By 1911, the Jackson-based Foote brothers had built several large hydropower dams in west Michigan and captured much of that market. Working with Oscoda-based lumber baron Edward F. Loud and others, they turned to the Au Sable River, where their advantage came from young James Berry (J.B.) Foote's solution to the problem of transmitting power. He created a 140,000-volt line, the highest voltage in the world at that time, carrying the river's power to the developing cities of Bay City, Saginaw, Flint, and Jackson. In July 1911, a devastating forest fire burned across the Au Sable valley to Lake Huron and destroyed the towns of Oscoda and Au Sable. With the lumber boom era ending, the towns might have vanished, but the start-up of Cooke Hydro later that year, together with the promise of other hydros under construction, was key to their recovery and future prosperity.