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ARTICLE EXCERPT: PALMER STADUM – A MAN WITH A DREAM
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Source:     "Along the Line" (A Monthly Publication of the Baker Electric Cooperative)
Author:     Lisa Swanson Faleide
Date:       January 1985

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"What instills a dream in a man? What drive causes him to pursue it against great odds? What adrenalin keeps a man plodding after his goal when others have laughed, shaken their heads, clucked their tongues?

Palmer Stadum was a man with a dream. He believed in and pursued the idea of rural electrification at a time when farmers and everyone else in the  country were mired in the middle of the Great Depression. And he succeeded. He has received the entire credit, in many quarters, for being the first man to bring electricity to rural North Dakota, has been called the 'Father of Rural Electrification in North Dakota.'

Many of us have no memory of life without electricity...But Palmer remembers...and remains modest about his accomplishment, and claims 'anybody could have done it if they'd really tried.' But could they have?"

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