Winters Signs of the Times

[snomoman]

Hope most of you have seen 1 or more of these signs in your past snowmobile travels.
Enjoy,
snomoman


Thoughts and prayers to all affected by the recent rain storm.

 

[frnash]

Hope most of you have seen 1 or more of these signs in your past snowmobile travels. …

Oh geez, I wish those pictures were clearer, I can't read 'em; this one in particular:

View attachment 58903
I can see it says: "Wired for Light and Sound", but not much more.

I have a hunch it may relate to the following tale I first heard as a kid on the farm in Bruce Crossing in the 1850s/1960s:

"Speaking of telephones…
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876.

So where do you suppose you would have to go to find the first telephones in Michigan, and when? ... Detroit, perhaps?

No, try Yooper country! - Ontonagon County, to be exact, where Linus Stannard (for whom Stannard Township was named) installed the first telephones in the state of Michigan in his home and general store in Rockland in 1877. Can you say 'cutting edge technology'?

By the winter of 1877-1878 the telephone lines had been extended to Ontonagon by way of Greenland, leading in short order to the formation in October, 1879 of the Ontonagon Telegraph Company, later the Ontonagon County Telephone Company, who to this day is still providing service to Bruce Crossing, Ewen, Mass City, Ontonagon, Rockland and White Pine.

They were so far ahead of their time that it took until August of 1907[SUP]1[/SUP] for the lines from the rest of the world (via the Michigan State Telephone Company, later Ameritech, then SBC) to reach the neighborhood.

When traveling through the area, check out the museum in Rockland, just 12 miles south of Ontonagon on US-45, too, where you'll find the switchboard used by the first telephone company in the State of Michigan.

Does the ol' Yoop have a rich heritage, or what?"

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[SUP]1[/SUP] Sadly, that story seems to have faded into history, now nearly gone and forgotten. Or perhaps it wasn't completely accurate. I've only recently seen at the (click ) Michigan Bell Telephone Co. History web site that there seems to be one or two other claimants to that title, possibly beating ol' Linus Stannard by a mere month or two {Sigh!}:

"The honor for owning the first telephone in Michigan goes to a Grand Rapids plaster company whose president was a close personal friend of Alexander Graham Bell. Bell sent his friend a pair of prototype telephones and a public demonstration of the scientific marvel was held on August 4, 1877.

The following month, the first commercial telephone line was installed between a Detroit drugstore and its laboratory almost two miles away. By October, a set of telephones were connecting the units of the Detroit police department."

 

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And here's another sign from da Keweenaw:

(Click thumbnail for larger image.)
There used to be several of these signs, one greeting new arrivals at Michigan Tech, just before the eastern most MTU parking lot coming up US-41 from Chassell, another on US-41 was just after the airport entrance on the right side of the road as one traveled from Hancock to Calumet — between the entrance road and the motel. Another on top of Brockway, and one at the Harbor Haus Restaurant in Copper Harbor.