The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-09-14
By sUsY WYNN

The years of planning for the future industrial development of northern British Columbia came tC an abrupt halt this year the future arrived. Just prior to the opening of the Columbia Cellulose Company's S3O,OoOOOO pulp mill at Port Edward, the Aluminium Com pany of Canada announced in April that it had selected Kitimat. small Indian village south of Prince Rupert, as the site for the worlds largest hydroelectric plant to be built at the cost of $500, 100000.
 The gigantic development wifi ex- tend from the smelter at Kitimat eastwards distance of 120 miles to the Grand Canyon on the Nechako River, where a dam will be con- structed. Construction started at five locations this season and over 5000 men are now employed on the project. The work was started in February by the Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company and in May, the Fred NfsrfffffiissS ny of Cal= gary, Canadian associate of MIX, took over the job. Construction is going ahead at top speed with mill production scheduled to begin in 1853.
 SThe people of northern British Columbia. who live in small villages along the Canadian National Rail- way between Prince Rupert and Prince George are not as boom happy" as they are dazed by the project. :. Since March, the Alcan Company nas been spending half lia If 6 million dollars each week and ac- cording to the provincial govern ment this figure will soon be raised. This is a lot of money in any mans language. and the Canadian settlers, many of whom came north before the Canadian National was built in 1910. have difficult time realizing the extent of their new prosperity. In the early days. the settlers be- lieved that prosperity would come when the tracks were built eo Prince Rupert, which. wns piann6 as an ocean port for trade to the Orient. This bubble burst in 1916 when the Grand Trunk Railway weht hrnke and wasl taken over by the e0vcff1s ment-sponsored Canadian National Hallway. Alter years of planning for the industrial development of northern British Columbia, Cana dians have<good reason to be amazed by their sudden turn of fortune.
 Project Plans
 The entire project lies within Tweedsn1uir National Park, vast wilderness area, lying south of the Canadian National Railway and Highway Is, which parallels the tracks. Within the park, a giant network of rivers and lakes will be impounded to form lake 100 miles across. The western shore of the lake will back on the Tahtsa moun- tains of the Cascade Range and will extend eastwards through series of existing lakes to the Ne chako River. At the grand can- yon on the Nechako River, 69 miles southwest of Vanderhoof, Alcan is going to stop the eastward flow of water by constructing an earth and rockfill dam. which will be BIO feet high by 1850 feet long. It is esti-- mated that it will take five years to complete the dam, but before it is finished to it's highest level, waters backed up by it will be turning the turbines at the main power plant, over 12O miles to the west.
 At the west end of this inland sea, where it backs against the Tahtsa mountains, tunnel will be bored through 10 miles of solid rock under the mountains. From the tunnel, water will drop down 2,6O0 vertical feet and Alcan offl- cials have stated that an output of 1,60O,O0O horsepower can be devei- oped. The powerhouse will be To- cated inside the mountain, in al quarter mile square cavern blasted out of solid rock. The western end of the tunnel is located ten miles from the head of Rename Bay on Gardner Canal.
 The power produced at the Ke- nanlo plant will be carried by cleo trics transmission lines to Kitimat, which is situated in a five-mlle wide valley. Kitimat is the nearest suitable location for the smelter and Aluminium City" which is expected to reach a population of 50,O00, and will rank as British Columbia's third largest city.
 At Kitimat. deep sea wharf is being constructed to handle bauxite (aluminum ore) which will be brought in by ships from the com- pany's development in the Carib- bean Sea area The smelter, in its initial stage will produce 330,000,0 900 pounds of aluminium annually, and it's full production is estimated to be 1,100,000,000 pounds.
 Why British Columbia?
 There is only one answer to why the worlds largest hydroelectric plant is being constructed in the wilderness of British Columbia. R.