Navajo Generating Station

The Navajo Generating Station rose in the early 1970s on 1,786 acres leased from the Navajo Nation, its stacks climbing 775 feet above the desert. For forty-five years it was the largest coal plant in the West, burning Black Mesa coal to move Colorado River water into central Arizona. It also carried the Navajo and Hopi economies on its lease and jobs, and fouled the region's air. It shut down on November 18, 2019, and this slot-canyon sculpture, bent from its own boiler tubes, is the crew's memorial to it.

What the plaque says

Born out of a compromise, a vision constructed to provide power to the growing southwest. Construction began in April 1970, going commercial in 1974 (U1), 1975 (U2) and 1976 (U3)., A massive complex built on 1,786 acres leased from the Navajo Nation with 3 identical units, Combustion Engineering Supercritical Boilers, each boiler capable of supplying up to 5,410,000 pounds of steam per hour to the GE turbines at 3500 psi (241 bar) and 1000 degrees F (537 degrees C). The turbines were General Electric, 3600 rpm, directly coupled to the generator., NGS was constructed with state of the art hot side electrostatic precipitator pollution controls, with wet scrubbers added in 1987, 1988 and 1989. The plant was a highly reliable, environmentally conscious source of economical electrical power for 45 years., What did NGS have to do with what you are looking at? The art in front of you are final reheat tubes, internal operating pressure 650-700 psi, temperature 1005 degrees +F, removed from the U3 boiler. In mid 2019, with closure of the plant only months away NGS employees were asked to submit ideas to memorialize the facility. This art, a boiler tube slot canyon, is one of the projects selected. Employees removed the boiler tubes from the boiler in the fall of 2019 after the unit was shut down, its service life complete. Employees then set up jigs and bent the tubes to reflect the shapes of a slot canyon which is such a significant natural feature of this area. City of Page employees painted and installed the art. This work is commemorative of the 100's of thousands of hours employees put into making Navajo Generating Station a showplace and reliability benchmark for the utility industry.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Antelope Canyon — 6.2 mi
  Tsé bighánílíní — where the water runs through the rock

More markers nearby

• Major John Wesley Powell — steps away
• Native Americans — steps away
• Rainbow Bridge National Monument — steps away
• Colorado River Storage Project — steps away