In 1900 rancher Lew Turner filed a claim for the waters of Fossil Creek, and a year later he claimed the spring and headwaters that fed it, listing electric power production among the possible uses. With a constant flow of over a million gallons of water an hour descending 1,600 feet in 10 miles through rugged mountain terrain about 70 miles southwest of Jerome, the creek was ideal for hydroelectric generation. Turner joined with three partners to form the Arizona Power Company, and by 1907 a bond issue had raised $1.5 million to begin construction of a 40-mile road from the nearest rail siding near Meyer, Arizona, to Fossil Creek. The Childs plant was built and began operating in 1909 with three turbine-driven 1,500-kilowatt generators for a total capacity of 4,500 kWh. The Irving plant was added in 1914 after the United Verde Company decided to build a new smelter in Clarkdale, and the Childs and Irving plants were linked on a grid that first supplied Jerome and then much of central Arizona. In 1918 a third plant, a steam turbine type, was added at Clarkdale, and for many years the entire system delivered most of central Arizona’s electrical power; for a brief time in the mid-1920s, it supplied up to 70 percent of Phoenix’s power as well. So well constructed and efficient in design, the Childs-Irving portion remained in service until 2004, when it was taken offline because of environmental considerations. Its contribution to the development of central Arizona, especially the mining industry, through inexpensive power was incalculable, and in 1976 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated it a National Engineering Landmark, one of only two in Arizona.