Re: NNG: Bell Telephone system map 1909

This thread brings up a lot of memories. When I was a child at Aberdeen WA there were only three digits and no dialing. To place a local call you picked up the receiver and when the operator said "number please" gave her the name of the town and the number. One number I remember is Aberdeen 341, but I don't remember if that was our home phone or where my dad worked. This didn't change until we got dial service in the late 1950's, when our number changed to LEnox 2-2979. Being in a rural area we were on a seven number party line, and when you picked up the receiver you had to listen for someone else already on the line. The polite thing then was to hang up, unless the conversation sounded like juicy gossip. You could usually tell when someone else was listening in but you could not tell who. In an emergency you would ask for the line.

For railroad content: The Sumpter Valley Railway actually built the phone line from Baker (City) to Prairie City via Sumpter and Whitney. This line served as a commercial phone company in the early 1900's before being sold, but the railroad continued to maintain a private line for their use. They never used a telegraph. The part of the line from Sumpter to Whitney was maintained into the late 1990's as (I believe) the last operator assisted line in Oregon. It was finally replaced by a fiber optic line. a service we don't have in Baker City.