N.O.T. Co. Power Plant with bridge in foreground, circa 1915 (CFHS).

An industrial base was formed in the future Gorge Metro Park when Northern Ohio Traction & Light (NOT&L) purchased 160 acres along Front Street and along the river.  The company built the coal-fired Gorge Power Plant and the Gorge Dam between 1911 and 1912. The dam created a dam pool as a water supply for cooling condensers at the coal-fired power plant and for waterpower for the Gorge Hydroelectric Plant, built a half-mile down stream. The Gorge Power Plant burned about 100,000 tons of coal a year. It used only turbo generators and expanded three times. The plants closed in 1991; at that time it was the company’s oldest operating facility. The building was removed in summer, 2009.

Gorge Power Plant building circa 1911 (CFHS).

NOT&L was the result of extensive mergers, affiliations and subsidiaries that began in 1883 and had several name changes. By 1930, several consolidations resulted in changing the name to Ohio Edison Company and by 1997 with more mergers it became the First Energy Corporation of today. The company’s initial investments were in traction, interurban and electric transport systems but by 1916 the investments shifted to electric power.