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 Monroe County’s Griffy Creek.
The Long Line Tower at Griffy Creek appears to have been built in 19701 and rises 280 feet tall2. It stands near other towers at New Unionville and Bloomington, but I haven’t figured out how it patched into the greater system.Â
After the Long Lines program ended, AT&T deaccessioned most of its towers around the year 2000. Today, Subcarrier Communications Incorporation of Old Bridge, New Jersey owns Griffy Creek’s old Long Line Tower3. It’s used as a Verizon cell phone tower.
Sources Cited
1 Parcel 53-05-24-100-028.000-004 (2025). Office of the Assessor. Monroe County [Bloomington]. Web. Retrieved November 1, 2025.
2 Transmitter Characteristics (n.d.). Antennasearch. Web. Retrieved November 1, 2025.
3 (See footnote 1).
This is actually the correct location for the New Unionville “long lines” tower site.
New Unionville was an auxiliary repeater on the following legacy microwave routes:
American Telephone & Telegraph
Indianapolis-Louisville (path connectivity to Morgantown & Clear Springs)
Indiana Bell Telephone:
Indianapolis-Bloomington (path connectivity to Morgantown & Bloomington)
Based on the tower placemark on your map I would assume that you may be utilizing the “long-lines.com” website as a source of information. Even with best of intentions that site contains a considerable amount of errors and misinformation…unfortunately New Unionville is one of the sites where the location information is incorrect..
The AT&T Indianapolis-Louisville microwave route was constructed during 1964. Review of historical aerial imagery indicates the “New Unionville” site shown on the “long-lines.com” map was constructed sometime between 1983-1986.
Hope this helps.
It sure does. Thank you!