Cherry County, Nebraska. Named for Lt. Samuel A. Cherry of the Fifth Cavalry. The County Seat is Valentine with a typical and tidy courthouse:
What amazes me is its size.
6,010 sq. miles. Cherry County is larger than 3 of our 50 States, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware. The County straddles two time zones, Central and Mountain.
And for those folks that enjoy their own personal space; the population density is approximately 1.02 hoomin be-uns per square mile. That's what I call peace and quiet.
But life still goes on in Cherry County just as it does in most all of our United States. As large as it may be, we still need pizza pies delivered to our doorsteps.
This can be accomplished by phone-in orders:
(402) 376-3303
Pizza Hut
403 E Highway 20, Valentine NE 69201
so how mad IS Money Penny?
> Cherry County, Nebraska. Named for Lt. Samuel A. Cherry of the Fifth Cavalry. The County Seat is Valentine with a typical and tidy courthouse:
That's impressive. The estimated population is only 5,761 souls and most of those are probably Swedes and Germans, so multiply by a scale factor of 0.75. It's basically a small town spread out over those square miles of sand hills. It's probably quiet enough and way too quiet in the winter.
One of Mrs. Cow's brothers lived there for quite a few years. It may not be the end of the world, but, you can see it from there. If you ever wanted to see the greatest amount of nothing possible without being on an oceangoing ship, this is the place. We were there two years ago.
Swedes and Germans and wide open spaces
A guy named Garrison used to write about life in his little town in Mist County, Minnesota. He mentioned the Swedish bachelor farmers and how they cut their wheat.
Even though the local tractor supply sold double swathers, the old fellows still cut their wheat with single swathers.
Their apparent reasoning was if a double swather was used they would get finished in half the time. But that would leave them with nothing to do until bedtime...
one of my favorite tunes of all time is Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman.
Done by Webb or the late Glen Campbell, R.E.M, James Taylor or others.
Just a great tune.
Here is one of my favorite covers by a Mississippian. I have heard it live twice by her.
I think it captures the essence of the ennui of having so much time with so little to do.
[flash width=480 height=360] http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/lWwDgYlGeZA?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0 [/flash]
Picky picky - but does "lineman for the county" make sense?
Hijack alert - but since I spent a little time on ranches in southern Cherry County during my youth mayhaps that gives me license?
Anyway, for the past 40 years or so I have been trying to figure out if there are any county governments that operate electric utilities and employ linemen.
There definitely are plenty of electric cooperatives whose names include the word "county", but those entities are membership cooperatives established and operated entirely separate from the county goverment. Such as Sedgwick County Electric Cooperative, the utility that serves the rural area immediately west of Wichita.
And in some parts of the country there are public-utility districts in and named for certain counties, but from what I can see those are usually municipal corporations, again separate from the county government.
Does anyone know of a county government in the United States that actually operates an electric utility and employs linemen?
GB
Wade Hayes made a really good cover about 15 or so years ago.
Electric Companies
Can't think of any county-owned power companies right off the bat. Most are member-owned co-ops.
However there are several city municipalities in Oklahoma that purchase wholesale wattage from larger distribution concerns and handle all the line ownership/ maintenance and billing themselves with their employees. I don't see any reason a county couldn't do the same.
However these cities that retail power depend on a population count to provide a profit. It's no secret that providing power in rural areas (one or two subscribers per mile) is a hard way to turn a profit.
Electric Companies
Yup, twelve Wyoming communities, including Cody, have municipal-electric utilities. IMHO public power works pretty well.
Funny how we got off on this tangent from your initial post about Cherry County.
As a coincidental detail, one of my cousins is a long-time director of the electric co-op that serves part of northwestern Cherry County.
GB
I thought you meant this....
My bad...
Couldn't resist, Malheur County, Oregon, 9930 square miles. Losing out on the people per at 3.1 though.:-)
