Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
INTERSTATE POWER COMPANY
INTERSTATE POWER COMPANY. Interstate celebrated its 50th anniversary on April 18, 1975. The company began as early as 1913 when a group of Chicago financiers began consolidating small utility companies as part of the Utilities Development Corporation. In 1924 the corporation acquired the DUBUQUE ELECTRIC COMPANY, then the sole remaining provider of electricity to Dubuque with subsidiaries supplying power to East Dubuque and Dyersville.
In 1925 the Chicago financiers incorporated their utility as the Interstate Power Company. The home office was located in the former offices of Dubuque Electric at 10th and Main. A period of rapid growth for the company resulted in the company spreading farther into Iowa and parts of Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and the province of Manitoba, Canada.
In 1925 while Dubuque Electric was still an independent company, Dubuque's first passenger buses were introduced to the community. On an experimental basis, buses began operating on a regular route and regular schedule on July 19, 1925. The test area for the buses served people living in the West 14th Street and North and South Grandview areas with connecting streets. Street cars continued to serve the rest of the community. There were four buses purchased for the trial period and with additional equipment the company's cost was $60,000. (1)
The new buses operated on a twenty-minute schedule starting at 6:00 a.m. and operating until midnight. The first bus left the downtown starting point at 9th and Locust at 6:00 a.m. and the last bus left MOUNT CARMEL MOTHERHOUSE at 11:30 p.m. (2)
The one-way fare on the buses was ten cents. There were no transfers from buses to street cars or from street cars to buses. During rush hours, an extra bus was placed into service. All buses had a capacity of twenty-five passengers. (3)
The stock market crash of the Great Depression brought the company's good fortune temporarily to an end. Thirteen years and three company reorganizations would be needed to restore Interstate Power's financial stability. As part of reorganization, fringe operations were sold including the Dubuque bus system that Interstate had created from the trolley system in 1933. In 1936 when Interstate's bus fleet operated seven days a week, Dubuque residents could have a day's worth of sightseeing for twenty-five cents.
In 2008 Interstate Power was part of ALLIANT ENERGY CORPORATION. Alliant was a public utility holding company incorporated in Madison, Wisconsin in 1991.
The 1942 Dubuque Classified Business Directory through 1989 Dubuque City Directory listed the company at 1000 Main.
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Source:
1. "Starts Operations," Telegraph Herald, July 19, 1925, p. 1
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
Bergstrom, Kathy, "Interstate Traces Roots to Dubuque," Telegraph Herald, Nov. 12, 1995, p. 2
See: CINDERELLA