Board blog: Why is my power company a cooperative?
Seventy-five years ago, if you lived in a city or small town, chances are your home had electric power. That meant you could have a refrigerator, electric lights and indoor plumbing
Posted on October 17, 2011
Seventy-five years ago, if you lived in a city or small town, chances are your home had electric power. That meant you could have a refrigerator, electric lights and indoor plumbing.
On the other hand, if you lived in rural Hennepin or Wright counties, you had to live without electricity. That meant you had an ice box, kerosene lamps and an outhouse
Wall Street financiers decided that they couldn't make enough money selling electricity in places where there were only one or two customers every mile or so. They refused to invest in the power plants, poles and wires needed to bring electricity to rural America.
A few brave and dedicated folks decided to change that. Using financing provided by the federal government's Rural Electrification Association (REA), these visionaries formed nonprofit electric cooperatives across the United States. That's how your co-op, Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association, got its start 75 years ago in 1937.
We invite you to join us at the annual membership meeting on Thursday, March 29, 2012, to remember the can-do spirit of those local power pioneers and to celebrate Wright-Hennepin's 75th birthday.