AT&T built thousands of microwave relay towers as part of its Long Line communications network in the 1950s and 60s. Although they haven’t been used in nearly forty years, many of the monoliths remain standing across Indiana. One of them is near the Harrison County community of Lanesville.
Although this Long Line Tower takes its name from a town in Harrison County, it actually sits in nearby Floyd County. Unfortunately, its GIS mapping system is locked behind a paywall, which means I can’t find the tower’s construction date! What I can tell, though, is that the self-supporting tower was probably built in the 1950s or early 1960s based on the way it looks.
At any rate, the tower reaches 133 feet into the sky1. During its AT&T days, its KS-15676 horn antennae relayed a signal from Louisville, Kentucky, ten miles northeast, to Salem, Indiana, twenty-five miles southwest2.
After the Long Lines program ended, AT&T deaccessioned most of its towers around the year 2000. Today, American Tower Management owns Floyd’s Knobs’ old Long Line Tower3.
Sources Cited
1 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved November 1, 2025.
2 Long Lines Map and Information (n.d.). Web. Map. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
3 Parcel 22-01-03-500-027.000-001 (2025). Office of the Assessor. Floyd County [New Albany]. Web. Retrieved November 1, 2025.
