An Otter Tail Company

Company history

Otter Tail Power Company was named after the Otter Tail River, which provided the company's first source of power. Hundreds of years ago, the Ojibwe noted that a large sandspit follows the shoreline of the lake where the river flows into it. Because they thought this sandspit resembled the tail of an otter, the Native Americans named the lake Nigagwanoe-Otter Tail. By doing so, they also named a river, a village, a township, a county-and a power company.

1871 George Wright, considered the founder of Fergus Falls, builds Central Dam along the Otter Tail River in this small Minnesota town.
  Otter Tail lake, county, and river. Otter Tail lake, county, and river.
1879 Thomas Edison invents the light bulb.
1882 Boston architect Vernon Wright inherits Central Dam from his father.
1902 Wright begins converting his arc light customers to electricity and explores the Fergus Falls area for other dam sites.
1907 Wright and three other investors incorporate Otter Tail Power Company and begin building Dayton Hollow Dam at a cost of $100,000.
  Dayton Hollow Dam after its completion in April 1909. Dayton Hollow Dam after its completion in April 1909.
1909 Dayton Hollow hydroelectric plant goes online in April and serves its first customer, the Northern Light Electric Company, in Wahpeton, North Dakota.
1914 Otter Tail Power Company began operating Hoot Lake hydroelectric plant northeast of Fergus Falls. By then the company's electric system covered 2,000 square miles and included about 44 towns.
  Linemen hauling poles in the 1920s. Linemen haul poles in the 1920s.
1921 To handle the increasing demand for electricity, the company builds a 1,500-kilowatt steam plant at Hoot Lake and add turbines in 1923, 1959, and 1964.
1926 The company builds the first sizable steam plant designed to burn lignite at Washburn, North Dakota.
  Workers shoveled coal into early boilers. Workers shoveled coal into early boilers.
1929 The stock market crashes symbolizing the start of the Great Depression. By this time, the company has expanded service to 314 communities in the region.
1933 Thomas Wright, Vernon Wright's son, becomes president of Otter Tail Power Company.
1936 Congress passes the Rural Electrification Act, and Otter Tail Power Company begins providing power to area cooperatives the following year.
1938 Negotiations between the company and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers culminate in signing the first labor agreement with employees.
1941 Otter Tail Power company grows by 25 percent when it becomes the surviving company in a merger with Union Public Service Company.
1944 The company reaches its maximum territorial size serving a total of 496 communities after adding several towns in the Bemidji, Crookston, and Hallock areas in Minnesota.
1945 C.S. Kennedy, director, vice president, and general manager, who for nearly 25 years had been the iron man of Otter Tail Power Company, resigns and management decentralizes.
  A typical Otter Tail Power Company office looked like this in the post-World War 2 years. Offices like this welcomed customers in the post-World War 2 years.
1946 Electricity use skyrockets after the World War II. The company turns to diesel and gas generators to bridge the gap while additional steam generation is being built.
1952 Cyrus Wright, another of Vernon Wright's sons, becomes president of the company.
1953 The transition from being a self-contained provider to being part of an integrated network of power suppliers now is complete.
The city of Fergus Falls agrees to sell its municipal system to Otter Tail Power Company which, in turn, agrees to build its new General Office there, to be occupied in 1954.
1961 Al Hartl becomes president and serves until 1976, transitioning the company from a family business to a modern corporation.
1963 Directors adopt a two-for-one common stock split. This occurs again in 1988 and 2000.
1967 The dispatch center installs the company's first computer.
1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.
1975 The 450-megawatt Big Stone Plant goes online near Milbank, South Dakota. Six small, old, inefficient plants are retired.
Robert Bigwood becomes president and serves until 1983.
1981 Coyote Station, with a capacity of 420 megawatts, goes online near Beulah, North Dakota.
1983 John MacFarlane is named president and serves until 2002.
1989 To boost flat utility revenues, Otter Tail Power Company forms Mid-States Development (later named Varistar) to acquire and oversee nonutility businesses.
1992 Minnesota passes a law that electric utilites must spend 1.5 percent of their electric revenues to encourage Minnesotans to conserve electricity.
1996 www.otpco.com web site is launched.
1998 Mid-States Development becomes Varistar Corporation.
2000 John Erickson is named executive vice president to succeed John MacFarlane.
2001 Shareholders approve changing the corporate name to Otter Tail Corporation. The electric utility continues to operate as Otter Tail Power Company. John Erickson is named president of Otter Tail Corporation.
2002 Douglas Kjellerup is named president of Otter Tail Power Company. Charles MacFarlane is named interim president after Kjellerup suffers a stroke.
Otter Tail Power Company purchases the 900-kilowatt output of a wind generator along the Buffalo Ridge near Hendricks, Minnesota. This electricity is sold by subscription to customers who are willing to pay extra to support renewable energy.
2003 Charles MacFarlane is named president of Otter Tail Power Company.
2004 Otter Tail Power Company serves more than 250,000 people in 423 communities in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
2005 Otter Tail Power Company and six other utilites propose building Big Stone II to meet increasing demand. An associated transmission project calls for upgrading and adding to the transmission grid to deliver the power generated by the proposed plant.
Preparations begin for a rate case in Minnesota, the first since 1986.
2007 Emphasis continues on obtaining permits for building Big Stone II, strengthening the transmission grid, filing the Minnesota rate case, developing wind energy, and ensuring customer satisfaction.