Sparta Hydroelectric Station, Sparta Tennessee

Date added: October 17, 2023 Categories: Tennessee Power Plant Hydroelectric Power

Exterior forebay wall and powerhouse, looking northwest (1989)

The Sparta Hydroelectric Station operated for thirty-two years, supplying the lion's share of Sparta's domestic and fledgling industrial needs.

The site's original 1909 appearance has been altered by neglect since its abandonment in 1941, yet it retains integrity of design with its unique concrete flume arrangement. The Sparta Hydroelectric Station was preceded by an earlier twentieth-century effort. In 1902, four Sparta businessmen, J. T. Anderson, J. R. Tubb, O. H. Anderson, and S. B. Anderson formed the aptly named Anderson and Tubb Power Company. Located at the site of an old grist mill, a mile upstream from the Sparta Hydroelectric Station, it was a peculiarly vernacular affair, at first consisting of a direct current (single phase), sixty-kilowatt generator from the Fayetteville steam generating plant, a waterwheel from Rome, Georgia, and an American Ball steam engine from the old Read House in Chattanooga. This arrangement operated for five years until 1907 when it burned.

In 1917, according to TVA documents, the Tennessee Electric Power Company (TEPCO) purchased the plant and operated it regularly until the early 1930s when the facility was placed on standby service. In the six years following 1926, "the plant output averaged 730,000 kWh annually at a production cost of approximately 2.5 mills/kWh." The TVA purchased the site in 1939 and determined that if it would continue operation, it would be too costly, and it was sold in 1941 to Mr. R. J. Snodgrass. After its sale, the private owners removed most of its equipment for pts salvage value, most likely enhanced by the exigencies of World War II.

Although the Sparta Hydroelectric Station has been abandoned since 1941, the site's dam and intake structure, the one-quarter-mile-long-concrete flume, the forebay, trash rack, powerhouse, and tail race are all extant today.

Site Description

The Sparta Hydroelectric Station is located on the right (north) bank of the Calfkiller River. The complex begins with a diversion dam leading to a one-quarter-mile-long flume that follows a course parallel to the river and leads to the powerhouse. It is located just to the east of the State Highway No. 111 bridge which crosses the river immediately below the dam, about 1.2 miles southwest of Sparta, the capital of White County, Tennessee (population 19,567).

Construction of the extant Sparta hydro station was begun at the present site and was completed in 1909. This new plant was located on the Calfkiller River about a mile downstream from where the first hydroelectric station in Sparta had burned in 1907. The extant resource features a unique seven-foot concrete dam that redirected river water into an open canal [i.e. flume] and conveyed it to the powerhouse, a quarter-mile downstream.

The 430-foot long, seven-foot high, trapezoidal concrete gravity dam (with the date "1909" plainly visible today), concrete flume, and powerhouse, built by Boise & Foust, contractors from Chattanooga, provided for the electric power needs of Sparta. The dam extends 400 feet in an angular-arch from the left (south) bank to the intake structure on the right (north) bank, so as to form an entrance channel. Its height varies from five to seven feet. According to TVA documents: "The structure is in sound condition and would not require major repairs." The flume intake is also a concrete structure, with provision for four headgates and operating equipment to admit water to the flume. The seventeen-foot wide flume is rock and concrete, lined for the first 500 feet. In the upper section, portions of the concrete lining are damaged, while the intake and flume are filled with silt and choked with fallen trees and heavy undergrowth. The forebay consists of a gated structure, opening into a seventeen-foot-deep concrete enclosure, containing a horizontal turbine in an open flume setting. According to a TVA report, no signs of major structural distress are evident in the forebay. The double-runner, horizontal turbine, installed in 1924 to replace the original 1910 triple-runner type, is still in place, but is in poor condition, "having been dewatered and exposed to the elements for over 40 years." The unit was rated at 300 horsepower under a twenty-three-foot head.

The powerhouse is a small concrete structure located west of the forebay, and housed the generator, governor, and station equipment. While still structurally sound, the powerhouse has been denuded of all fixtures, doors, and windows. Original access roads to the flume and the powerhouse are in very poor condition.