Logan's Electricity War

In the early nineteen hundreds, the people of Logan fought a war over electricity, and the weapon was the price of a light bulb. A private company ran a hydroelectric plant at the mouth of Logan Canyon, charging a dollar and twenty-five cents a month just to keep the first bulb burning. When the city asked for a lower rate, the company refused.

So Logan voted to build its own. Citizens approved sixty-five thousand dollars in bonds, bought a dam and powerhouse site, and in nineteen oh four the city began making its own electricity. The private company struck back, slashing its rate to ten cents a bulb.

A price war erupted and dragged on for decades. The winners, in the end, were the residents of Logan, who enjoyed some of the cheapest electricity anywhere while the two sides battled it out.