The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-12-28
TELEPHONE FIRM
ADDS TO SERVICE
FORT PECK EXCHANGE Is ONE OF
LATEST ADDITIONS TO EXTEN-
SIVE NETWORK
Central Offices at Fort Benton and
Townsend Has Been Moved to Newer
and More Modern Quarters to I'm
prove Facilities.

The newest exchange of the Noun
tain States Telephone and Telegraph
Co., was cut into service at Fort Peck,
Mont, few months ago with So tele-
phones. The central office equipment,
320-line switchboard and assoc.e ted
equipment, is located in the Town Hall
Of the new city.
Thus Fort Peck, a city over night has
been woven into the network of tele-
phone communications with an Aiad-
din-like magic that rivals the Paul
Bunyan magnitude of the construction
now in progress on the dam itself, &C
cording to ]. N. Whittinghill, Montana
State manager for the company.
A week after the cutover the tele-
phone total increased to 40 and when
government construction of the 500
modern homes and office buildings is
completed sometime within a short
while there will be several hundred tel
ephones in service.
In the matter of toll service to con-
meet the new city with all the rest of
the world and provide the needed COM
munication outside for the construction
activities, two new copper telephone
circuits were strung from Glasgow to
Fort Peck and placed in service carly
in 1884 The project required IS miles
of wire and $40 poles, all of which had
to be placed under adverse weather
conditions because government engine
ers needed the service as soon as pos
sible in directing this gigantic under
taking.
Central office equipment at Fort Peck
was installed while the building was
being completed amid the din al d &C
tivity of carpenters, plasterers and
plumbers. Construction of outside
plant also was complicated by the fact
that sewer, electric light and Other ia
cilities also were in process of con-
struction. But everyone worked to-
gether with minimum of inconven-
fence.
A considerable amount of other work
has been done by the company in Mon
tana during the year to provide service
where needed and to keep the plant
in high state of efficiency.
Central offices at Townsend and
Fort Benton are being moved and new
equipment installed. These cutovers
are scheduled for December.
Additional toll switchboard was in
stalled at Glasgow to care for the ex-
banded service.
About 1000 feet of aerial cable was
replaced in the vicinity of Belgrade
during the year. Three miles of :.erial
cable was replaced at Bozeman along
with 10 cable terminals.
In connection with other activities at
Fort Peck it was necessary to rercute
80 miles of the Fort Union-Havre toll
line in order to secure adequate separa-
ton from other facilities.
Additional facilities were placed
north from Cut Bank to the oil fields,
consisting of rs poles and 81 miles of
copper wire.
Highway changes necessitated re-
routing on these toll lines: Missoula-
Darby, Missoula- Clarks Fork, Rom: up
branch Of the Billings-Lewistown and
Repairs and requirements were made
on the following lines: Casper-Bil!lngs,
Helena Calgary, Pocatello Butte,
Butte Garrison, and Three Forks
Butte. Other work in the nature of
service improvements was completed at
Clyde Park, Billings, Helena, Missoula,
Drummond, Glasgow, Harlem, Cut
Bank and Wilsall.