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Basin Electric original incorporator Edward E. Wolter

Wolter wrote many of the first loans for electric cooperatives in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Basin Electric Power Cooperative - October 28, 2011


	Edward E. Wolter

Edward E. Wolter was born Oct. 3, 1913, in Jacksonville, IL. He attended schools in Jacksonville, and after graduating from high school, he worked with his father in the family automotive business.

In 1939, he became manager of a rural electric cooperative in Ossian, ID. From 1945 to 1947, he was an employee of the Rural Electrification Administration's Application and Loan Division. He wrote many of the first loans for the fledgling rural electric cooperatives in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

In June 1947, he became manager of Rural Cooperative Power Association (RCPA), which consisted of small diesel generation stations at Maple Lake and Cambridge, MN. These stations supplied the electrical requirements for the member cooperatives in the area, about 4,000 kilowatts.

An amendment to the Atomic Energy Commission Act of 1954 created a favorable atmosphere for the RCPA to enter the atomic energy field. Wolter helped guide the RCPA to the position of signing a contract with the Atomic Energy Commission for the construction of the first rural nuclear-powered reactor in the nation at Elk River, MN.

Wolter's untiring efforts to bring low-cost power to the rural areas brought him national prominence and caused his appointment to numerous committees working for the betterment of the electric supply to rural areas. He also served for many years as the Minnesota Governor’s representative on the Missouri Basin Inter-Agency Committee and as secretary-treasurer of the National Generation and Transmission Managers' Association. Regionally, he served as vice-chairman of the Mid-Continent Area Power Planners and was a member of the Minnesota State Board of Electricity.

According to the 1971 RCPA annual report, Wolter believed the rural electric cooperatives were a vital, integral part of the country's electrical industry. Through his convictions, RCPA become one of the first rural electric cooperatives to interconnect with an investor-owned utility and with municipal systems in the area.

During his years as manager, he devoted his time to seeking out new methods of bringing low-cost power into the region. He became an original incorporator of Basin Electric on May 5, 1961. However, RCPA was not interconnected with the federal transmission system and the first unit of Basin Electric's Leland Olds Station was not of sufficient size to warrant the investment in transmission to reach RCPA. As a result that RCPA officially withdrew its membership from Basin Electric in September 1964.

RCPA joined forces with Northern Minnesota Power Association of Grand Rapids, MN, for the construction of a jointly owned, lignite-fueled generation station a half-mile upstream from Leland Olds Station. The two cooperatives established United Power Association (UPA), of which Wolter was also general manager, to construct the 175,000-kilowatt Stanton Station. Wolter, in spite of suffering ill health for the last several years of his life, worked continually to insure that RCPA would have power to meet the needs of its members.

Wolter died Feb. 29, 1972. He and his wife, Rosemary, had a son, Kevin.

Editor's note: Northern Minnesota Power Association, Rural Cooperative Power Association and United Power Association merged to form United Power Association in 1972. Cooperative Power Association and United Power Association merged in 1999 to form Great River Energy. Thanks goes to Therese LaCanne and Betty J. Swan of Great River Energy for providing the information for this profile.

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On May 5, 1961, 69 people from several states gathered at the Patterson Hotel in Bismarck, ND, to sign Articles of Incorporation for Basin Electric. Their names are on a brass plaque immediately outside of the main entrance to the Headquarters building. Kathi Risch, Basin Electric senior staff writer/editor, has been seeking information about the original incorporators and compiling these profiles.

In the next several months, prior to the cooperative’s 50th anniversary celebration to be held at the 2011 annual meeting on Nov. 9, Risch will share what she has uncovered. If you have information you would like to share about a Basin Electric original incorporator and you haven’t been contacted, please call Risch at 701-557-5606 or send information, photo scans, etc. to krisch@bepc.com.

See all the original incorporators profiled to date.