Name: Fire destroys Beaver Island telephone office equipment, 1967
Start: 1967-03-11
End: 1967-03-11
Location: Beaver Island

Locator map: Beaver Island highlighted within the Beaver Island archipelago — Took place at Beaver IslandLocator plate © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0); depths NOAA; names USGS GNIS. How the plates are drawn.

Event

Date: 1967-03-11
Kind: Disaster
Where: Beaver Island
Eras: Modern era
Concepts: disasterconstructioncommunitycommunicationgovernance
Within: Beaver Island

Summary

On March 11, 1967, fire destroyed the telephone equipment in Beaver Island’s Telephone Company office building. The outage severed ordinary communication with and from the island, leaving the Conservation Department radio and Dick LaFreniere’s aircraft Unicom available; a temporary phone was installed at LaFreniere’s store.

Evidence and limits

The Beacon leaves the fire’s origin undetermined and does not provide a fire marshal report, repair contract, or date when normal service resumed.

Open questions

What caused the fire and what building records survive?
When and how was the telephone system restored?

Sources

Beaver Beacon, March 1967, “Party Line Fire.”
Reports that the Telephone Company office building burned on March 11, destroying telephone equipment and severing island communications except for the Conservation Department radio and Dick LaFreniere’s aircraft Unicom. A temporary portable phone was installed at LaFreniere’s store; the origin remained undetermined.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1967-03_Beaver-Beacon
Beaver Beacon, March 1967, held issue PDF, source scan.
The held seven-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and confirms the published notice or report; it does not expand the source-specific identity, event, or outcome claims.
data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1967-03_Beaver-Beacon

Added 2 August 2026 · revised 3 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Fire destroys Beaver Island telephone office equipment, 1967”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-telephone-office-fire-1967/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, March 1967, “Party Line Fire.” (and 1 further source listed on the page).

Last revised 2026-08-03. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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