Utilities such as electricity and telephone service to the residents of the Honey Lake Valley presented many challenges.* It was the telephone prevailed years before electricity would be available to residents. On July 10, 1911, the Honey Lake Valley Mutual Telephone Association incorporated as a co-operative. Its headquarters, was the hamlet of Buntingville. In 1924, the group had over 200 subscribers from Standish, Janesville, Milford, and Richmond. Plagued with financial problems, it was taken over by the Lassen Telephone Company on July 21, 1924. Eventually, the Buntingville office was shuttered and transferred to Susanville. Lassen Telephone was later acquired by Citizens.
Tim
*By1900, Chinaman Joe Folsom had developed a private telephone system in Wiilow Creek Valley. Likewise, Carey Sturgess did the same for Long Valley.
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I lived outside Bunningville in the early ‘50s, attending the Lake School.
We had a wall mount “crank “phone, and I visited the Bunningville headquarters and watched them work the “switch board “ transferring calls out of the “party line “ system !!