I’ve been fascinated by AT&T’s old Long Line towers since I was a kid. I couldn’t help but start tracking them down once I finally learned what they were and realized I worked in the shadow of one! Some are more memorable than others, but the most impressive I’ve seen might be the one in Kouts. At 388 feet1, it’s well within skyscraper territory.
Kouts’ Long Line tower was part of AT&T’s transcontinental microwave network that brought us the first long-distance communication by telephone. Built to support massive microwave horns, the structures relayed a signal that crisscrossed the nation! Kouts’ was built around 19572 to bounce a signal twenty-nine miles southeast to Culver to another thirty-one miles southwest in Grant Park, Illinois3.
Unfortunately, I had never been to Kouts before I went to scope out its Long Line tower. The town was established in 1865 by Bernhardt Kautz, and about 2,000 people call it home today. Bisected by State Road 49, the community features a tidy downtown, a municipal pool, a historic high school, and a modern public library. The Long Line tower stands south of Kouts proper, maybe half a mile from its business district.
I’ve written about the Kouts tower before but didn’t say much about the impression the behemoth made on me. My mom was with me, and we spotted the tower from an incredible distance- its red-and-white trusses stood out like a beacon. By the time we reached the castle-shaped Gallops gas station on State Road 8, the thing was impossible to miss! Due to topographical differences, the tower is much taller than the others it once relayed a signal to: it bests Culver’s by 121 feet4 and soars a full forty-eight feet higher than its peer in Grant Park5.
The Long Line tower in Kouts is so massive that I couldn’t resist snapping a photo from its base as I stared straight up. I’d never thought to do that before. At nearly 40 stories, the structure stretches further than the tallest buildings in 17 states and Washington, D.C. That’s right- if this rural Indiana giant was habitable, it’d beat buildings in Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and even the nation’s capital.
The tower in Kouts may be massive, but it’s obsolete. Many years have passed since it was used for its original purpose, as the Long Line network’s utility ended once geostationary satellites and improvements in fiberoptic technology came to market. AT&T finally shut the system down after competitors introduced digital networks. Most of the company’s Long Line towers were sold around the year 2000. Today, Kouts’ is used by Surf Air Wireless under license by Maplenet Wireless6.
Today, the old Long Line tower in Kouts is missing its old microwave antennae. Still, its an incredible sight from up close or far away as a silent sentinel over the rural landscape. Beneath it, I couldn’t help but wonder how many people across the country once relied on this very tower to make a call that mattered.
Sources Cited
1 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved August 23 2024.
2 Parcel 64-16-17-352-002.000-013 (2024). Office of the Assessor. Porter County [Valparaiso]. Web. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
3 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved August 23, 2024.
4 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
5 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
6 (See footnote 1).
