CC Communications: From Telegraph Wires to Modern Connections
This story is another installment in our business features celebrating Churchill County businesses that have been in operation for over 50 years.
By Nancy Chapman
On Aug. 5, 1889, the Churchill County Commission made a decision that would change daily life in western Nevada. With a $975 check to Western Union Telegraph, commissioners purchased wire strung from Virginia City eastward to Stillwater. Just like that, Churchill County was in the communications business.
Seven years later, in 1896, county leaders ordered that the old telegraph line be converted into a telephone system. The first terminals were installed in the J.M. Sanford Hotel in Stillwater, with lines extending across the county and reaching into Wadsworth. Talking instruments replaced telegraph clicks, and Churchill County went “modern.”
By 1903, demand had grown enough that the county purchased its first switchboard and installed it in the I.H. Kent building in Fallon. Rent for the new centralized office cost $8 a month. In 1904, Margaret Day became the first switchboard operator, earning $35 a month to keep the county connected.
The switchboard later moved into the courthouse, where in 1907 the county set its first telephone rates: $4 a month for a private line. Rules came with service, too—customers were warned that vulgar language would not be tolerated, and “no spitting tobacco juice in the transmitter” was strictly enforced.
When commissioners tried to save money by cutting switchboard service overnight in 1909, public outcry was swift. Within five months, night service was restored.
A permanent home came in 1911 with the construction of a cement block building at 50 West Williams Avenue for $3,432. The structure still stands today as the headquarters of CC Communications, though it has been expanded many times over the years.
Even through the Great Depression, Churchill County Telephone & Telegraph continued to grow. A new 600-line Kellogg switchboard was installed in 1931, and the building expanded again. Magneto hand-crank telephones gave way to rotary dial service in 1954, when County Commissioner E.R. Allyn placed the first call. By the 1960s, demand again outgrew the building, leading to a second story and a new Stromberg XY dial office.
The county conducted its first customer count in 1965, tallying 3,654 phones in service. By 1968, service reached Dixie Valley, and new long-distance circuits made it possible to place direct calls to Reno.
Through the decades, leaders such as Harold W. Rogers, who joined the company in 1940 and retired as general manager in 1976, and Ted P. Hunnewell, who succeeded him and led the utility for 22 years, oversaw growth from a small local service to a modern communications provider.
What began as a $975 investment in telegraph wires has grown into one of Nevada’s most enduring county-owned utilities. CC Communications’ history reflects not just technological change, but the determination of a rural community to stay connected with the wider world.
To be continued…
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