English: Just over one year ago the largest coal-fired power plant west of the Mississippi shut down for good. Today, the three 775-foot tall smoke stacks were brought down – restoring the original unobstructed skyline of the Glenn Canyon Recreation Area while at the same time erasing a local landmark. Built in the 1970s near Page, Arizona, the Navajo Generating Station was originally constructed to supply the vast amount of electricity required to power the pumps of the Central Arizona Project – a 336-mile water conveyance system that today supplies water to 80% of the state’s population. Until it was closed, the plant provided a reliable supply of upwards of 17,000 MWh of electricity each year to not only the Central Arizona Project but also other customers throughout the southwest. Despite this, recognition of the negative environmental impacts of coal-based energy and the reduction in costs associated with alternative and cleaner energy sources resulted in the early closure of the plant - a story echoed by many other coal generating stations around the country. Though this marks the end of an era for coal-based energy generation and a move to cleaner, more sustainable forms of electricity, the Navajo Generating Station deserves recognition for the decades of reliability and affordable electricity it supplied. Without it, Arizona would have never grown into the great state it is today.