Above: A booklet of Christmas Carols from the Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative (Heppner, Oregon) to its members, ca. 1955. The booklet was published by the Amalgamated Lithographers of America, Local No. 4, Chicago. Image scanned from a personal copy.
Above: Part of the back cover of the Christmas Carol booklet. Notice "Corp." is used, instead of "Cooperative" or "Co-Op." The official name of the co-op was "Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative, Incorporated." It was formed in 1940, received a low-interest loan from the New Deal's Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in 1945, and started delivering affordable electricity to Oregonians in north-central / northeast Oregon in 1949. Image scanned from a personal copy.
Above: One of the many songs included in the booklet. Today, "Columbia Basin Electric has grown from its original membership of roughly 400 to nearly 4,000 members... The Cooperative serves residential, commercial, industrial and irrigation customers throughout a service area of approximately 3,000 square miles in five counties" ("About Us," Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative, accessed April 1, 2026). Image scanned from a personal copy.
Above: A pinback highlighting the value of the Columbia Basin Electric Cooperative, as well as the many other electric cooperatives in Oregon that began or grew with the assistance of FDR, the New Deal, and REA. Image scanned from a personal collection.
Above: The REA was just one of many power-related policies and programs that helped rural Oregonians. Another was the New Deal's Electric Home and Farm Authority (EHFA) that helped them purchase electrical appliances on low-interest credit terms. This ad comes from the Greater Oregon newspaper (Albany, Oregon), February 17, 1939. Image from newspapers.com, used for educational and non-commercial purposes.
Above: A closer view of the bottom of the ad, showing electrical appliances that rural Oregonians could enjoy for the first time, thanks to programs like REA and EHFA - electric stoves, clothes washers, fans, lights, refrigerators, radios, toasters, and more.
The New Deal helped bring power, convenience, and improvement to Oregon!
