Harold Hill, Retired Rancher
93 Knight Road
Goldendale, WA 98620
509-773-4924
Office Term: 1974-2004

The PUD's new power plant gets a new name: the H.W. Hill Landfill Gas Power Plant

Don’t talk to Harold Hill of Goldendale about the good old days -- the family’s ranch west of Goldendale didn’t have electricity until he was a junior in college.

Harold has clear memories of chilly privies, hauling water and heating it on the wood stove, and doing chores by hand -- and by lantern light. He remembers mom cooking for a dozen ranch hands without a refrigerator, range, or other modern appliance. He also remembers when rural residents felt like second class citizens because they didn’t have the conveniences electricity brought city folks.

“I was in high school before I found out my name wasn’t ‘Fetch-Water’ and my brother wasn’t ‘Get-Wood,’” Harold jokes.

A county-wide vote to create a customer-owned utility in 1938 changed all that. Along with other Grange members, Harold’s father Chester was one of the local citizens instrumental in forming the new PUD. He wired his new home in 1932, but it sat dark for nearly a decade. Although the power line was just one-eighth of a mile away, Pacific Power & Light wanted $500 to hook up the family. That was a fortune to a struggling farmer.

While the cities had electricity, investor-owned utilities like PP&L were reluctant to serve rural areas. Their focus was making a profit for stockholders, and they didn’t see a profit in serving the farmers. “They really misjudged farmers,” Harold says. “They thought the only electric load they’d get was for lighting. They didn’t foresee that the farmer would make electricity his new hired hand and use it to power pumps and run all kinds of engines.”

The farmwife put electricity to work inside the house with equal enthusiasm. Hill remembers his mother’s new Hotpoint refrigerator and range, and the excitement of retiring the old flat iron. Electricity also meant the end of hauling and heating water for laundry and bathing.

“With electricity rural housewives were really released from being house-bound with all the drudgery work they had to do,” Harold says. “For the first time they could be part of society and what was going on in the world.”

Electric radios were a new thrill for the whole family. “Before electricity, we had battery-powered radios and had to ration our time. We’d listen to Fibber McGee and the news, and that was about it,” Harold explains. “With electricity, you could listen to the radio 24-hours a day while doing chores and farmers bought electric radios by the dozen.” 

Over 60 years the PUD has grown to 10,000 customers and 1,600 miles of powerline. Our poles and wires and other facilities are valued at $42 million and residential and small farm power rates average 5.9 cents per kilowatt hour, compared with about 5.5 cents for the PUD’s first customers six decades ago.

“Not bad for a bunch of farmers and second class citizens,” Harold says.