Modern-day crews are busy plowing in fiber optic cable for Internet service. But 52 years ago, the focus was on getting phone lines to Cook County residents. This picture from August 31, 1961 is captioned: Rudy Backlund, left, of C.O. Backlund & Sons and Paul Larson, local manager of the Northwester Bell Telephone Co., watch as the first of 280,000 feet of telephone cable is being buried here. The cable will reach from Grand Marais to Baptism River where it will connect with existing cable, Larson stated. It will handle long distance calls from here, he said. The News-Herald noted that the cable reels were seven feet high and carried 2,800 feet of cable each. The caption said the “plowing under” of the cable along the shoulders of Highway 61 would begin after Labor Day.
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