Photograph of Skagit River Hydroelectric Project — Photograph by Ron Clausen, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Skagit River and Newhalem Creek Hydroelectric Projects

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

From the record

“The Skagit River Hydroelectric Project is a series of dams with hydroelectric power-generating stations on the Skagit River in the north of the U.S. state of Washington. The project is owned and operated by Seattle City Light to provide electric power for the City of Seattle and surrounding communities.”
Wikipedia article Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 74 National Register listings published here for Whatcom County · listed in 1996 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. At Newhalem on the Skagit River and at Ross Dam, Newhalem, 98283
When was it listed? April 1996
Category. district
Also known as. Hydroelectric Power Plants in Washington State, 1890-1938 MPS
Census division. East Whatcom
Architectural style. Neoclassical architecture
National Register reference number. 96000416 - 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

40 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 40 fires within 5 miles of Skagit River and Newhalem Creek Hydroelectric Projects between 1994 and 2019, burning about 7,203 acres in total. 25 started naturally. 1 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
Natural	25
Recreation and ceremony	8
Smoking	2
Arson/incendiarism	1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Fireworks	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1
Debris and open burning	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
9 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	WEE
9 September 1998	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	GOODELL
8 September 2019	Natural	2.0 acres	North Cascades National Park	OVERLOOK
7 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	SOURDOUGH STRIKE
6 September 2006	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	NEW HALEM CG
4 September 2019	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	SOURDOUGH
23 September 2011	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Ross Lake National Recreation Area	COLONIAL CREEK
1 September 1994	Natural	under an acre	North Cascades National Park	PYRAMID RG

Every fire recorded in Whatcom County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Skagit River and Newhalem Creek Hydroelectric Projects: 1 occurrence, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Talc-Soapstone, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Cascade International Talc	Talc-Soapstone	Occurrence
	Unnamed Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Whatcom County

Map coverage status

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

5 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.

Property	Distance	Listed
Devil's Corner Cliff Walk	1.4 miles	1974
Gorge Hydroelectric Power Plants	1.4 miles	1989
Skagit River and Newhalem Creek Hydroelectric Projects (Boundary Increase)	1.6 miles	2011
Diablo Hydroelectric Power Plant	3.0 miles	1989
Sourdough Mountain Lookout	5.2 miles	1989

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 96000416 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Whatcom County	All 74 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

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.