History
First energized in 1949,
Lincoln Electric Cooperative (LEC) is the youngest of Montana's 26
rural electric cooperatives. The RUS (Rural Utilities Services)
was created in 1935 by an executive order signed by President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had long been an advocate of
rural electrification. In 1936, Roosevelt signed a bill that
allowed RUS to make low-interest loans available to electric
cooperatives such as LEC.
Organized efforts to get electricity in the area began in the
late 1930's when the Tobacco Valley Community Club approached
the RUS to secure their help. After club members canvassed the
economically depressed area, RUS deemed the success of a local
rural electric impossible. Officials said the thinly populated,
thickly timbered area would not support the revenues needed for
a viable cooperative.
Nearly a decade later, in the economic boom following World War
II, another eventually successful drive began. Early in 1947,
members of the Farmers Union, the local Grange, and many
community-minded citizens began to work together to try to
obtain the necessary security for an RUS loan. They again
contacted the RUS. Officials again responded with pessimistic
predictions. The proposed project, said RUS officials, was
"one of the most difficult in the U.S." Success was
barely possible if all prospective members committed themselves.
With this slight encouragement, LEC's organizers filed
incorporation papers in January 1948 and adopted By-laws the
following month. Organization work proceeded; in October 1949,
the RUS approved the first loan of $415,000. On November 7, 1949
LEC energized its first line, serving 28 members in the Bissell
area with 16.1 miles of power line.
Construction of the main
system could not begin before rights-of-way were cleared through
heavy timber. To make the project financially possible the RUS
and LEC's board asked for almost total participation of its
membership in clearing. Most complied by giving either six days
labor or sixty dollars. In May 1951 the main system was
energized. Two years later, in 1953, LEC bought the
Tobacco River Power Company and thus acquired the power system
in the town of Eureka. The power company buildings became LEC's headquarters until a new building was built on the north
side of Eureka in 1982.
In 1957, LEC began building line into Canada at the request
of consumers in a remote area of British Columbia. When B.C.
Hydro purchased the system in 1971, LEC had built 75 miles
of line and served 165 Canadians. B.C. Hydro still supplies
that system with power purchased from LEC.
Our power supplier, the Bonneville Power Administration, built
the present transmission line and substation near Trego in 1958.
Before that time, our power was wheeled over lines belonging to
our Co-op neighbor to the south, Flathead Electric Cooperative.
Through the 1970's, LEC continued to grow, spurred
by the construction of Libby Dam and the Great Northern
Railway's 7-mile long Flathead Tunnel. Increased commercial and
industrial activity, most notably in the wood products industry,
resulted in continued growth in sales for the Co-op through the
80's and 90's. To meet this growth, an additional substation
was built in 1987 at Stillwater, near Olney and in 1998 a
substation was built just south of Eureka.
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