Steele Waseca Cooperative Electric
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2012 Coal Creek Tour Information
2012 Tour Agenda Timeline (1 MB)
2012 Tour Agenda Description (1 MB)
2012 RSVP / Reservation (1 MB)
2012 Member Profile (1 MB)
Highlights of 2011
The annual tour of Coal Creek Station, Falkirk Mine, and the Garrison Dam took place Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, June 21, 22, and 23, 2011. Twenty Nine (29) adults and Twenty Two (22) Students were on this years tour.
Tuesday included traveling in comfort on a motor-coach from Owatonna to Bismarck North Dakota. Steele-Waseca provided educational entertainment for the entire day, a lunch stop at beautiful West Acres Shopping Mall in Fargo, and multiple rest stops along the way, until our arrival at Country Suites motel in Bismarck, North Dakota. The evening was settling in with a dinner at one of the many restaurants, swimming in the water park and entertainment before calling it a day.
On Wednesday the touring started with a tour of our electric generating power plant, Coal Creek Station, 48 miles north of Bismarck where your electricity come from. Our next stop was the Falkirk Mine, where we were able to travel down into the open mine and drive on the seam of coal being mined for use at Coal Creek Station. The land is fully restored for farming over a 10 year period. Land reclamation costs about $23,000 per acre. We finished our touring of the day with a stop at Garrison Dam where we were able to see history being made. For the first time ever since the dam was finished in 1954, the Spill-Way flood gates were opened to release the massive flood waters from snow and excessive rain runoff. Two and a half miles across the dam at the generating site there are eight 24 foot diameter penstock water ducts. Five deliver water to the five turbine generators, and three are tail race relief tubes for the dam. These three ducts were also open releasing water from the dam. Go to YouTube and search for Garrison Dam, you will find many interesting videos of the historic water release.
Tuesday and Wednesday evening the travelers had the opportunity to relax at the motel. The travelers were able to choose a restaurant of their choice to dine at, go swimming in the motel pool/mini water park, and relax. On Wednesday, there was planned educational activities and an ice cream social at night for our guests.
Thursday morning everyone was back on the bus headed back to Owatonna. The trip home included many fun educational activities on the way home.
Each June, our members have the opportunity to come along with us on this three day trip. We encourage you to bring students ages 10 to 18 from the immediate family or grandparents bring the grandkids! This is a great way to spend a carefree fun get-away with your family. At Steele-Waseca we feel that it is important to educate students about the process required to get electricity to them each and every day.
Contact Doug Hughes for more information.
Past Tour information
Great River Energy & Things to know
Facts & Trivia about Coal Creek
Facts about Falkirk Mine
2007 Tour Photos
2006 Tour Photos
2005 Teen Tour (532 KB)
Past Tour Photos (252 KB)
Tour with Jerry