Between 1883 and 1927, western states led the nation in the development of hydroelectric power, and the Grace hydroelectric dam and power plant were built during that era. Lucien Lucius Nunn, regarded by many as the father of the electric power industry in the Intermountain West, was the mastermind behind the Grace development. An entrepreneur, lawyer, and businessman, he built the Grace Power Plant as part of an empire of hydroelectric projects in Utah and Idaho, and between the early 1890s and the 1910s he operated twenty hydroelectric plants in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Before moving to Utah and Idaho, Nunn operated gold mines in Colorado, where steam power ran machinery and smelters for processing gold, until his brother Paul developed hydropower technology as a cheaper alternative. In 1890, with financial backing from George Westinghouse, Nunn used the new technology to generate power at the Gold King Mine on the San Miguel River in Colorado, and his success there led him from mining toward the commercial development and long-distance transmission of hydroelectric power. After building numerous plants in Utah, he expanded into Idaho, where surveyors for his company reached Grace in April 1906 to examine the Bear River's hydroelectric potential. The Grace hydroelectric power plant was completed in 1908 and began transmitting power to Salt Lake City. At 11,000 kilowatts, it was one of the largest power plants in the area and over time became part of one of the first power grids in the Intermountain West.