A.N.C. Treadgold received one million dollars for his interest in the Yukon Gold Company, and money didn't sit long in his pocket. He used much of it to build the Klondike's largest power plant, the North Fork Power Project.
In 1908 local civil engineer W.J. Rendell surveyed a ditch line from the North Klondike River to the proposed power house. In 1910 construction began on the power plant, located 25 miles east of Dawson near the Klondike River. In just over a year, with 300 men employed and two steam shovels, the North Fork Ditch was excavated and the power plant completed. By May 1911, it generated 5,400 kilowatts from two 5,000 horsepower turbines. Powerlines supplied electricity to dredges at Hunker Summit, Dominion Creek, and Bonanza Basin.
In 1912 Joe Boyle purchased the power plant, naming the company Canadian Klondyke Power. Realizing more water was needed to add to the plant's generating capacity, Boyle started building a new South Fork Ditch, but work halted because the required water grants had not been applied for.
In 1928, after Treadgold regained ownership of the power plant, construction resumed on the South Fork Ditch. Completed in 1935, the canal added a third 5,000 horsepower turbine. The power project provided electricity for Dawson and Yukon Consolidated Gold Corporation until the company shut down in 1967.
