![Beyond the Tower](https://typewriter.imgix.net/u/adf542a2-1c62-43a2-acfc-d8bfb47b97e6/p/89182/beyond_the_tower_camp_voyageur_ely_mn.jpg?fit=crop&crop=faces)
Beyond the Tower
Believe it or not, a few years ago there were no cell phones. Hard wired phones (remember telephone poles) have been around for over a century. At first callers asked an operator to literally patch them through to another telephone. At a central office, she would plug two lines together. When rural houses shared a “party line,” if you picked up the phone to hear people talking, you’d hang up and try when the line was not in use. No biggie, but people preferred a private telephone line, eventually adding multiple telephone sets, some children even got personal land lines....