phoenix area. By 1932, it had expanded to provide power to the mines and towns of Wickenburg, Seligman, Ashfork, and Flagstaff. After the closures of the United Verde Extension mine in 1938 and the United Verde Copper Company in 1953, the TAPCO steam plant was at the end of its production life by June 1950 and was finally retired in September 1958.

Questions or comments? contact info@clarkdalemuseum.org

Submitted by Cindy Emmett from "How Water Changed the Face of Power in Central Arizona", by Tim Coons, Presented at The Arizona Centennial Conference at The Pointe Hilton Cliffs Tapatio Resort, Phoenix, Arizona; April 20, 2012.