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The explosive expansion of Baehr's holdings typifies the trend towards consolidation in the
<br /> electric utilities industry in the late 1910s and early 1920s. In the first decades of the twentieth
<br /> century, hundreds of small, independent power companies, like Elk River Power and Light, were
<br /> created. World War I prompted some utilities to join together in networks to use precious power
<br /> more efficiently. This movement continued after the war, resulting in massive utility holding
<br /> companies. These companies, such as the Baehr Organization, often purchased and merged
<br /> smaller companies to form interconnected regional power grids. These power-sharing networks
<br /> created efficiencies of scale, which ideally resulted in a cheaper and more reliable supply of
<br /> electricity.37
<br /> Baehr was apparently planning to develop such a grid in Minnesota. Almost immediately after its
<br /> purchase of the Elk River utility, the company connected the village with a 30,000-volt line that
<br /> ran from Monticello to Saint Cloud. This line was fed by a power plant in Saint Cloud that Baehr
<br /> had managed for several years. To further expand the network, a distribution line was run from
<br /> Elk River to Dayton.38
<br /> Despite improvements to Elk River's 300-kilowatt hydroelectric plant, customers had suffered
<br /> from frequent interruptions in service, so the union with a larger network came as welcome
<br /> news. The Sherburne County Star News observed that the arrangement"assures this community
<br /> of plenty of electricity for power and light purposes." The new service proved its worth in 1926
<br /> when, for the first time since the hydroelectric plant opened, it became inoperable for a short
<br /> time due to low water levels.39
<br /> Baehr apparently failed to exercise the option on the Saint Cloud plant, which was taken over in
<br /> 1925 by another private company,Northern States Power(NSP).40 Rates paid by Elk River for
<br /> auxiliary power fluctuated almost yearly during the Depression-riddled 1930s. In 1930, the
<br /> company charged $5.75 for 50 kilowatt hours; they lowered rates by 10 percent in 1932 and
<br /> offered to reduce rates even further if paid by the tenth of the month. By 1935, the same amount
<br /> of power cost$3.75. The Elk River Village Council occasionally put pressure on rate
<br /> negotiations, once threatening to issue bonds to fund construction of a municipal plant. While
<br /> this foreshadowed activities a decade later, the Council dropped the idea when NSP lowered
<br /> rates.41
<br /> owner was said to be the Herb Croft Company of Monticello;the second,Mid-Central Public Service.There is,
<br /> however,no evidence of these owners in tax records or newspapers.
<br /> 37 Hollenstein,Power Development in Minnesota,9;Thomas P.Hughes,Networks of Power:Electrification in
<br /> Western Society, 1880-1930(Baltimore and London:Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983),291-292.
<br /> ""Deal Completed for Purchase of Elk River Property."
<br /> 39 Elk River Power and Light,"Annual Report to the Minnesota Tax Commission"for fiscal year ending 6/30/1926,
<br /> Minnesota Historical Society, Saint Paul; Seelhammer and Mosher, Growth of Sherburne County 1875-1975, 374.
<br /> 40"In 1925 N.S.P.Co.acquired a group of properties serving St.Cloud and a considerable territory to the west. . . .
<br /> In the expansion of the N.S.P.Co. system there appears to have been a general policy of building up a consolidated
<br /> territory so that interconnection of plants would be economically feasible."Quoted from Russell E. Johnson,"A
<br /> Comparison of the Development of the Electric Utility Industry in Wisconsin and Minnesota,"M.A.thesis,
<br /> University of Minnesota,June 1936,84.
<br /> "Municipal Year Book 1930,vol. 1 (Minneapolis:League of Minnesota Municipalities, 1930),237;Municipal Year
<br /> Book 1935,vol. 6(Minneapolis:League of Minnesota Municipalities, 1935),234;Seelhammer and Mosher, Growth
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