Tiny Cecilville, CA was in the news recently when a middle age school teacher abducted a 15 year old student and tried to use its remoteness to hide out. I had remembered that the Cecilville Farmers' Line was still in use when Bryant Pond went to dial.
Here's the 1984 news article: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SG4fAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mGgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6634%2C8212863 (https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SG4fAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mGgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6634%2C8212863)
I thought that surely some system would have replaced it by now. However an ABC News video from last April briefly shows a magneto phone in a tavern at the 45 sec mark: http://abcnews.go.com/US/inside-isolated-cabin-elizabeth-thomas-tad-cummins-found/story?id=46934143 (http://abcnews.go.com/US/inside-isolated-cabin-elizabeth-thomas-tad-cummins-found/story?id=46934143)
The sheriff's captain described Cecilville as an area of a few hundred people that is "off the grid: no electricity, no cellphone coverage, no landlines, as far as phones go." This video is the only contemporary reference that I could find that the Cecilville Farmers' Line might be a surviving magneto system. Anybody have more information on this? Or is it like the Santa Anita system that connects local cabins and a pack station but doesn't connect to a telephone CO.
There is a second ABC Exclusive video that interviews the Sheriff and the citizen who "called 911" so they must have something other than that mag phone, which is missing it mouthpiece and may be on the wall in that bar just for show, a relic of the "old" days or still in use. Don't know.
The rest of that bar seems quite modern with a small sound stage with lights and hanging guitar. T-shirts for sale, at least one big screen TV (broadcast or cable or satellite?)
Anyone know for sure? Maybe citizen ringing and saying "Hey, Sarah, would you give me 911?"
Here's a gamma adjusted version of the phone. It looks to me like the front of the cabinet is much taller than the rest of the cabinet. Where would the ringer mechanism be? Can this possibly be a real working phone at all, even just connected directly to another magneto phone?
Well at least they mounted the only phone in town in such a spot as to not block the big 'ole plasma screen tv (with sound bar) while your trying to ring up the CO :P..... Yeah, the got power, prob have wifi and all those other wonderful things. Maybe its the lack of 3G wireless that makes it remote?
Quote from: Alex G. Bell on July 09, 2017, 07:35:05 PM
Here's a gamma adjusted version of the phone. It looks to me like the front of the cabinet is much taller than the rest of the cabinet. Where would the ringer mechanism be? Can this possibly be a real working phone at all, even just connected directly to another magneto phone?
Did you catch those 3 heavy hinges facing the camera which looks like the front door would be swung open to use the WE 2500 inside the smaller that front face box. And gongs attached with machine or wood screws with no coils behind the front panel?
Is that some sort of small PBX just above and to the right of the phone (light on) or just building security tied into the 2500 inside the box?
Quote from: TelePlay on July 09, 2017, 08:49:50 PM
Did you catch those 3 heavy hinges facing the camera which looks like the front door would be swung open to use the WE 2500 inside the smaller that front face box. And gongs attached with machine or wood screws with no coils behind the front panel?
Didn't watch the video but gongs attached with screws would explain the front being taller than the rest of the box!
For kicks I google mapped the town to see its location and surrounding town names and searched Telcodata.us for them. The closest town which is known to have an exchange is Sawyers Bar, about 30 miles away by road, operated by Siskiyou Tel. Co. The other towns apparently have no known exchange unless it's even further out. So it's plausible that there's little phone service anywhere around there. Apparently the Redcom Labs MDX384 is limited to 384 lines, pretty small!
https://www.telcodata.us/view-switch-detail-by-clli?clli=SWBRCAXF462
Quote from: Alex G. Bell on July 09, 2017, 09:04:52 PM
Didn't watch the video but gongs attached with screws would explain the front being taller than the rest of the box!
No, your enhanced image shows the 3 hinges. No one is shown in the videos in the bar or using the phone.
I just google maps that area and desolate comes to mind. Now, as for that bar with the phone, the ABC news did not name the bar but Google lists it as the Salmon River Saloon with an address of 30001 Cecilville Road which according to the news videos is about 200 yards from the two cabins, one lived in by the guy who called 911. The river is about 200 yards from that bar so that makes sense.
The phone number for the Salmon River Saloon is (530) 462-4685. Someone could call them during the day hours, when it's not loud, and ask what they have for a phone and about the wood phone.
Then again, it could be a different bar.
I didn't closely scrutinize the wall phone in the video but the three heavy duty hinges suggest it may now be just a prop and the inside used to store something else. I recall that one restorer would not put a dial inside old local battery phones as he said the hinges were meant to be opened just once a year to change the battery and they would no hold up to repeated daily use. Maybe a modern phone is inside?
On a board completely unrelated to telephones, I found this 2012 post:
"...At one time I used to use one of the of the crank phone service (possibly) still in use (as far as I know) is in Cecilville, CA (Siskiyou County)...the locals use it to connect to the rest of the world...it was called the "Hoot & Hollar"...a single line run through the trees to the east, perhaps to Gazelle, Callahan, Etna, or Weed...You'd count the long and short rings to see if the call was for you...we'd talk to the operator in Yreka, it wasn't great but it worked as long as everybody kept fresh 1.5 volt battery cells in your phone battery box, and a falling tree didn't bring the line down...it's possible this old phone line is no longer in use, and has been replaced by microwave links (popular in mountain areas and less costly than copper hardwire circuits)"
[Side note: imagine a home office for a medical marijuana company in Weed, CA!]
As for calling the tavern and asking if the wood phone is real or a prop I'd guess that would be the most direct way to solve the mystery. But then the proprietor would wonder if I was more drunk than any of his customers. ;D
Quote from: TelePlay on July 09, 2017, 09:43:26 PM
No, your enhanced image shows the 3 hinges. No one is shown in the videos in the bar or using the phone.
I just google maps that area and desolate comes to mind. Now, as for that bar with the phone, the ABC news did not name the bar but Google lists it as the Salmon River Saloon with an address of 30001 Cecilville Road which according to the news videos is about 200 yards from the two cabins, one lived in by the guy who called 911. The river is about 200 yards from that bar so that makes sense.
The phone number for the Salmon River Saloon is (530) 462-4685. Someone could call them during the day hours, when it's not loud, and ask what they have for a phone and about the wood phone.
Then again, it could be a different bar.
Yes, I saw the hinges but any magneto phone would have them and didn't understand what you meant by: "And gongs attached with machine or wood screws with no coils behind the front panel?" so I took it to mean you actually saw someone do that in the video.
530-462 is indeed the exchange operated by Siskiyou Tel. Co that Telcodata.US found, located in Sawyers Bar, 30 miles away from Cecilville.
Front panel and cabinet of the magneto phone looks normal to me. Isn't it the ivory box on the wall near the top of the phone and closer to the camera that is blocking the view of the top of the cabinet making the door of the phone look as though it is much higher than the cabinet.
Terry
Quote from: AE_Collector on July 09, 2017, 10:25:39 PM
Front panel and cabinet of the magneto phone looks normal to me. Isn't it the ivory box on the wall near the top of the phone and closer to the camera that is blocking the view of the top of the cabinet making the door of the phone look as though it is much higher than the cabinet.
Terry
I think you're right. Also it seems to be a "cathedral top", only part of which is visible. I could not make sense of it before but now it makes sense.
Ivory box (what ever that is) is conveniently almost the same colour as the wall making it a bit difficult to figure out. Your enhanced picture helped make it more obvious.
Terry
Quote from: AE_Collector on July 09, 2017, 11:43:46 PM
Ivory box (what ever that is) is conveniently almost the same colour as the wall making it a bit difficult to figure out. Your enhanced picture helped make it more obvious.
Terry
You're right! In the previous reply I was going say: "Clever bit of camouflage" but decided that would imply intent.
Is that a WE317E ?
D/P
Quote from: Dan/Panther on July 10, 2017, 12:22:45 PM
Is that a WE317E ?
D/P
I don't think so. The transmitter arm mounting to the front panel appears to me to be flat, approx. oval and irregularly shaped like this. WECo's I'm aware of are thicker and rectangular.
Found an email address for the Salmon River tavern. I'll let you know if the proprietor answers back. Looks too young to have been alive when the 1984 news article was published.
I heard back from the saloon proprietor - the saloon phone is a prop but two ranches still use the magneto crank!
"Yes the old line is still up and working. Two ranches here still have that old single wire and the crank phone. The line is about 5 miles long now. No switchboard but it does connect to the main line repeater system we all use. If there is to much snow or static they both have to crank to get a line out. But no not at the saloon not anymore. I do still have the two old crank phones that were in use here. One is a rotary and the other is the hold and talk one you saw.
Cheers monk."
WOW! Very cool. I did not know any were still in use at all.
Thanks for checking that out, nice followup!
Quote from: mariepr on July 10, 2017, 05:18:23 PM
I heard back from the saloon proprietor - the saloon phone is a prop but two ranches still use the magneto crank!
Since your got a reply, could you get back to him and ask him what they/he uses for a telephone and his telephone/computer access? All satellite (Dish), mini-microwave or if they put in something better? I wouldn't quite know how to ask that, what questions to ask, but he seems happy to have had contact with the real world so he might explain the current systems in detail.
That's really neat! wonder if there are any other places in the US or Canada that are still hold outs for the old magneto?
Quote from: AL_as_needed on July 10, 2017, 06:44:39 PM
That's really neat! wonder if there are any other places in the US or Canada that are still hold outs for the old magneto?
Not really a hold out. And, yes, there probably are. Some members have set these up as demo and for house to garage IIRC. Their mag system is probably maintained by the users on the wire.
Looking at the Google map for the area, not much up there. Just mountain roads, a house every few miles, lots of trees, not a flat terrain and low population.
Cell companies don't put up towers in areas like this. They need thousands of hits per day on the tower to justify the cost of one tower (>$200,000) and each set of receiving/transmitting equipment for each carrier on the tower (also >$200,000). Then, they would have to use microwave to connect each tower to a relay tower and to the switch. And they would need power and each with a generator for backup (cabinet batteries only last about 6 hours). And, cell phones don't work well in mountainous areas covered with trees. So not a hold out, just so rural it is cost prohibitive to put in cell equipment for so few users. Easy call for cell phone bean crunchers.
That's why I was curious how they got an internet connection and how their phones are connected.
The Siskiyou Telephone Company is so small that they hold annual customer appreciation barbecues and list the web sites hosted by their customers. Their internet is DSL as the page says that it "requires telephone service" and is offered at 3, 6, 8 and "where facilities permit" a whopping 10 mbps speeds. They're not going to be streaming Amazon HD.
The saloon proprietor, Monk, used plain text. The links that I sent him must have taken ages to download. The saloon is closed on Tuesdays and Wesnesdays so I'll contact him later in the week. He might have more information if he has a chance to mention it to long time residents. I'd like to find out if the two ranches on the magneto are long time holdouts that are so isolated that the phone company doesn't want to string copper or fiber that far.
When the line had 16 parties it tied into a microwave link at Sawyers Bar - a geographical place and not another tavern. I did some other searching and found that they were lying a line to a private residence. So it looks like they lay copper or fiber to a repeater.