75 Years of Cooperative
Proud to be a cooperative for 75 years!
DRN is proud to announce the celebration of its 75th anniversary. Dickey Rural Telephone Cooperative began with an idea: a group of people interested in organizing a telephone cooperative in Dickey County.
The first meeting was held on July 26, 1950, at the Dickey County Courthouse in Ellendale. Thirty-eight people attended the meeting that evening, and the first board of directors was elected. B.L. Nelson served as chairman, Glenn Coleman as vice chairman, and John A. Viken as secretary-treasurer. The other members of the committee were Albert Hauck, Matt German, Earl Larson, and Stanley Johnson.
Headquarters were established in Ellendale, ND, and the first official meeting at headquarters took place on August 21, 1951. A month later, members Walter Scott and C.W. Holmes were added to the board of directors. In October of the same year, there were two changes to the board: Fred Klipfel and Raymond Burkle were elected, replacing Earl Larson and Matt German.
The first loan to DRN was announced by the REA in July 1951, making DRN the first recipient of an REA telephone loan in North Dakota. Over the next year, DRN purchased 10 telephone companies in the area. The subscriber number started off slowly for the cooperative and slowed even more after having to increase rates in 1957. Following these slow couple of years, between 1958 and 1965, weather-related incidents caused major setbacks to DRN, including multiple sleet storms that caused roughly $158,000 in damage from approximately 1,500 broken telephone poles.
The first significant growth was experienced in 1963 when the cooperative gained 152 subscribers with the addition of the Fort Ransom exchange. In 1970, the cooperative began upgrading its entire system to buried plants, a shift fueled by the damage above-ground telephone lines faced in sleet storms. By 1973, 15 of the cooperative’s 16 exchanges had been converted. At the time, the territory spanned approximately 120 miles east to west and 70 miles north to south. DRN continued making improvements, and property was purchased for the new headquarters building.
Schedule of Events
FREE Snow Tubing
Saturday, March 1 | 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Thrill Hills, Fort Ransom
Join us as for a fun day on the snow hill at Thrill Hills! Admission on us.
FREE Bowling
Saturday, March 15 | 1 – 4 pm
Pheasant Lanes, Ellendale
Join us for an afternoon of bowling! Admission on us.
75th Annual Meeting
Thursday, October 16
Ellendale Public School
We hope you can join us for your Annual Meeting.
