Where the Solberg roots grew deep and the lights came on.
Baker, located in Benson County, was central to the Solberg family farming line and Signe's years as a rural educator. Local historical records and Benson County Township finding aids place J. Signe Solberg in the Broe Township school record near Baker. This rural farming community sits between York and Rugby and represents the agricultural landscape where Signe spent her formative years before marrying Palmer Stadum in 1941.
The Baker Electric Cooperative — Palmer's employer and the engine of Benson County's electrification — took its very name from this community. In 1937, Palmer and his crew set out from Baker to string the first REA-funded power lines across the county's farms, a project that would define his life's work and earn him formal recognition at the 1975 REA 40th Anniversary celebration at Rugby's Pioneer Village.
Though modest in size, Baker anchors two of the archive's most important threads: Signe's early life as a teacher and farmer's daughter, and Palmer's role in lighting the rural North Dakota plains.
