The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Connect grants program has awarded Loveland Pulse $1.037 million to extend broadband services to the park and residents of the Big Thompson Canyon, offering a new lifeline in future emergencies. The Loveland Reporter Herald reports the Community Connect program is part of the USDA’s Rural Development initiative, which got its start in the 1930s extending electricity infrastructure and service to rural areas in an effort to expand economic development opportunities. Today, nearly a century later, the program’s mission remains the same, even if the technologies needed for growth have changed.