Missouri Long Lines sites

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Italicized site names indicate RBOC (“connecting” or short-haul) microwave sites not part of the national AT&T Long Lines system. (These sites are often published on blog posts.)

SiteCountyComments
AullvilleLafayetteCurrent MOSWIN site
BarnettMorgan
BrinktownMariesCurrent MOSWIN site
Cole CampBenton
DaytonCass
DoverLafayette
Gray SummitFranklinTwo towers.
HalifaxSaint Francois
HermannGasconade
HillsboroJeffersonAUTOVON switch, Combat Ciders and Echo-Fox ground entry point. Western L5 cable terminal with cesium fountain clock for system time. Still owned by AT&T. Two towers.
HoldenJohnson
Holts SummitCallaway
Jefferson City COColeCentral office. Now used by Brightspeed.
Kansas City DOJacksonMidwestern district office.
KnoxvilleRay
LawrencetonSte. GenevieveCurrent MOSWIN site
Oak GroveJacksonCurrent FM radio transmitter site
Prairie HomeCooperHorn-reflector antennas removed June 2024
RichwoodsWashingtonSite abandoned
RoanokeRandolphSouthwestern Bell Telephone (RBOC) site. Guyed mast, “flyswatter”/”periscope” tower
RosatiCrawfordFuture MOSWIN site. Current FM radio transmitter site.
RussellvilleColeSouthwestern Bell Telephone (RBOC) site.
SlaterSaline
WindsorJohnsonCurrent MOSWIN site

History

According to a January 29, 1954, article in The Advertiser Courier, the first major microwave route established through Missouri went live the following week (Feb. 1-5, 1954). Just a couple months earlier, the Jefferson City Post-Dispatch wrote Nov. 19, 1953, that the Holts Summit site was under construction and sites further west on the route (Elkhorn, Dover, Slater and Prairie Home) were completed, while sites at Hermann and Gray Summit still needed to be built. The sites roughly followed the present-day Interstate 70 corridor.

By 1960, six microwave routes existed throughout the state, not counting single-hop spur routes. The Kansas City-St. Louis route brought online in 1954 was still the main route for carrying telephone and television traffic across the state. Telephone-only routes existed between Dover and La Cygne, Kansas; and Elsberry and Campbell (extending southward into Arkansas.) Helena to Kansas City was a television-only route. Another telephone-only route was being constructed between Helena and Dover.

That hop had been completed by October 1966, extending the Dover-La Cygne, Kansas, route. Another major telephone/television route was established by that time, connecting Kansas City to Halifax, which continued the route to its terminal site in Oakdale, Illinois. A route extending from St. Louis to Hollister, following Interstate 44, was also established between 1960 and 1966. Planned routes that year included a telephone-only route from Slater to Kirksville, and a telephone/television route from Windsor to Walker, which continued westward to Fort Scott, Kansas.

Map

Map legend

  • Green checkmark: Site page available, I’ve photographed
  • Yellow checkmark: Site page available, submitted photographs
  • Red marker: No site page or photos available (on my “to photograph” list)
  • Dark red X: Site demolished or replaced.
  • Blue telephone: Telephone central office.

Missouri sites (complete list)

Click here to download spreadsheet with detailed info about all Missouri sites