![]() They sold shares to finance operating costs, and if you wanted service you had to set your own poles. They pooled their resources and worked together to run lines and make local phone service a reality for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. According to Hinds, “Those who founded Farmers believed that the telephone was a necessity, not a luxury. In 1920, five local dryland bean farmers took matters into their own hands by starting Farmers Telephone Company. This antique switchboard made by the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company sits in the Farmers museum.ĭoug Pace, former manager of Farmers, said in the history CD, “Until phone service was established in this region, most residents rode a horse, hitched a ride on a train or a buckboard, or walked many miles to carry news to family and friends.” Junior Hollen, a longtime resident of the area noted, in a CD on the history of Farmers that, “Before the phone company, most people had to ride a horse clear to Lewis or Cortez to make a phone call.” But over in Dolores County it was a different story. A rural telephone line ran several miles upriver from the town of Dolores. The Dolores-San Juan Telephone company had established service from Summit Ridge to Cortez and Cortez to Bluff, and both Cortez and Dolores had switchboards and one operator. Farmers had organized the county fair and a growers association (which became the Farm Bureau).Towns were in the process of electrifying and building sidewalks. The irrigation district was in operation, as were schools, post offices, and newspapers. The effort to build a highway to Durango was just getting under way.īut public utilities were in their infancy. The spring floods that year wiped out the newly established railroad from Dolores to Rico in over a dozen places, and road-straightening projects on the dirt roads between Cortez and Dove Creek and Cortez and Dolores were under way. ![]() In 1920 Dolores was the wealthiest town per capita of any town in the state, due to the cattle and sheep business. In Southwest Colorado, the McElmo fruit crop was finally being marketed in local towns, due to the popularity of the local apples and an increase of automobiles and trucks which carried the fruit to local stores – the first truck arrived in the region in 1916. Women had just won the right to vote and Prohibition had just kicked in, with the Volsted Act making it illegal to sell “intoxication beverages” having more than 0.5 percent alcohol. Life was easing up and the region was preparing to modernize. The 1917-18 flu pandemic was over and as of Armistice Day, Nov. There are no census numbers for the community.Ī historic candlestick phone, which was the type of phone common through the 1940s. Cortez had just over 500 citizens, and out in Pleasant View, where Farmers has its headquarters, everyone knew each other. ![]() We have a lot of customers who drop their bills off so they can come say hello.”Ī hundred years ago the population of Dolores County was 1,243, while Montezuma County had 6,260 residents. Everybody knows our board members, everybody knows us. “Today, most telephone companies, when you call them you get India or Florida – you lose that personal touch,” Hinds explains. But the company is proud of its accomplishments and was hoping to share that success with their community during the anniversary party. Plans for a celebration for over 200 people, with free food, music by the Bar D Wranglers and Flashback, as well as games for the kids had to be put off because of the COVID-19 precautions. Farmers Telephone Company was incorporated in 1920 and this year marks its 100th anniversary. That is one thing that has not changed over the past century – the personal touch. Our customers love us, and the reason they do is because we’re here – we’re local, you can come and talk to us.” “How many people do you know that really like their telephone company?” asks Terry Hinds, manager of Farmers Telephone Company in Southwest Colorado. The Farmers Telephone Company’s main office is in Pleasant View, Colo.
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