Collections Carousel – Little Falls Water Power Company Insulator Box, circa 1935

This handmade wood box from the Little Falls Water Power Company of Little Falls, Minnesota, was used by company employee, Art Tuller, for shipping meters.  The meters were sent to Duluth, Minnesota, if they needed  “correction”.  Arthur Robinson Tuller was born in Todd County, Minnesota, on February 24, 1881, to Orange Johnson Tuller, Sr. and Emma Elizabeth Prather.  In 1920, Art and his wife, Lillie Sutton, came to Little Falls with their five children and Art started his new job as operator of the company plant, which was then under construction.  Four years later, the Minnesota Power and Light Company of Duluth purchased the plant and also the Pike Rapids Dam Site (present Blanchard Dam).  Art was chief operator at the time.  He later served the company as service man and then as storekeeper of the warehouse and garage.  Art was known for his many talents and is believed to have constructed the insulator box.  According to one of his sons, Clarence Murray, “(h)e made everything from coffins to baby cribs”.  Art also worked in the area as a blacksmith and grain thresher.