Hold That Line

 

"Convinced that the safety of otheir families and the health of their land was disregarded in favor of the gluttonous energy consumption of cities, the farmer-led revolt began as questioning and escalated to rampant civil disobedience, peaking in 1978 when nearly half of Minnesota’s state highway patrol was engaged in stopping sabotage of the project."  

Powerline-“The first battle of Americas energy war by Paul Wellstone & Berry Caspers. Carlton College professors, 

In the late 1970's, Lowry Minnesota, my home town, was the epicenter of the country's first energy protest. The electrical co-ops, United Power Associates (UPA) & Cooperative Power Association (CPA) obtained permits to construct a high-voltage power line across 430 miles of farmland from the Coal Creek Station near Underwood, North Dakota, conveniently built next to a lignite mine, through Central Minnesota to the Dickinson Station in Wright County near the Twin Cities. That the protest was about the hazards of coal burning power plants might be a bit of hyperbole - this was the 1970's after all.  The term 'Global Warming' was first used in 1975 and did not gain traction until the late 1980's. There were of course environmental activists who were vehemently opposed to burning coal to produce electricity - and nuclear power for that matter, although the Three Mile Island disaster was still in the future. Environmentalists way ahead of their time. But the main points of grievance were farmer protests over eminent domain taking their farmland for towers, the decrease of the land value and safety concerns surrounding a high voltage line running overhead. And the fact that the beneficiaries of the power were "The Cities" amped up the anger.

Pope County is home to many small farms owned by families for a hundred years, growing mainly row crops. So you can imagine the problems faced when fields are "interrupted" by 150' high towers. In addition to the resentment over lost productive land to these towers seen as a land grab by the co-ops, there were also concerns over potential health hazards. It will cause cancer. Your cows will lose all their hair and won't reproduce. You'll be electrocuted while driving your tractor ... The fact that the State of Minnesota refused to allow the towers on state land due to concern for wildlife habitat only reinforced the protesters position.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources claims that the line might “affect the behavior of animals and change wildlife habitat and affect the physiological state or conditions of plants and animals." Harrumphs Farmer Art Isackson:  “I guess a skunk is worth more than a farmer."  

Inside the red brick town hall in Lowry, a hamlet of 257 in west-central Minnesota, angry farmers talk bitterly about Governor Rudy Perpich and his "invading redcoats” and vow never to give up the fight.

Time Magazine Feb 1978

So the protests began, at first following the Civil Rights example of non-violence:  sit-ins, obstruction of the building equipment, road blocks, and on a particularly windy day, driving a manure spreader past surveyors at speed. When power-company survey crews invade their fields, farmers harassed them with onrushing snowmobiles. They blocked construction machinery with pickup trucks and boulders. They shoved welding rods into the radiators of the power companies’ tractors, sprinkled sand and gravel into gas tanks. Four masked men on horseback menaced one work crew. 

Arrests followed. More than 40 farmers were arrested for vandalism and interfering with construction. The Pope County attorney resigned rather than prosecute his friends and neighbors. 

In point of fact, the cooperatives were pretty inept at explaining and defending the need for this line and quite arrogant toward the rebelling peasants. At one meeting, a co-op rep said “I don't know what you're making such a fuss about this for, it's going to go through no matter what you say”, which of course was true but it didn't improve the relationship between UPA/CPA and the farming community.

"The hated line is a 400,000-volt power transmission cable. After a two-year court fight, the line is beginning to slice a 160-ft. wide swath through the dairy and grain country.   ...  As the line’s intimidating 150-ft. tall towers (every quarter mile) march through relatively small family farms, a landowner can find his hard-won acres chopped up. The high wires also discourage pilots from doing increasingly important aerial spraying and seeding. Besides, Minnesota farmers are fully aware of the experience of people living near similar high-voltage lines elsewhere. The lines literally snap, crackle and pop, and they set up electromagnetic fields that can produce jolting, if nonlethal, shocks in anyone touching ungrounded machinery and other metallic conductors within 200 ft. 

Time Magazine Feb 1978

In 1978 I was teaching school in Hastings, but we generally spent a good deal of the summer back in Pope County. The anger was palpable. Pope County (also Grant & Stearns County) residents were pretty universally opposed to the line with the most heat of course coming from those farmers where the towers would be erected. There were a few farmers, generally those unaffected by the route, who rented out some of their land for use in the construction of the towers, being paid handsomely. This did not sit well and in some cases friendships were destroyed.  

Tensions were high. At some point, a faction of the protesters turned to sabotage. From 1978 to 1983 16 towers were toppled by cutting the legs and thousands of insulators were shot out. A $100,000 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest of tower saboteurs. Many people certainly knew or suspected who the perpetrators were but ... there were no takers.. 

I worked in Hoplin & Nelson Hardware, a traditional farm focused hardware but also - second only to Lee's Barber Shop & The Dahl House - a gathering for "discussions" about the situation. We at the hardware were in a bit of a quandary. Yes, the protesters had our sympathy but we also sold dynamite and guns and ammunition. Dynamite was used frequently by farmers to blow stumps or rocks in their fields and ditching dynamite quickly produces a nice drainage ditch when a line of dynamite sticks detonates in rolling wave. It's quite a sight. We recorded every sale - purchaser name, dynamite type and amount. Same with ammunition purchases. We made a show of doing this so the buyer would know if a tower was dynamited they could expect a visit from the authorities. As far as I know, no explosive was used to knock down a tower.

In May, 1978 a protest march was planned, covered by national media.

Governor Perpich (at the request of the Pope County sheriff) sent in over two hundred state patrolmen. On that first morning (it was a Monday morning) it was like going to work, everybody went to Lowry and that was with the national press. Everybody was there, nobody knew what was going to happen, and there had been some activity out at the construction site west of Lowry, about three miles west. There they were to build some of the towers. So everybody got in this big caravan and went out there, but what they decided to do was a big media stunt and it worked out pretty well. They took out coffee, cookies and flowers to all the state patrolmen (about 150 of those guys) and it was twenty below and the wind was blowing like crazy and everybody was just freezing his hind end off. But everybody stood out there in the cold and they handed out the coffee and the cookies and the patrolmen kind of laughed and were at ease and stuff.

George Crocker, protest organizer oral history

In 1980, Alice Tripp, a Stearns County farm wife and protest leader, ran a surprisingly successful campaign for Governor largely based on opposition to the powerline and advocacy for alternative energy plus support for the rights of women and minorities . She lost but amassed 20% of the popular vote, leading to Perpich's defeat and the election of Al Quie - and as a side effect, launching Paul Wellstone’s Senate bid. Alice ran a true grass-roots campaign - she spent but $5000 on her campaign.

Despite the efforts of Tripp, the protesters and area farmers, the CU powerline became fully operational in August of 1979. The protest activities diminished but litigation continued into the 80's. The last tower to topple was in 1983.

And a listen. The powerline spawned a protest song  - Larry Long's “Pope County Blues".

Copyright ©  2025  Dave Hoplin 

Come the Revolution

I know in your heart you believe you could do better if you ran the world. And if you can name that tune in 10 notes,  I might just agree with you. You certainly must have a list of things you would change ... come the revolution.  

Here's a starter list. Pile on. 

Add your nominations in the comments and I'll take them under consideration.

No lawn mowing or leaf blowing on Sunday morning.

Retinal scans will replace passwords universally.

e-Bikes with throttles relegated to streets.

The Heritage Foundation - you know, the Project 2025 folks - will be required to publish their voter fraud data annually and news outlets will headline the results.

Every citizen will vote. Election day will be a national holiday. The Electoral College will be disbanded.

Everyone will have access to affordable health care.

Private jet subsidies will be eliminated and owners will be charged $10 million annually for airport landing fees. Same for yachts. Port fees.

Churches will lead a compassion surge.

We will all eat strawberries and cream.

Vikings will win the Super Bowl. Twins will win the World Series.  Gophers will beat Ohio State.

Justice will roll down like waters.

Slow traffic stays right. Super-speeders and lane weavers will be jailed.

Lane splitting law will be repealed.

35E speed limit between St.Paul and the river will be 55 mph.

Rendition only meaning will refer to musical performances.

A chip in your forehead will flash when you lie.

Apple pie for breakfast will be found to deliver significant health benefits.

Book reading will once again be a popular leisure activity.

Zuckerberg will give us all sound suppressing headphones.

Crypto will collapse.

Education will include a thorough knowledge of history.

Oligarchs will pay reparations and their New Zealand redoubts will be confiscated.

School lunches will be free.

USAID will be restored and again save lives world-wide.

Anything produced with AI will have an embedded watermark indicating that fact.

USA will stand up to Putin. Ukraine will be free and independent.

Climate action will be funded and celebrated. Antarctica melt halt will be a priority.

Plastic chairs will be banned.

Vehicles will have sensors to automatically activate turn signals.

The ballroom will become a hockey arena and the donors will pay for the renovation.

Airline CEOs will have to book their own flights using their company's app and fly middle seat tourist.

Gutters will come pre-installed with leaf guards.

People will be themselves, except nicer.

Non-slip sidewalks and curbs in bright neon will be mandatory anywhere that has winter.

RFK heresies will be purged.  No, God is not an anti-vaxxer. Vaccines will again be recognized as life saving.

Minimum wage will be sufficient to support a family.

PACs will be abolished. 

Electricity will be wireless. No more cords.

Congress will once again be the country's law-making body.

Common courtesy will become common.

Charitable contributions will leap. The homeless will be housed.

The next Presidential race will match two women.

We'll take away your Rolls Royce, mate.

Copyright ©  2025  Dave Hoplin 

Crypto

One of my favorite novels is Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. The book has 2 interconnected threads. The first centers on the WWII cryptanalysis efforts by the British at Bletchley Park and the American code-breakers against the Japanese.  The second is the prescient concept of modern day crypto... computer technology to build an underground data haven in the fictional Sultanate of Kinakuta, interestingly termed "The Crypt", with the goal to facilitate anonymous Internet banking using electronic money 

The read is a commitment - over 900 pages - but if you start it be prepared for trading sleep for reading. The book was published in 1999 and presages the cryptocurrency craze we see today.

While on this topic, do you understand cryptocurrency?  If so, please explain the value prop to me. Admittedly, I am a curmudgeon, but I fail to see the benefit. Does the world really need another currency and particularly one without any regulation behind it at that. Cryptocurrency is decentralized, meaning it's distributed and not controlled by one central authority.You can’t jingle bitcoins in your pocket. It is a virtual currency and the foxhole for greedy manipulators. It is a way of transferring “funds” quickly and anonymously, which plays perfectly with criminal types doing transactions on the dark web in weapons, human trafficking and other nefarious practices which I can only imagine. But if that is prevalent, perhaps we have gone astray and "regulation" should be considered. 

How does it work? A crypto transaction uses blockchain technology utilizing a network of computers (nodes). Each node independently performs some role in verifying, recording and validating the transaction. The result of a cryptocurrency transaction is "simply" an unchangeable data entry on a ledger - a blockchain. These blocks are permanent making it impossible to change the information in the completed transaction, and also impossible to trace the source.

These transactions consume enormous compute resources as each node needs to solve a "puzzle" as part of its role. This demand has led to the explosion of data centers to support it - AI as well - and is overwhelming our electrical grid. Prepare for brownouts and kerosene lamps.

In my view, this is yet another way to try to get rich without having produce anything or work too hard, a swindler's paradise that includes the Grifter in Chief. Many crypto users shun it as a transaction tool, but rather use it as as an investment vehicle, a digital bank like gold in a vault. Your digital wallet is an app (don't forget your password). So as you watch your crypto wallet fatten day by day, beware. This is reminiscent of 1929 Wall Street.  

If this all sounds pessimistic, it's because I am. What ever happened to entrepreneurs? In my career I was involved in 2 startup companies and the goal each time was to actually produce something beneficial to mankind.  How we have fallen, where threats and bribery and phantom money pass for normalcy.

Copyright ©  2025  Dave Hoplin