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Decade of the Pasty Cam on this day ^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

What's the phone number of a coal company in Calumet?

2370 (this can't be right)

142 maybe

Right. The other one was for Hancock.

142

I didn't believe that those were the phone numbers, they are so short.

Alex, are you a youngster or what?

Some great pictures today!!! Hey something that has been becoming the talk, is spring forest fires. With the early thaw things are drying super fast. I had a patch of snow disappear and two days later that same site, the grass is very very crunchy. Just something to think about, we all live in some heavily wooded areas and a fire would not be a welcome spring event. Take care everyone and have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a really nice bit on the Detroit Free Press about the Kingsford fans at the girls HS BB championship game. Nice to see UP values endure.

(http://www.freep.com/article/20100324/HSS13/100324004/Final-thoughs-on-girls-finals-Kingsford-fans-good-Portand-not-so-much)

I love, love, love the Sundog picture!

Alex, Those were numbers before the "dial" phone system. Our home phone was 40-J, a party line. My Grandma's was 560-M. And Kentala's Bakery was 766. I remember how big of a deal it was when the Calumet area finally got dial phone service in '65 or '66. The Houghton/Hancock area had it for quite some time before we got it. I'll never forget picking up the phone and hearing "number please" from the operator. Yeah, I'm an old geezer!!! LOL

Wonderful pics. That phone directory page shows how some things were simpler then, with only 3 or 4 digit phone numbers to use (or even dial).

I took it to be a sun 'tower', not a sun dog. The sun dogs are little bits of rainbow color on opposite sides of the sun. Right?

When I lived in Houghton our phone number was 1203 and my dad's business numbers were 50 and 51.

While at Michigan Tech in the late 1950s & early 1960s, it felt like a step back to an earlier time, with the manual phone system in the Copper Country, especially coming from Detroit, and while Michigan Tech already had a dial phone system on campus. Not a bad thing, just kind of quaint. I'm glad for the experience!

I even recall the old wooden-box-on-the-wall magneto phone, much like one of these, at the family farm in 'Ruces 'Rossing just a few years earlier. The Ontonagon Telephone Company says:

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Quote:

"In 1949 dial exchanges were installed in Bruce Crossing, Rockland, and the Mass-Greenland area. The White Pine exchange was built in 1952 as the most up-to-date dial exchange available at that time. In 1962 the Ontonagon exchange became the fifth and last exchange to be converted to dial service while the Bruce Crossing, Rockland and Mass exchanges were replaced with new dial equipment. In 1963 the Ewen Telephone company was purchased from Frank and Albert Speese families and a new dial central office was built to serve that area. In August of 1972, the White Pine exchange became the first office in the system to be converted to one-party service. At that time, the Silver City area was incorporated into the White Pine exchange after being served out of Ontonagon for many years."

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