Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
From the record
“The Smuggler-Union Hydroelectric Powerplant, also known as the Bridal Veil Powerhouse, is an electric power generation plant and residence located next to Bridal Veil Falls on a 400-foot (120 m) cliff overlooking Telluride, Colorado. The structure is stories on a poured concrete foundation with a wood frame superstructure.”
Wikipedia article Smuggler-Union Hydroelectric Power Plant, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 9 National Register listings published here for San Miguel County · listed in 1979 · category: Building.
National Register reference number.79000621- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
24 since 1993
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 24 fires within 5 miles of Smuggler-Union Hydroelectric Power Plant
between 1993 and 2020, burning about 86 acres in total. 5 started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
8
Recreation and ceremony
5
Natural
5
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
Smoking
1
Debris and open burning
1
Fireworks
1
Equipment and vehicle use
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Date
Cause
Size
Reported by
Name on the report
5 September 1993
Recreation and ceremony
under an acre
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests
not named
10 September 2018
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
Telluride Fire Protection District
UNKNOWN
4 August 2017
Natural
under an acre
Telluride Fire Protection District
UNKNOWN
24 August 2007
Natural
under an acre
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests
PROSPECT BASIN
24 August 2007
Natural
under an acre
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests
LIFT 6
5 July 2003
Fireworks
under an acre
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests
BEAR CREEK
4 July 2003
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
under an acre
Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters
not named
13 July 1994
Natural
under an acre
Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
320 workings within 5 miles of Smuggler-Union Hydroelectric Power Plant: 223 past producers, 77 unknowns, 12 occurrences, 6 producers.
6 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Lead, Silver, Lead. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Telluride, the town this property stands in, in 17 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 6 debris flow, 4 flash flood, 3 wildfire, 2 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Several mudslides occurred on Black Bear Pass and the nearby Bridal Veil Road and Bridal Veil Trail as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms. An abundance of boulders and mud accumulated on the pass. Water flowed down from the peak and across the road below. Eight vehicles and fifteen occupants were stranded as a result of the debris flows. The pass and roads remained closed for several days for cleanup operations.
Steady heavy rains during the evening of August 11th resulted in multiple mudslides and flooding overnight in east Telluride, Bridal Veil Falls Area and Tomboy Road. This resulted in closures of several nearby passes including from the East Spur at the Town of Telluride entrance east to Black Bear, Black Bear Pass itself, Tomboy Road and Imogene Pass. Time of event was based on radar estimate.
Debris left over from the 2019 avalanches became dislodged by heavy rain in the Marshall Creek Basin. A large amount of trees, wood, and other debris from old mining structures travelled down the drainage until it reached the culvert near CR K-69, near the Idarado mine. The water and debris overwhelmed the drainage and began flowing across the roadway. The downstream portion of the roadway began to scour with water and eroded the embankment along the southern shoulder. The road was closed for a few hours.
A mudslide that measured 35 feet wide and was 3 to 5 feet deep occurred around midday and blocked Bridal Veil Road. More than 40 people were temporarily stranded while county road crews created a temporary passage. Additionally, boulders the size of small refrigerators were seen tumbling down. Radar estimates showed one hour rain rates of up to half an inch.
Thunderstorms produced heavy rain southeast of Telluride which resulted in some debris flow at Bridal Veil Road. At least four feet of water was running across the road which caused it to be completely washed away where it crossed Ingram Falls. Additionally, several inches of rock was displaced across the area. Radar estimated rainfall rates of 0.50 to 0.75 inches per hour.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
4 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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