MDU RESOURCES GROUP INC

MDU Resources got its start in 1924 as the Minnesota Northern Power Company. Its founder, Rolland Heskett, had previously been involved with utilities in Wisconsin and northeast Minnesota (the forerunners of Wisconsin Public Service Corporation and Minnesota Power (& Light Co.), respectively).

The firm's holdings initially consisted of the electric utility at Cushing, Oklahoma, Minnesota Electric Light & Power Company, which served the Bemidji, Minnesota area, the Eastern Montana Light & Power Company, centered around Sidney and Glendive, Montana, and the Eastern Montana Utilities Co., which was based in Fairview, Montana. The Cushing property was soon spun off to Oklahoma Gas & Electric. The Minnesota Electric Light & Power system was likewise spun off to the W.B. Foshay interests in 1925 (but by the end of WWII, it had become the Bemidji division of Otter Tail Power Company ).

The company's remaining properties in eastern Montana became the nucleus of the MDU's present-day electric territory. The company became aware of another utility in that area (the United Power Co. of Crosby, North Dakota) serving several towns towards and including Kenmare, North Dakota. United Power was acquired in 1926, and the three companies began operating under the Montana-Dakota Power Co. name.

Initially, Minnesota Northern was in the business of selling electric power only, but entered the natural gas business following its discovery of oil in 1936 in the Williston Basin in Eastern Montana. As it expanded across Eastern Montana and western North Dakota, it acquired the electric franchise for Miles City, Montana, after an acquisition struggle with the Montana Power Company.

Shortly after passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA), Heskett reorganized all the gas and electric subsidiaries of Minnesota Northern Power under one name: Montana-Dakota Utilities.