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 the Morgan County hamlet of Wilbur.
The tower near Wilbur appears to have been built in 19741. It rises 168 feet2. As part of the Long Lines network, the tower relayed a signal from Paris Crossing nineteen miles northwest, to Morgantown, fifteen miles southeast3.
After the Long Lines program ended, AT&T deaccessioned most of its towers around the year 2000. In 2000, the Wilbur tower was purchased by American Tower Management, Incorporated. Two years later, it was purchased by Communications Properties, LLC, of LaPorte4.
Sources Cited
1 Parcel 55-04-35-260-003.000-010 (2024). Office of the Assessor. Morgan County [Martinsville]. Web. Retrieved November 9, 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).
