William Augustine Foote, a Jackson entrepreneur, built a series of hydroelectric plants along the Au Sable River with help from his brother, electrical engineer James Berry Foote. With civil engineer William Fargo and construction supervisor Grant Cochran, they began constructing the Cooke Hydroelectric Plant in 1910. The first of six hydros built on the lower Au Sable River, it opened the following year. Its 140,000-volt transmission line, the highest voltage in use at that time, extended 125 miles to Flint. The facility was named for Andrew Cooke, a financier who accompanied the Footes on surveys of the Au Sable River and suggested the location. Flowing water had long powered mines and mills, and with advances in electricity in the 1800s, waterpower was soon used to generate electricity. The first public demonstration of hydroelectric power in the country occurred on July 24, 1880, when sixteen carbon arc street lamps lit Grand Rapids using a belt-driven dynamo powered by a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory. Michigan's extensive water resources were first harnessed to power electric generating equipment at existing dams and mills and later at sites built expressly for hydroelectric generation, providing power to homes and businesses and helping fuel Michigan's growth as one of the nation's premier industrial states.