Snoqualmie Falls WASHINGTON
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The pale concrete Plant 2 powerhouse beside the rocky Snoqualmie River

Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Museum and power plants

The 1910 Plant 2 powerhouse on the Snoqualmie River, June 2023. Photo: Steven Pavlov · Source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Snoqualmie Falls has made electricity since 1899. Puget Sound Energy’s museum, the trail past Plant 2 and displays around the park explain how a waterfall became one of the first hydroelectric plants in the West.

Updated · Independent visitor guide

The first fully underground power plant

In 1898 engineer Charles H. Baker began building a power plant inside the rock beside the falls. Workers diverted the river while they sank a shaft and carved a chamber about 270 feet below the surface, where water dropping down the shaft drove the generators. When Plant 1 started on July 31, 1899, it was the world’s first completely underground power plant. A low diversion dam about 150 feet above the falls still feeds it, and the American Society of Civil Engineers named it a landmark in 1981.

What the museum shows

PSE’s Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Museum fills two historic company buildings, the Carpenter Shop and the Train Depot. Exhibits follow Baker’s project, the crews who built and ran it and the machinery itself, with historic photographs and equipment. In the park, a turbine that ran in Plant 2 from 1910 until 1928 is on display, and panels along the rim trace the water from the dam to the generators.

Plant 2 and the lower park

Plant 2 stands on the riverbank about a quarter mile below the falls. It was built in 1910 and expanded in 1957, and the trail to the lower falls passes right beside it and its giant green penstocks, the pipes that carry water down from the upper river. Together the two plants can produce about 54 megawatts. PSE rebuilt much of both plants, the park and the historic buildings between 2010 and 2015 under a 40-year federal license issued in 2004.

Hours and getting there

The museum opens Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., during its season; it reopened for 2026 on May 27. PSE lists no admission charge. It is on SE 69th Place near the falls. Parking is limited: use the museum lot, follow the striped pedestrian path, and look for accessible spaces next to the building. Call 425-831-4445 before a winter visit. For the falls themselves, see parking and the park map.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Museum free?

PSE lists no admission charge for the museum. It opens Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in season.

Can you see the power plant at Snoqualmie Falls?

Plant 1 is underground and not open to visitors. The trail to the lower falls passes Plant 2, the 1910 powerhouse beside the river.

Does the power plant reduce the falls?

Part of the river is diverted through the plants above the falls, which leaves less water going over the edge when the river is low. In high water the falls run at full force.

AT THE FALLS AND IN THE VALLEY

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Keep planning your visit

A colorized linen postcard showing the falls, the lodge and the road from abovePlan your visitHistory

Long before it was a tourist stop or a power plant, Snoqualmie Falls was a sacred place. Its story runs from the Snoqualmie People through the first underground power plant to Twin Peaks and a tribe reclaiming its land.

A wooden boardwalk with railings, covered in yellow fallen leaves, beside the riverThings to doTrail to the lower falls

The Snoqualmie Falls trail drops about 250 feet from the upper park to the river, then follows a boardwalk to a viewpoint near the base of the falls. It is about 1.4 miles round trip, short but steep.

The red Victorian Snoqualmie Depot with its corner tower, Mount Si rising behindAttractionNorthwest Railway Museum

The Northwest Railway Museum runs vintage trains on the line that brought the first tourists to Snoqualmie Falls, and its 1890 depot is one of the prettiest buildings in the valley.