As we drive home at night, seeing the yard lights at farms and homes, it is sometimes difficult to imagine or remember a time when rural residents had no access to electricity. Hope came in the form of the REA, which provided money to power districts for construction projects.

Dawson Public Power District was organized on February 26, 1937. Soon after that, plans were drawn and materials ordered for the lines that would be built. In the early 1940s, Buffalo County Public Power District merged with Dawson PPD. Today the system serves 22,390 meters and maintains over 5,000 miles of line.