Otter Tail County is a county in the U. S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 57,303, its county seat is Fergus Falls. Otter Tail County comprises the Fergus Falls Micropolitan Statistical Area. Native Americans had permanent dwelling sites. Two Native American tribes were in constant conflict; the Dakota were being pushed from their home area by the Ojibwa during the late 18th century and early 19th century. Burial mounds and artifacts can still be found; some of the oldest Native American remains were found near Minnesota. The remains, nicknamed Minnesota Girl, were dated at about 11,000 B. C; the first white men to enter the county were British fur traders. Efforts were made to set up trading posts on the Leaf Lakes and Otter Tail Lake. In the late 19th century most of the towns were built along the railroad lines. Lumber and agriculture were the major industries in the county at that time; the pine and hardwood forests, transportation system, markets were instrumental in the development of Fergus Falls into a lumber center.
The Wisconsin Territory was established by the federal government effective July 3, 1836, existed until its eastern portion was granted statehood in 1848. The federal government set up the Minnesota Territory effective March 3, 1849; the newly organized territorial legislature created nine counties across the territory in October of that year. One of those original counties, had a section partitioned off in 1851 to create Cass County. On March 18, 1858, the outgoing territorial legislature created Otter Tail County from areas partitioned from Cass and Pembina, another of the original counties created in 1849; the county was named for the Otter Tail River. The county was not organized in 1858, nor was a county seat specified. On September 12, 1868, the Minnesota legislature completed the county organization, specified Otter Tail City as county seat. Otter Tail City began as a waystation on a fur-trade route between Saint Paul and the Red River valley; the settlement was of sufficient size that when the Minnesota Territory established a US Land Office for this part of the territory, the office was sited at Otter Tail City.
Thus the city was named as the seat. But people had begun settling the future Fergus Falls area in 1857, it grew sufficiently that in fall 1872 the vote was taken to move the county seat there; the Northern Pacific Railroad had planned to run a line through Otter Tail City, but complications caused the line to be placed in Fergus Falls, which precipitated the county seat move. The Soo Line made plans to run a line through Otter Tail City, but when townspeople couldn't agree on the routing, another route east of the city was constructed, thus a new city plat was generated, with the settlement name changing to Ottertail. In 1870, the population of the county was about 2,000. At that time the principal languages spoken in the county were Norwegian, Swedish and English; the people of Fergus Falls organized a new county named Holcomb. In 1872, a legislative act abolished Holcomb County, added additional townships to the west, established Fergus Falls as Otter Tail County's seat; the Otter Tail River flows south and west through the central and western parts of the county on its way to form the Red River in Wilkin County.
It is joined by the south-flowing Pelican River west of Fergus Falls. The Leaf River rises in the county and flows east to its confluence with the Crow Wing River in neighboring Wadena County; the Redeye River flows southeast through the county's northeast section toward its confluence with the Leaf in Wadena. The county terrain consists of rolling hills wooded through its center section, dotted with lakes and ponds, carved with drainages and gullies; the available area is devoted to agriculture. The county terrain slopes to the south; the highest point on the county terrain is attributed to two different points: Inspiration Peak, at 1,750'. Satellite data supports the probability; the county has a total area of 2,225 square miles, of which 1,972 square miles are land and 252 square miles are covered by water. Otter Tail is one of 17 Minnesota savanna region counties with more savanna soils than either forest or prairie soils. According to its website, the county contains over 1,000 lakes; as of the 2000 United States Census, there were 57,159 people, 22,671 households, 15,779 families in the county.
The population density was 29.0/sqmi. There were 33,862 housing units at an average density of 17.2/sqmi. The racial makeup of the county was 97.11% White, 0.29% African American, 0.51% Native American, 0.44% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.84% from other races, 0.78% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.67% of the population. 35.5 % were of 31.2 % Norwegian ancestry. There were 22,671 households out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.1% were married couples living together, 6.1% had a female householder with no husband present, 30.4% were non-families. 26.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.30% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.98. The county population contained 24.9% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 24.2% from 25 to 44, 24.7% from 45 to 64, 19.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 100.4 males.
For every 100 females a
Yorkshire Electricity was an electricity distribution utility in England, serving much of Yorkshire and parts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. Formed as the Yorkshire Electricity Board in 1948 as part of the nationalisation of the electricity industry by the Electricity Act 1947; the establishment of the company involved the amalgamation of 50 private and local authority power companies. The Yorkshire Electricity Board took over Scarcroft Lodge in north Leeds as its headquarters; the Yorkshire Electricity Board was responsible for the purchase of electricity from the electricity generator and its distribution and sale of electricity to customers. The key people on the Board were: Chairman Arthur Bond, Deputy Chairman R. H. M Barkham, Full time member J. S. Yates; the total number of customers supplied by the Board was: The amount of electricity, in GWh, sold by Yorkshire Electricity Board was: Yorkshire Electricity Board was privatised in 1990 as the Yorkshire Electricity Group plc. In June 1993, Homepower stores were opened across the Yorkshire region.
Homepower was the retail arm of the company, a joint venture with East Midlands Electricity. At its peak, Homepower had 130 stores; this part of the company was sold off in 1996. In 1997 the company was acquired by American Electric Power and Public Service Company of Colorado in a deal worth £1.5 billion. In 2001 Innogy plc bought 94.75% of the company in a deal worth £1.8 billion. The company was subsequently split into two entities, one a supply company, the other a distribution utility; the distribution company was disposed of to CE Electric UK in 2001 in exchange for the supply business of Northern Electric. Northern Powergrid is now the licensed Distribution Network Operator for the Yorkshire region. In 2002, the company divested itself of its Leeds Headquarters as most staff and processes had been transferred to the Midlands HQ of npower by that time. Innogy was itself taken over by RWE; the supply company now trades as npower. Npower Documents and clippings about Yorkshire Electricity in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
William Starling Burgess was an American yacht designer, aviation pioneer, naval architect. He was awarded the highest prize in aviation, the Collier Trophy in 1915, just two years after Orville Wright won it. In 1933 he partnered with Buckminster Fuller to build the radical Dymaxion Car. Between 1930 and 1937 he created three America's Cup winning J-Class yachts, Enterprise and Ranger. Burgess was born in Boston, Massachusetts on Christmas Day, the son of yacht designer Edward Burgess and Caroline "Kitty" Sullivant. Both of Burgess' parents died within weeks of each other when he was 12, leaving him and his 3-year-old brother to be raised by relatives. Like his father, Starling had a great mechanical and mathematical ability and a refined sense of line and spatial relationship. From his mother he received a love of literature and poetry, which he regarded as the foundation for all accomplishment. After the death of his parents, Burgess was mentored by many of his father's colleagues, including Nathanael Greene Herreshoff.
This relationship was terminated by Herreshoff when Burgess confided his aspiration to become a yacht designer himself. Starling attended Milton Academy, a progressive boarding school near Boston, where he became interested in aviation, designed his first sailboat, Sally II, patented a sophisticated lightweight machine gun. Burgess graduated from Milton Academy in 1897 and entered Harvard College with the Class of 1901; as Burgess began life at Harvard, tension was building between Spain and the U. S; the sinking of an American battleship, the USS Maine, on February 15, 1898, increased the drumbeat for war, war was declared on April 11, 1898. Starling Burgess was one of a hundred Harvard undergraduates to volunteer for military service, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy, because of his proven expertise in weapons design, was promoted to the rank of Gunner’s Mate, he received credit for the courses he missed during this period by special vote of the Harvard faculty. For reasons not clear, he left Harvard without completing his degree, opened his own yacht design office in Boston.
During the Spring Term of his senior year, in March 1901, The Rudder published the following notice: “We are glad to welcome into our company of advertisers Mr. Starling Burgess, a son of the celebrated designer. Mr. Burgess has opened an office at 15 Exchange Street, is busily engaged in getting out the designs for several boats, among them being a yawl for Mr. Walter Burgess, whose many boats have been among the most interesting exhibits in this magazine. To the designing end Mr. Burgess has added the business of brokerage, our readers will find several craft offered for sale in his advertisement.” A year he partnered with Alpheus Appleton Packard to found Burgess & Packard, Naval Architects and Engineers. In the same year he designed the revolutionary 52 LOA feet scow sloop "Outlook", a radical racing yacht which featured a steel truss along the deck midline allowing the hull to be flat and light by the standards of the day; the design featured a large, club foot, self-tacking jib set on an 8 feet bowsprit supported by a dolphin striker.
It was fast and a winner against the more conventional keel boat designs of the day. In 1905 he established a yacht yard in Marblehead and began designing and building yachts and boats. In the eyes of the rich and famous Starling was part of the "Four Hundred"-the group of long established and rich American who were devoted to sailing as a recreation; however Starling had an awkward relationship with this rich and powerful group due to his relative lack of capital. In 1908 he became interested in aviation and in 1909 joined with airplane designer Augustus Moore Herring who had left Glenn Curtiss to form the Herring-Burgess Company; the Herring-Burgess Co. built the biplane Flying Fish, which flew over Plum Island on April 17, 1910, the second powered and controlled flight in New England. In 1911 Burgess built several planes licensed by the Wright Brothers, he crashed one while demonstrating at College Park Airport in June 1911. Norman Prince and his friends hired Burgess in 1912 to build a plane for them to race in the Gordon Bennett Cup Race.
Herring left in 1910 and Greely S. Curtis and Frank H. Russell joined Burgess to form Burgess Company and Curtis, Inc. In 1914 the renamed Burgess Company built its first hydroplane designed by J. W. Dunne and soon was selling the Burgess-Dunne hydroplanes to the U. S. Army and the U. S. Navy. In addition, the Royal Canadian Air Force purchased a Burgess Dunne hydroplane in 1914. Burgess received the 5th Collier Trophy to be issued, in 1915 for his hydro-aeroplane. With its 800 employees, Burgess Company became the largest employer in Marblehead. At some point in this decade, Burgess designed what was certainly his most popular boat, the 14-foot "Brutal Beast." Simple enough for inexpensive mass-production, the Beasts became the dominant instructional craft of Marblehead—and other communities—into the forties. When the U. S. entered World War I, the Burgess Company was sold to John N. Willys. Burgess became a Lieutenant Commander and designed planes for the Navy. After the war he returned to boat design and construction and designed three successful J-class yacht defenders of the America's Cup: Enterprise in 1930, Rainbow in 1934, Ranger in 1937.
In 1922 he and A. Loring Swasey and Frank C. Paine formed the design firm Swasey & Paine in Boston. Lewis Francis Herreshoff worked with them, they designed several yachts, including the Advace for John S. Lawrence, the Gosson for Charles Francis Adams III