ASK A YOOPER: So many prefixes

To “1-907”, “907”, or just the seven digits of the number you’re calling…across the street? Allow me to explain.

When I first arrived in Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula—more specifically Baraga County, in early 1989, the telephone provider was a small, family-owned outfit. Still is. Baraga County has two major towns—L’Anse and Baraga—one each on the east and west sides of Keweenaw Bay. Just before my arrival, you were able to call either town by dialing five digits.

L’Anse’s prefix was 524, Baraga’s 353. So if I were home and wanted to call the office, I’d dial “46194”. In fact, each U.P. town had its own prefix although some of the larger bergs—they were actually big enough to be called cities—had more than one. Still, the prefixes were sequenced. For instance, Marquette had 225-226-227 and 228. Houghton—485 and 486. You get the idea.

The entire Upper Peninsula, all 350,000 or so of us, had one area code—906. Seems to me that Ma Bell knew to take the best two areas of the United States and group their area codes back to back! But I digress. Unlike most exchanges where dialing all seven digits of the phone number was required, we got off easy.

Equipment upgrades led to forced dialing all seven digits. Anywhere outside of the county was long distance. This was the days when dial-up meant calling someone, not an archaic form of internet connection. Cell phones were as big as a brick and service only available in large, metropolitan areas like Detroit. Pay phones were common, and utilized.

As technology advanced, the entire Yoop became a local call. So regardless if you were calling Drummond Island or Ironwood, or any of the 360 miles in between, dialing just the seven-digit phone number got you there.

Since then, the wireless revolution has invaded the world. We are all glued to our smart phones. The phone booth and pay phones have all but disappeared. We video chat like it’s commonplace. With all of advancement in technology, my arrival here in Mat-Su has me perplexed.

My first day on the job, editor Matt Hickman handed me a Post-it with a name and a phone number. Of course he had written the “1-907” as well. I thought Matt being a newcomer, like me he was used to dialing the 1-907 when calling up here. So I just dialed the last seven digits. A recording at the other end tells me that I must “…first dial a one, followed by the area code.” The number was to a location in Wasilla!

A day or two later, I get on the horn again. Thinking I was trained already, I dialed the 1-907 only to have the recording tell me “please do not dial a one when dialing this number.” So I just dial the 907…same recording. Okay, ya got me!

There are several glaring peculiarities here. First, why in the Palmer-Wasilla area are there as many phone prefixes as there are rivers in the Mat-Su? Yes I understand some are cell phones, but I’ve seen literally dozens of different ones. Secondly, why do you sometimes dial the 1-907, just the 907, or just the seven-digit phone number?

This one really has me. As I stated in a previous column, Matt and I welcome your answers. Feel free to email either of us—chris.ford@frontiersman.com or news@frontiersman.com.