In 1968, the year-round population of Isle au Haut had dwindled from a historic high of 300 to 17. Those who stayed through the winters relied on wood stoves, outhouses, kerosene lamps and iceboxes; they pumped their own water, and made their own electricity with sputtering, unreliable generators. Then, a man named Patrick Tully led a community effort to build a powerhouse and install one mile of line, and the Isle au Haut Electric Power Company Cooperative began.
“The company has been a major factor in maintaining our island as a year-round community,” says Ted Hoskins, a long-time resident of Isle au Haut, which now has 55 full-time residents.
Tully served as the company’s general manager until he died this March, at the age of 67. The company powered 20 homes in its first year, and steadily expanded until it reached much of the island. Aging equipment and rising fuel prices in the early 1980s resulted in installation of the underwater cable that now connects the island to the Bangor Hydro Electric Company.
A Cambridge, MA, native and Harvard and MIT graduate, Tully moved to Isle au Haut in the 1960s when he tired of city life. “Pat was remarkably self-motivated to learn,” says William Stevens, a friend of Tully’s and former power company president who now serves on the board of directors. “He was reclusive in some respects. He had the ability to figure out a novel approach to make things work.”
Tully created his own tools and equipment. “In everything he made you can see his signature,” says Stevens. “What he made not only works well, but has an interesting shape, and material put to unusual uses.” Tully wrote his own computer software for company books and billing. He also reconfigured the 1972 Farmall International company line truck. “It looked like a space shuttle inside the cab, with toggle switches everywhere,” recalls Stevens.
“They were quiet adventurers,” Hoskins says of Tully and those who started the company. “They were willing to move off into new territory and lead us on.”
Adventurers included the late Stanley Dodge, who ran the generators, and Dodge’s wife, Dorothea, who served as company treasurer, bookkeeper and meter reader. The late Russell Devereux handled installing power poles and lines. The company has never had full-time employees. All volunteered or worked for small stipends.
Loans, membership fees and 5,000 stock shares sold to the island community funded the first mile of line and the construction of the powerhouse. The University of Maine and Bangor Hydro donated transformers and meters, and the Job Corps donated a surplus Korean War generator; Tully gave two of his own generators to the company.
“Pat’s goal was to extend the line as fast as the town could financially accommodate it,” says Stevens. Islanders dug postholes or strung power lines in exchange for stock. “Just about everybody helped out at one time or another,” says Hoskins. Residents wired their own houses. Many were used to relying on a single lamp, and first assumed they only needed one outlet, Hoskins recalls.
Some seasonal residents, accustomed to long daylight hours, initially resisted electricity. “Many people wanted to keep the `character’ of the island — of course, these were not people who lived there year-round,” says Devereux’s widow, Jean.
By 1982, the company had 68 customers. But generators kept breaking down, and fuel prices kept rising. The company had never made a profit, and continued to operate at a loss. A 1982 report to the board of directors warned, “Your company is in a crisis. The continuation of electric power on Isle au Haut is in serious doubt.” The report warned of possible consequences: “Isle au Haut would not be the first Maine island to lose its population.”
The company considered several options — including closing, purchasing new generators, and turning to alternative energy — before deciding to run a 36,000-foot underwater cable from the northern tip of Isle au Haut to the town of Stonington.
Then-president Parker Waite, a commercial diver, oversaw the installation of the cable. He and diving partner Bill “Bones” McDonnell “basically swam from Isle au Haut to Stonington to determine the best route for the cable,” says Waite. In the summer of 1983, Russell Devereux laid the cable from his barge. To date, the cable has needed no repairs.
Tully was active in the cable project, says Waite. “The company was his vision. We all went to Pat for advice.” On Isle au Haut, the cable terminates in a substation, which Tully built, and which Waite calls “a gorgeous work of art.”
Installing the cable cost $100,000, covered by membership fees and a fund created to support those who could not afford to pay.
The cable also enabled telephone service. Before, islanders relied on citizens’ band radio — not ideal for private conversations. At first, some opposed telecommunications, but “Russ and Pat were determined that there would be telephones,” says Jean Devereux.
Tully continued to work through a long struggle with cancer. The company is now planning to move the backup generators to a more central location, a one-acre plot behind the firehouse. Two weeks before Tully died, he toured this site with Stevens, discussing the design and location of the new building.
“Pat’s legacy is going to live probably forever,” says current company president Paul Lewis, who has overseen many recent updates. This year, the company bought a used 1993 line truck, new backup generator, and hopes to purchase new computer software soon.
“One of Pat’s long-term goals was to pay the dividends on the stock issued,” says Stevens. A few years ago, the company made its first dividend payment, which totaled $2,500. The power company now has 130 customers, including the community’s municipal buildings and summer residents; the load has grown by 5 percent every year. According to town officials, Isle au Haut’s year-round population is now 55 — more than three times greater than when the power company formed.
Isaac Kestenbaum is a freelance writer based in Stonington.