Sixty and seventy years ago, AT&T built thousands of Long Line towers as part of its transcontinental microwave communications network. It’s been decades since they were used for their original purpose, but one still stands just outside of Versailles in Ripley County.
The tower near Versailles appears to have been built in 19691 and rises 300 feet2. When it was part of the Long Lines network, it relayed a signal from Paris Crossing twenty-three miles southwest, to Lawrenceburg, twenty-two miles northeast3.
After the Long Lines program ended, AT&T deaccessioned most of its towers around the year 2000. In 2002, the tower in Versailles was purchased by American Tower Management, Incorporated4. Today, it’s used by Duke Energy Business Services.
Sources Cited
1 Parcel 69-13-27-100-002.000-013 (2024). Office of the Assessor. Ripley County [Versailles]. Web. Retrieved October 25, 2024.
2 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
3 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
4 (See footnote 1).
Perhaps as interesting as the tower history is the geography lesson these posts provide. Having traveled the backroads of Indiana for many years, I’ve been through (and forgotten) some of the bergs you bring to light and others I’ve heard of, but never located, I now know where they are.
I hadn’t thought about that, but I agree!