Power Plant
How do you think the Rural Electrification Act changed the quality of life for Iowans?
The REA Power Plant Museum displays artifacts and photographs documenting the work bringing electricity to rural parts of Iowa.
Transcript
(A clear, glass light bulb turns on.)
(Instrumental swing music playing.)
[Abby Brown] By the year 1900 major cities in Iowa had electricity, but rural farm families were still in the dark until President Franklin Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Act. Soon after that, this power plant in Hampton, Iowa, played a big role in bringing electricity to rural areas for the very first time.
(Map marking Franklin County in north central Iowa.)
The REA Power Plant Museum is located in the building that was the first electric generating station built west of the Mississippi River. It became operational in 1938. Why was this power plant so important?
Well, rural community members were trying to figure out a way to get electricity to their farms and homes. When they visited their friends and family in town, they saw how much more convenient their lives were with electric lights, central heating and even radios. Farmers were decades behind in getting electricity and their quality of life was suffering.
Also keep in mind that when the REA Plant opened in 1938, about 60% of Iowans were living in the country and only 40% were living in the city. So there were a lot of rural residents feeling like they deserved the same modern conveniences as the city folks.
Rural community members banded together and secured funding from Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Act. They also pitched in by putting wooden poles up so wires could be strung between them, finally bringing power to their farms and homes.
Inside the museum, you can see one of the first generators used when the plant first went online in 1938. The need for electricity outgrew everyone's expectations. At the peak of the power plant, there were three more generators to help this one meet the demand. There was a dramatic difference between life before and life after electricity in Iowa's rural communities. And at the REA Power Plant Museum, those significant changes are memorialized.
Every county in Iowa is powered by its caring community members. It's been great learning about the generation of electricity in Franklin County.
Funding for FIND Iowa has been provided by The Coons Foundation, Pella and the Gilchrist Foundation.