Microwave ovens, hair dryers, computers and air conditioning. Can you imagine living without the conveniences we take for granted? Yet, while towns in the United States were electrified by 1930, some parts of rural America were still in the dark in the 1950s. Thanks to the Rural Electric Administration (REA), though, farmer-owned electric co-ops began bringing electricity to farms in the mid-1930s. We recently toured the first power plant that received a grant under the REA bill, the Reeve Electric Association Plant, now the REA Power Plant Museum, in Franklin County, Iowa.
REA Power Plant Museum: The Beginning of Rural Electricity
