AT&T built thousands of Long Line towers as part of its transcontinental microwave communications network from the 1940s through the sixties and seventies. It’s been decades since they were used for their original purpose, but one still stands near the northern Indiana community of Palmer.
The tower in Palmer appears to have been built in 19731. Although it’s missing its iconic KS-15676 horn antennae, the tower still rises 244 feet2! Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out how it fits into the rest of the Long Line network. I’d bet it transmitted signals from Kouts to Hammond, but I’m not sure.
After the Long Lines program ended, AT&T deaccessioned most of its towers around the year 2000. Fortunately, the tower in Palmer was an outlier! Today, it’s still owned by the company3.
Sources Cited
1 Parcel 45-17-21-151-003.000-047(2024). Office of the Assessor. Lake County [Crown Point]. Web. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
2 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
3 (See footnote 1).
