MONTROSE – In September, Montrose went all with a centennial celebration of the completion of the Gunnison Tunnel, which first brought water to the Uncompahgre Valley in 1909.

A ceremony sponsored by the Uncompahgre Water Users Association at the Montrose Fairgrounds featured speeches by re-enactors portraying President Teddy Roosevelt, who signed the act that made the tunnel possible, and President Howard Taft, who attended the original celebration in Montrose.

The daylong celebration included children’s games and historic exhibits in Friendship Hall, as well as activities at various locations around town.

A surprise announcement highlighted the ceremony at the fairgrounds’ grandstands when Dan McClendon, president of the Delta-Montrose Electric Association, announced that the electric cooperative plans to build a hydroelectric plant at South Canal as it leaves the tunnel.

The plans are actually 100 years late. A hydro plant was part of the original vision of the tunnel back when it first opened in 1909. In an Aug. 22, 1909 New York Times article, a reporter who attended the tunnel’s opening noted that such a plant would generate enough power to light “every town and every farmhouse in the Uncompahgre Valley.”

The project’s significance notwithstanding, today’s population will see less of an impact. Estimates by DMEA show the hydro plant will produce enough electricity to supply about 3,000 homes, about 5 percent of its entire system demand.