Lansing Power Past And Present

The City of Lansing has received its power from various sources over the years.  Two major power plants, one now converted to an office building and one to be torn down in a few years, stand tall against the Lansing skyline.  The Ottawa Power Station, pictured above, was recently converted to an office complex for the Accident Fund insurance company.  Thankfully, it did not face the wrecking ball that the Otto Eckert Power Station, pictured below, will encounter in a few years.  The Eckert facility and another plant in Delta Township spelled the end of the Ottawa plant.  Now a soon-to-be-opened plant in REO Town, coupled with the decreased need with General Motors' downsized plant, will make the Eckert plant obsolete.  By the time the plant decommissioning ends in 2025, the three iconic smokestacks of the plant, nicknamed  Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, will no longer dot the horizon of Lansing.  I remember as a kid when the Board of Water and Light installed the three smokestacks in the early 1980s.  I referred to them as "Daddy's towers" because they stood next to the Oldsmobile plant where my father worked.  In my little mind they were where he worked.