Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990 TAG: 9007120241
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A13 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The 20-party, single-line system runs 40 miles, strung on trees, fence posts and treacherous cliffs high above the Salmon River in an isolated section of east-central Idaho in the Salmon River National Forest.
The line, operated by the non-profit North Fork Telephone Corp., was installed by the U.S. Forest Service in 1931 and sold to its users for $1 in 1952.
In its place will be a $250,000, state-of-art digital system operated by the Rural Telephone Co. of Glenns Ferry, Idaho, said the department's Rural Electrification Administration, which provided financing for the new system.
One of the old system's last customers, Garry Pedrow, said he hated to see the change because of the system's historical value, but "as far as being in business, it's hard to communicate on this line."
His wife, Peggy, agreed.
"Once it's gone, it's gone forever. But . . . I guess I'm ready because I can't hear anything" on the 40-mile party line.
The size of the system will almost triple immediately to 37 subscribers, the REA said.
A buried cable is the heart of the new system, most of it along a narrow, dead-end roadbed, the only way - other than the river - in and out of the 40-mile canyon.
The first call, scheduled for early Friday, is to be made from Shoup's Country Store and post office, run by the Pedrows in the canyon's only town, population 2.
Joe Miller, president of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, was scheduled to make the ceremonial call to Gary Byrne, REA administrator, who will be attending a rural development conference in Denver.
REA spokesman Jim McKenna said nearly all rural hand-cranked magneto telephones were converted to modern versions by 1970. At the peak, he said, perhaps 1.25 million had served the nation's farms, by conservative estimates.
Each farm had a coded ring - two longs and a short, for example. The customer being called was supposed to answer that ring and ignore the rest.
But party line chatter, with two or three parties talking and several more secretly listening, was a popular rural recreation long before electricity, television and even radio.
A "line call" of continuous ringing was often used to alert families of emergencies such as approaching storms, tornadoes or fires in forest areas and on the prairie.
by CNB