Solar, Hydro Power Fueling Remote Area

What man has not been able to do in the remote and rugged Snake River Canyon west of North Fork is slowly being done by sun and water.

Through solar and hydroelectric power, households in the canyon that only got direct-dial telephone service a few years ago are now quietly being brought other luxuries of the 20th Century.

“We’re so uptown down here that we don’t know what to do with ourselves,” said Joy Potts, who owns the only fax machine on the river. “Having lived down here in a tent, I’m amazed at the progress.”

Potts and her husband, Stan, who came to the canyon in 1983, are now living in a new log home equipped this year with hydroelectric power, and more neighbors have turned to solar power.

It completes the journey from kerosene lamps and wood fires for heat and cooking through propane appliances and noisy diesel generators to electricity needed for the televisions and other amenities common in the rest of America.

Joy Potts said they got their TV to keep up with the news because radio reception is poor and newspapers are old by the time they arrive.

Jeff Waite, who has equipped homes along the Salmon River and Panther Creek with power, installed the Potts’ hydroelectric system and feels a bit guilty about bringing power to the river.

“Almost every time I’ve put in a system, the next thing that they put in is a satellite dish,” he said. “I thought, ‘God, Jeff, you came here and changed everything.”’

One thing power has done is cut down the noise in the canyon. Waite said the Ramshead, a cafe on the river, used to run its generator all the time while it was open. Now it runs about a third of the time.