Bartlett Lit the Way
You’re reading this website likely because you’re a member of an electric cooperative.
You’re a member of an electric cooperative because you live in what used to be one of the darkest spots in the country—where utility companies refused to build infrastructure for rural Texans.
You’re benefiting today from one of the earliest examples of crowdfunding, starting in 1935, when farmers and ranchers put up seed money and then secured loans from the Rural Electrification Administration to create their own power companies. Grassroots efforts like this took hold all across rural America.
But the first one was in Bartlett, a little Central Texas town.
And this month, Bartlett Electric Cooperative will hold its 90th annual meeting. The timing is perfect: October is National Cooperative Month.
Worth Repeating
“I want my people out of the mud, and I want my people out of the dark.”
—U.S. Rep. Sam Rayburn, electric cooperative pioneer
