The Fort Randall Dam power house went into operation on March 15, 1954. President Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke over the radio from the White House to 600 people gathered in the Fort Randall power house tapping a Western Union key to signal to Governor Sigurd Anderson to start the generators. Anderson spun the giant turbine, and the dam’s first generator began producing electricity. By the early 1970s, the dam was producing over 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electric power annually.