photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Bowersock Mills & Power Co. pictured Friday, September 13, 2024.

Kansas’ sole hydropower plant is in Lawrence, and this year marks 150 years of service to local residents since 1874.

Sarah Hill-Nelson, the current owner and operator of Bowersock Mills & Power Co.’s hydroelectric plant that sits on the Kansas River near Massachusetts Street, is the descendant of the original owner of the plant that helped supply mechanical power to Lawrence all those years ago.

It’s powered two flour mills, a paper mill, two grain elevators, a twine factory, a shirt factory, two machine shops, the Leis chemical works, two printing offices, a barbed wire factory and even the Journal-World, and the hydroelectric plant still commits to providing renewable energy today.

“We mark our beginning with when the Douglas County Mills first started using power off the dam for the grist mill, and that was in the year 1874,” Hill-Nelson said. “So this year is the 150th anniversary.”

Her family on her dad’s side, the Hills, descend from owner Justin DeWitt, or J. D., Bowersock who took control of operations in 1879.

Because many Kansans associate renewable energy primarily with wind, hydropower can easily be overlooked.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Marcia Hill (left), Stephen Hill (middle) and Sarah Hill-Nelson (right) pictured Friday, September 13, 2024.

Even though Kansas ranks among the top five states for total wind power generation, Stephen Hill, Hill-Nelson’s father and previous operator of the plant, said hydropower is the cheapest form of energy that we know how to produce today, and that’s because the plants can survive for so long. The plant has lived for so long because it operates at a slow speed, Hill said.

“The thing to remember is that hydroelectric equipment has a very long life,” Hill said. “These generators that are now available to operate when we have enough water, they could be running when every coal-fired power plant or gas-fired power plant in this region has been decommissioned.”

The hydroelectric plant went out of Hill-Nelson’s family after J.D. Bowersock died. It went to another family partner, Richard C. Jackman. It remained with them until Hill bought it back in 1972. His wife, Marcia Hill, became involved to take care of the books to track the expenditures.

Hydroelectric power is also very dependable, Hill-Nelson said. While she said she is 100% behind renewable energy, there are some flaws in solar panels and wind turbines. Most of the time, these panels and turbines have to operate in the right weather conditions, but with hydroelectric power, it’s easy to determine how much power will be produced in the day by looking to see how much water will pass through the plant.

The hydroelectric plant works by having water come through the plant and drop into the building. Normally, the plant puts out seven megawatts, but the water level in the Kansas River directly plays a role in how much energy is being generated.

“The whole building is like a giant machine,” Hill-Nelson said. “So (water) comes into the building, drops on a big thing called a runner, which is like a giant fan, and goes out on the back side.”

Imagine a runner as a pinwheel caught under a sink. When water flows over the pinwheel, it spins. A hydroelectric plant operates in much the same way.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Turbines inside the Bowersock hydroelectric plant on Friday, September 13, 2024.

“All we’re doing is borrowing the weight of the water,” Hill-Nelson said. “We’re not polluting and we’re not consuming the water. We just use the weight of the water to drive our water wheels, which then makes our generator spin.”

All of Bowersock’s energy is bought by the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities, where the two entities established a 25-year power-purchase agreement in 2010. Hill-Nelson said there were some people in Lawrence who wondered why Bowersock would sell its power to another community rather than keeping it local.

But “the grid is like a giant swimming pool,” Hill-Nelson said. “You can imagine that around that swimming pool (there are a) bunch of spigots all pouring water into the pool and there’s a giant drain draining out all the time.”

“On a hot July day, we’ve all got the AC running and it’s draining very quickly,” Hill-Nelson said. “We are in an area called the Southwest Power Pool, which is managed out of Little Rock, and they’re basically lifeguarding to all these people standing at these spigots … because they have to keep the water in the pool at the right level.”

She added that once you put your power in the grid, it’s not like there’s a line directly to the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities so they can use the power. Once you put energy in the pool, it all mixes together and you can’t tell where it comes from. Hill-Nelson said in reality, there are buildings and people around the hydroelectric plant using the power.

Hill-Nelson said there will be a celebration on Sunday, Nov. 24, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Bowersock Warehouse. She said it will be a thank-you party to all of the people helping manage the Kansas River and other partners.

“We can’t be operating without the Kansas River,” Hill-Nelson said.

“We have depended on so many people,” she said. “We have to work with people all up and down the river to manage water use, and we are closely allied with Friends of the Kaw and the Sierra Club, and we certainly wouldn’t be able to document the history the way we can without the Watkins Museum.”

Water beside the Bowersock hydroelectric plant on Friday, September 13, 2024.

photo by: Contributed

The Bowersock hydroelectric power plant hours prior to the flood of 1903.

photo by: Contributed

The Bowersock hydroelectric power plant during the flood in 1951.

photo by: Contributed

A postcard of Bowersock Mills & Power Co.

photo by: Contributed

A postcard of Bowersock Mills & Power Co.

photo by: Contributed

A postcard of Bowersock Mills & Power Co.

photo by: Contributed

Bowersock Mills & Power Co. on the corner of 6th Street and the bridge over the Kansas River.

photo by: Contributed

By June 8, 1978, only a part of one grain silo remained of the Bowersock Mill.

photo by: Contributed

Demolition of the Bowersock Mills and surrounding buildings to make way for the

construction of City Hall, May 12, 1978.

photo by: Contributed

The demolition of the grain elevator house at Bowersock Mill on May 23, 1978.

photo by: Contributed

Low water allows bulldozer to remove stone rubble below dam. The picture was estimated to be taken sometime in 1955.