The year 1985 marked the 50th anniversary of organized efforts to deliver electric service to the countryside. It began with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) on May 11, 1935.

Electrical service was widely available in towns, but rural residents struggled to bring water to their homes in buckets while their children studied by the light of smokey kerosene lanterns.

Cooperatives were formed by people who were determined to have electricity even though many thought it was not economically practical to build and maintain lines to isolated farms and ranches.

Wyrulec Company in Lingle was the first cooperative formed in Wyoming to bring electricity to the rural people. It started in October of 1937 to supply power to 101 member/consumers in Goshen County and the surrounding area.

In 1985, there were fourteen rural electric systems in Wyoming. Because of the rural electrification program, nearly everyone in rural America can receive electric power.