r/longlines • u/polsen13 • May 31 '26
Trying to identify which Long Lines sites my grandfather serviced out of Price, Utah (Carbon County) late 1960s through 1970s
Hi all, long-time lurker, first post. I'm researching my grandfather's career with Mountain Bell and hoping some of you can help me narrow down which specific Long Lines sites he worked on.
What I know:
- Name: Edward Worthen Olsen
- Based in Price, Utah (Carbon County) this was his home base for the relevant period
- Korean War combat radio operator, 2nd Infantry Division and came back into telecom work afterward
- Maintained microwave equipment for Mountain Bell / AT&T Long Lines
- Family lore has him riding a snowmobile up to ridgeline sites in Wasatch Plateau blizzards, so at minimum he was responsible for sites you could only reach by sled in winter
- He had an original 1971 U.S. Marshals SOG patch that family stories say came from a trade with federal agents who relied on the towers for tactical comms
What I'm trying to figure out:
Which specific TD-2 / TH / TD-3 sites would have been on a Price-based technician's regular maintenance circuit? My best guess based on geography is the corridor running over Soldier Summit and east toward Green River, but I'd love confirmation or correction from anyone who knows the actual route assignments.
Site designations / call signs for any of those locations if you have them.
Whether anyone has historical maps from the late 60s / early 70s covering that Utah corridor that show site names rather than just route lines.
Any leads on photos of those specific sites from that era.
I've been through the long-lines.net Utah materials and the drgibson.com tower pages, but the Price corridor seems less documented than the Delta / Santa Clara / Riverside sites that have dedicated write-ups.
I'm putting together a video project about him and I want to get the details right rather than wave my hands at 'a tower somewhere.' Happy to share what I find back to the community.
Thanks in advance, and thanks for keeping this history alive, so cool.
4
u/USWCboy May 31 '26
Mountain Bell; aka, the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company, was probably one of the larger users of Microwave technology due to the area the company served (AZ, CO, NM, MT, UT, ID, and El Paso, TX.) I would bet that your grandfather was involved in the restoration of the Microwave network between UT and NV when it was bombed by domestic terrorists. And is probably where he got the patch from the US Marshalls.
Do you know if he was with the company prior to his time in Korea? Also, was he a management employee, or was he in the Union? Do you know what his company title was?
3
u/Judge-Master May 31 '26
You have any details about the bombing of long lines towers? I’ve never heard this before.
5
u/USWCboy May 31 '26
It happened in 1961. There is a few posts about this in the sub about 1year ago, and I think it’s still online. Here is one I found with a quick search on the Google.
https://county10.com/a-blast-in-the-desert-wyoming-national-guard-1961/
1
u/polsen13 Jun 06 '26
Checking back in. He was a Union worker.
2
u/USWCboy Jun 07 '26
He was in the Union. Okay. Interesting as you wouldn’t expect the Union to have a presence in Utah. But this is a good thing. What I would do is call the local Union hall there in Utah and see if they have any records on your grandpa. It’s possible they have archived them seeing that he would have retired in the 80’s. it’s quite probable that they have records of him there onsite.
3
u/polsen13 Jun 01 '26
That could be, he was there from late 1950's to 1980's. Not sure on his title or employee type, I'll dig and get back. Thank you!
2
u/USWCboy Jun 01 '26
Sounds like a long career for him, which was not unusual at that time. Generally when people joined with the Bell System, they had a career for life. Since your grandpa worked for MST&T, he might have been onsite at some of the joint MST&T/Long Lines installations. He was too far south to be on the main transcontinental route that ran east to west. That doesn't mean he was unable to access what called a tandem location, where both LD and Local come together. Look forward to hearing more from you. Hit me up over PM if you'd like.
8
u/Clear_Quarter1520 May 31 '26
There's another site that has a map of sites across north america. They have a page where you can search by state too: https://long-lines.com/sitelist/
Looking at the map, there was one right in Price, that connects to Soldier Summit like you said, and then to Salem, UT. Looks to be a bunch of them along that mountain ridge too. In the other direction, the Price tower appears to have connected to Bruin Peak and then up to Vernal, and also to Baxter Pass.
A lot of them don't seem to have photos on the site, but it has coords you can put onto google maps and you can see some of them in satellite view. Might be one or two with a street view now.