- Dates
- 1958-12 – 1959-02
- Kind
- Disaster
- Where
- Beaver Island
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- technologycommunitypublic-serviceeconomy
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The January 1959 Beaver Beacon reports two generator failures in December: a broken crankshaft in the large unit and broken valves in a small unit. Parts of the island lost power for several hours, and repairs to the small generator took about 10 hours. The report also describes Joe Dillingham taking outside work for Top O’Michigan REC while Jewell Gillespie remained Northern Michigan Electric’s plant manager and operator. The February issue reports that new parts finally returned the large generator to service.
Evidence limits
The article does not provide outage logs, engineering reports, repair invoices, load data, or utility agreements.
Sources
- Reports a broken crankshaft in the large generator followed the next day by broken valves in one of two small generators, leaving parts of the island without power for several hours and requiring about 10 hours of repair on the small unit; the large unit awaited a Kansas City crankshaft. It says village residents curtailed appliance use to restore country power after about five hours and that Joe Dillingham became B.I. manager for Top O’Michigan REC while Jewell Gillespie remained manager and operator for Northern Michigan Electric. It does not provide outage logs, engineering reports, repair invoices, load data, or utility agreements. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1959-01_Beaver-Beacon
- The held five-page issue scan is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the outage, repair, and management report; it does not expand the utility or engineering record.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1959-01_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports that new parts arrived after about a month and the large generator began operating again, with Jewell Gillespie and Joe Dillingham credited for many hours of work. It does not provide repair invoices, engineering tests, outage logs, or a service guarantee. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1959-02_Beaver-Beacon
- The held five-page issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the generator-repair report; it does not expand the utility or engineering record.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1959-02_Beaver-Beacon
Added 3 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island power plant suffers breakdowns and changes outside management, 1959”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-power-plant-breakdowns-and-management-change-1959/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, January 1959, “POWER PLANT PAINS ARE GROWING.” (and 3 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Beaver Island power plant suffers breakdowns and changes outside management, 1959”RIS for “Beaver Island power plant suffers breakdowns and changes outside management, 1959”