- City:
- Horton, KS
- Site Type:
- Electricity, Infrastructure and Utilities
- New Deal Agency:
- Rural Electrification Administration (REA)
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
First Rural Electrification Administration (REA) program in Kansas is remembered today with a state highway marker in Horton, KS.
“First REA Project in Kansas
At this site the first power pole for the Brown-Atchison Electric Cooperative was dedicated in special ceremony on November 10, 1937. Brown-Atchison was the first rural electric project to energize in Kansas financed by loans from the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). On April 1, 1938, central-station electricity generated at the Horton Power Plant was sent into the first section of lines to farms in Brown and Atchison counties, signaling an end to darkness and drudgery for rural people. Thirty-eight other electric cooperatives followed in Kansas to deliver the wonders of electricity into every rural area of the state. Rural electrification became known as the best “hired hand” the farmer/rancher could have. Few other occurrences have impacted so positively on rural areas as has the rural electrification program.
This marker is dedicated to all the rural electric cooperative pioneers in Kansas who proved that working together for their own and the common good, produces a better life for themselves and their neighbors.
This marker was refurbished in January 2013.”
US-73, Brown County
Roadside turnout, east of Horton
Source notes
Marker 111 in state highway market program. From https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-historical-markers/14999
Site originally submitted by Barbara Pendleton on October 9, 2022.
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