Trigger the Switchbox

In October of 1905, lumbermen headed by Orrin H. Ingram purchased the Chippewa Valley Electric Railway Company from Appleyard and his associates.1 As the lumber-empires were slowly collapsing and the lumber supply dwindling, individual lumber-barons, including such names as James S. Owen, George B. Wheeler, Byron A. Buffington, A.E. Pierce, Frank D. Stout, Tom Bundy, and William Irvine, came together to forge for themselves a new future. Built on the back of the electric railway, the new owners turned their attention to the lifesblood of the railway: electricity (see The Fargo Enginneering Company for an inside view).

Reign of the Lumbermen.

Beginning with the lumbermen’s takeover, Appleyard’s dream of an electric railway network was pushed aside and lost in the race to expand and dominate a new frontier: the electric power market. The electric railway of Chippewa Falls was quickly transformed into a new company: Chippewa Valley Railway, Light & Power Company (C.V.R.L.R.C.). However, like the activation of a railroad switchbox, priorities changed from the electric railway to electric power. Observing the ads placed by the company,2 it is clear what the company was most concerned with selling, and it was not tickets aboard the electric railway.

As the lumbermen turned their attention toward electrification, they worked to develop a number of small dam sites. Power lines were built crisscrossing western Wisconsin, supplying electricity to the cities of Spring Valley, Cedar Falls, Menomonie, Ellsworth, and Red Wing, Minnesota. Chippewa Lumber & Boom Company was purchased in July 13th, 1912,3 and the company continued to expand.

Even as the company expanded, the streetcars of the electric railway would operate continuously and prosperously for many years. Indeed, it was doing well enough that an extension to Irvine Park was completed under the watch of these lumbermen n 1907.4 Proposals for the Altoona extension began to take form as well.5 Also as a way to increase traffic on the interurban line, the old Midway Park at Lake Hallie was purchased by the C.V.R.L.P.C. and reopened as Electric Park in 1910.6

Little fish in a growing pond.

On June 24th, 1914, Chippewa Valley Railway, Light & Power Company was sold to the American Public Utilities Company.7 Seizing the reigns of Appleyard’s dream, Charles B. Kelsey and Joseph Brewer—owners of American Public Utilities Company—continued to steer the railway company toward electrification. Choosing the route their lumbermen predecessors had taken, they combined LaCrosse Gas and Electric Company with the C.V.R.L.P.C. to form the Wisconsin-Minnesota Light and Power Company (W.M.L.P.C.).8 The company continued to expand, buying up hydroelectric plants all over western Wisconsin including those located in the cities of Angelo, Sparta, Boyceville, Glenwood, Downing, and Viroqua. The power, gas, and light companies combined in the W.M.L.P.C. gave the company the revenue it desired. After the Altoona extension was finished in 1914,9 little was done with the electric railway. It became an afterthought.

Even so, the electric railway brought its largest profits to the company from 1916 (bringing in $36,596 in net income) through 1920 (bringing in $33,385 in net income in 1920).10 Unfortunately, net income records for the years between 1908 and 1915 have been unavailable up to this point. It is noticeable, however, that passenger levels were at their peak in 1917, numbering 948,855, and that annual revenue peaked in 1920 at $86,675 [see graphs].11

As long as the streetcars brought in enough income to support itself, the electric railway was allowed to run its course along the tracks of Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, and Altoona.