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Rio Grande Portland Cement Company <br />Red Rock Plant and Quarry <br />5PE4231.1 Historic Telephone Line <br />Historic Background <br />These excerpts are from History of the Telephone in Colorado, a narrative by Howard T. Vaille <br />(1916). In 1880, the Pueblo exchange was established with Bell Telephone Company. Four years <br />later, a toll line was built from Denver to Pueblo. To be able to talk 120 miles was considered truly <br />wonderful advance in telephone development. Phone service was relatively easy to obtain in town <br />and Bell Co. felt compelled to get service to farmers and ranchers as well. Cattlemen were the first <br />to see the value to the service. Ditch and reservoir companies found the telephone absolutely <br />indispensable to control the flow of water and to reach the farmers, and the farmers badly needed <br />constant reliable connection with them. <br />Two motives were important to the push of the Bell Co. to provide service to farmers and ranchers. <br />One is that of a public servant as a public utility corporation and the second is that of business <br />consideration. Bell Co. realized that to have a substantial and successful system required ranch <br />subscribers, because ranch telephones make the service valuable to the merchants of the towns where <br />they trade. The problems were the distances to reach some of these individuals, the constant repair <br />costs for replacing poles and lines, and offering the service at a price affordable by the farmers and <br />ranchers. After 1904, there were five Farmers Propositions which entailed the farmers or ranchers <br />building all or part of the line and maintaining the line. In exchange the phone company offered <br />them reduced rates on the telephone receiver and transmitter and connection service. As a result of <br />the active roll to enlist the farmers and ranchers with phone service, Colorado has telephone lines <br />built largely with telephone company money. <br />Vaille, Howard T. <br />1916 History of the Telephone. Public Utilities Commission, Denver, Colorado (Approximately <br />80 pages unnumbered).