Devoted to the Mining, Lumbering, and Farming Interests of this Community, to Good Government, and Hustling for a Grub Stake
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Cottage Grove Sentinel
Is Not Gold
A spotlight on electricity at the 57th annual
Bohemia Mining Days!
July 14-17, 2016
By Cindy Weeldreyer
“All that glitters…is not gold!” is the
theme of the 57th annual Bohemia
Mining Days festival. It highlights
the unique adventure of a young
Cottage Grove man who visited the
1893 Chicago World’s Fair near the
end of its six-month run. He learned
enough about the concept of electric-
ity to return home with a big dream
to establish the fi rst electric company
here in 1895.
In the summer of 1893, Andrew
“Andy” Nelson was a 26-year-old jack-
of-all-trades, working as the steam
engineer at the Annie Mine. He had
many talents: tinsmith (sheet metal
worker), carpenter, woodworker and
musician. He worked well with his
hands and was fascinated with the
work Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla
were doing with electricity.
He was, in his day, what we call a
“geek” in ours. He likely had a sub-
scription to Scientifi c American and
read each issue cover-to-cover. That
year the magazine reported frequently
on the progress of the World Colum-
bian Exposition in Chicago, a tremen-
dous feat of engineering and design
on a massive scale that was unprec-
edented before or since. (To learn
more watch the YouTube documen-
tary “EXPO Magic of the White City”
narrated by Gene Wilder.)
Andy was born on July 24, 1866, in
Gordonsville, Minnesota. His family
said he came to Oregon in 1889 for no
other reason than to see the country.
He had no particular reason for com-
ing to Cottage Grove but evidently
liked what he saw. He worked as a
railroad telegrapher at Comstock, then
as a tinsmith at S. R. Piper's hard-
ware store before becoming the Annie
Mine’s steam engineer.
The Chicago World’s Fair seemed like
a good reason to plan a long winter
visit with his extended family back
in Minnesota. On the way, he’d stop
over in Chicago and spend a few days
exploring the much-hyped event, to
get a glimpse of America’s future in
the 20th Century. The Eugene City
Guard reported that on September
30, “Mr. Andrew Nelson, one of Cot-
tage Grove’s handsome and popular
young men, left for his native heath
of Gordonsville, Minnesota, Monday,
to spend the winter with relatives and
friends.”
To commemorate the 400th anniver-
sary of Christopher Columbus’ fi rst
voyage to the New World, the United
States held the World’s Columbian Ex-
position, also known as The Chicago
World’s Fair, between May 1, 1893 and
Oct. 30, 1893. The White City, as the
press nicknamed it, was built next to
Lake Michigan on a 600-acre fair-
ground with 200 buildings exhibiting
art, food, technological advances and
entertainment. It was a grand show-
case that put science in the forefront
with unbelievable and revolutionary
inventions along with a beautifully
designed venue that solidifi ed Chicago
as a major U.S. city.
It was the fi fteenth such exposition in
the world and only the second in the
United States. From the beginning
it was designed to be the fair to end
all fairs – and that goal was certainly
achieved. It had the biggest build-
ings in the world at that time. It also
featured the world’s fi rst Ferris wheel
that towered over the fairgrounds and
held 2000 riders at a time.
An estimated one in four Americans
visited the Columbian Exposition in
the six months the White City existed.
Andy was one of those 26 million fair
visitors. He arrived there determined
to learn all he could about electric-
ity so he could return to his adopted
town and set up a generating plant to
provide the electrical power only large
cities had at the time.
Growing up in the tiny towns of
Gordonsville and Cottage Grove, no
doubt Andy was mesmerized by the
sheer size and scope of the fair. He
likely spent most of his time in the
Please see GOLD, Page 3