History | Venture Communications

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Building connections since 1952.

VENTURE'S HISTORY

As technology changed, services expanded and improved.

The Venture Communications Cooperative has deep roots in rural South Dakota. What started as an effort to get basic telephone service to farms and ranches in central and northeast South Dakota, has grown into an evolving company offering internet, digital cable TV, home phone, and mobile phone services.

In 1952, when the company was founded, other telephone companies couldn’t get phone lines to many of the areas we serve today. So rural residents and business owners took action, forming a committee that spurred the organization of a cooperative.

Today, the Venture Communications team continues to bring innovative solutions — including a fiber network — to underserved communities.

First Telephones

In early 1883., the first telephones appeared in Highmore, brought in by A. N. Van Camp, an attorney. He installed one telephone in his law office and another in his home, which was located three miles south of Highmore. The idea of having a telephone began to spread, and both town and rural residents started installing them. At one time, all of the rural telephones were part of the Van Camp telephone system except for two small systems.

Later, Van Camp sold his telephone interests to the Central West Company, owned by the Insull Company. They in turn sold their interests to the Missouri Valley Telephone Company, owned by L. J. Ollig of Waverly, Minnesota.

Blizzards Prompt Flurry of Activity

When the trading centers converted to automatic dial telephones, and rural residents started getting electric power, the old single-wire telephones didn’t work well enough to do much good. Most farms didn’t have telephone service at all, or if they did, it was just between close neighbors.

The Rural Telephone Program became law in October 1949, as an amendment to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. The objective was to provide telephone service “to the widest practicable number of rural users.” At this time, area residents started proceedings to form a cooperative. The first organizational meetings were held in Sully County in 1951. Those who became affiliated with Sully Buttes Telephone Cooperative and attended those meetings were Harold Courier and Glenn Hughes, both of Onida, and Randal Mercer, of Blunt.

The severe winter of 1951-52 hastened the Hyde County organizers to “get the ball rolling” to get telephone service in the area. The many blizzards and deep snow left many people no way of communicating with anyone for long periods of time. In times of emergency, rural residents would build a large fire to attract the attention of airplanes that were kept in the air for that purpose.

In late 1952, many people interested in reliable telephone service attended a state-wide meeting held in Huron by REA representatives and officials. Those attending from Hyde County were advised to attend a meeting that was going to be held in Onida. Three rural Hyde County residents — Lawrence Stoley, Wayne Wade, and Dick Raske — realizing the importance of obtaining telephone service for the rural areas, attended the organizational meeting held in Onida. They found that Sully, Hughes, and Hand County farmers had no better telephone service than Hyde County farmers did, and all of them had held organizing meetings and signed up members. The other counties seemed to be a little further along than Hyde County. The men also discovered that all of them had many things in common and the problems were much the same, such as the towns were all served by telephone companies that either could not or would not build modern telephone lines to the farms and ranches in these counties.

The REA Field Representative, Mauritz Erkkila, suggested the group organize a telephone cooperative that would include all or parts of Hyde, Hughes, Sully, Hand, and Beadle counties. The farmers in attendance at that meeting were a very determined group, and the recommendation was adopted by the unit.

The key holding company in these areas was the Missouri Valley Telephone Company, owned by L. J. Ollig of Waverly, Minnesota. A five-man committee representing the five counties was appointed and organized to contact Ollig to see if he would sell the exchanges of Blunt, Highmore, and Wessington to make an REA loan feasible. Members of this committee were Emil Martens, Wessington; Glenn Hughes, Onida; Randal Mercer, Blunt; Lawrence Stoley, Highmore; and Wayne Wade of Highmore, who was named coordinator. The Harrold exchange, owned by M. D. Vandarwarka, had already offered to sell. Under the guidelines of the REA representatives, members of the small farmer-owned lines, which dotted the areas, were contacted and they agreed to sell their holdings if a cooperative would be formed.

The small companies which eventually became a part of Sully Buttes were Wessington Hills Telephone Company, Wessington; Turtle Creek Telephone Company, Wessington; Ree Heights Cooperative Telephone Company, Ree Heights; Sedgewick Telephone Company, Highmore; Holabird Telephone Company Holabird; Southern Hyde Telephone Company, Highmore; Stockmans Telephone Company, Highmore; Harrold Telephone Company, Harrold; Farmers Union Telephone Company, Harrold; Line 242, Blunt; Gas Belt Telephone Company, Onida; Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, Onida; and Eastern Sully Telephone Company, Onida.

The committee and the REA Field Representative, Erkkila, met with L. J. Ollig in Watertown. Ollig said he had no intention of selling any of his holdings. But if the committee felt they needed these three exchanges to make an REA loan feasible, he would sell them at his book value. He granted the committee permission to make an appraisal of the property in order to establish an REA equity valuation. The committee decided to contact the K. B. MacKichon & Associates engineering firm to seek their services as consulting engineers. The engineering firm made the appraisal and verified the feeling of the committee, which was that the price Ollig was asking was too high.

In November 1952, two more were added to the committee — Harold Currier, Onida, and Joe Blaseg, Ree Heights. Paul Burke of Miller was hired as their attorney to draw up the necessary papers for incorporation.

Incorporation of a Cooperative

On December 13, 1952, the cooperative was organized and incorporated. A seven-man Board of Directors was elected to represent the areas, with the five original committee members automatically included. The members of the original board were Glenn Hughes, president; Emil Martens, vice president; Wayne Wade, secretary and treasurer; and Lawrence Stoley, Randal Mercer, Harold Currier and Joe Blaseg. The newly elected directors named the new telephone cooperative Sully Buttes Telephone Cooperative, Inc. after a familiar landmark to the west of Onida, Sully Buttes.

Many meetings were held during 1953, at which time plans were implemented to secure pre-loan requirements requested by REA, such as securing options on many rural mutual aid switcher line telephone companies, acquiring county and town franchises, working out boundary agreements and toll settlements, approving feasibility studies by the engineers, obtaining certificates of convenience and necessity, and working out pole rental agreements with the various rural electrical cooperatives operating in the communities in which Sully Buttes was going to build telephone lines.

Negotiations continued with L. J. Ollig to purchase the exchanges of Blunt, Highmore, and Wessington. A loan was applied for through REA even though a purchase agreement had not been reached with the Missouri Valley Telephone Company.

About this same time, a committee was elected to contact the rural leaders in the Hitchcock and Tulare areas to see if they would be agreeable to become a part of the Sully Buttes Telephone Cooperative. These two exchanges were holdings of Independent Telephone Incorporated, owned by W. L. Wermerskirchen of Aberdeen, South Dakota. The subscribers in those areas would not cooperate with that company by buying shares of stock. They indicated, however, that they would sign with Sully Buttes if their line would be built first. The Board indicated that Sully Buttes would not take these two exchanges unless they could be purchased from the applied-for loan.

A $1,717,000 Loan

Word was received in July 1954 that Sully Buttes would get a loan in the amount of $1,717,000. Buttes had already secured an option to purchase the Hitchcock and Tulare exchanges from Independent Telephone Incorporated. This led to the negotiations for the purchase of the rest of the properties of this company, which included the exchanges of Seneca, Onaka, Hoven, Tolstoy, Langford, and Rosholt. The new directors representing these areas were Willis Boyd, Tulare; Nels Olsen, Hitchcock; Dave Banik, Tolstoy; LeRoy Erickson, Langford; and Frank Hahn, Rosholt.

In early 1955, Attorney Burke was authorized and directed to meet with L. J. Ollig and negotiate a sales agreement for the telephone properties of the Missouri Valley Telephone Company at Wessington, Highmore, and Blunt at the best terms possible. The Board employed Dale Jacobson as the first manager and set up office in an old barber shop in Highmore.

The acquisition arrangements were made for the Hitchcock and Tulare exchanges, and in May 1955, the engineers started staking these two exchanges for the proposed telephone system. The manager, president of the board, and attorney made a plane trip to Washington to get the first release of funds to complete the acquisition of Mr. Ollig’s property. On June 30, 1955, Secretary-Treasurer Lawrence Stoley delivered a check to Mr. Ollig as final settlement for his property and Sully Buttes took over the operation of the exchanges in Highmore, Wessington, and Blunt.

In August 1955, the first contracts were let for construction of outside plant in the Highmore, Wessington, and Blunt areas. On June 29, 1956, the plans were finalized, and Sully Buttes acquired the Independent Telephone Incorporated holdings in Seneca, Onaka, Tolstoy, Hoven, Hitchcock, Tulare, Langford, and Rosholt. With the acquisition of these exchanges, Sully Buttes also hired combination-men that had been serving these areas for ITI. The three men and the years they worked for Sully Buttes were Byron Siegel (1956-1966), Harry Beck (1956-1970), and James Splettstoesser (1956-1980).

The next 10 years saw Sully Buttes continually growing and constructing new lines in all of the exchanges and adding new central office equipment.

As the company expanded, more employees were hired to handle the workload. In November 1956, Dale Jacobson submitted his resignation effective December of 1956. Roy G. Price was appointed manager and assumed his duties in January of 1957.

Roy Price resigned in 1960. James T. Olson assumed the position of manager and held that position until 1975, when he resigned and assumed the managerial position in Circle, Montana.

Ice Leads to Buried Lines

In 1965, plans were being made to start upgrading the rural areas to 4-party buried service rather than having the real 8-party facilities that were a constant source of trouble.

The worst ice storm in 30 years hit central and northern South Dakota on December 10, 1965, knocking out telephone and power lines. At one time, Sully Buttes had over 2,500 customers without long distance services.

Hardest hit were the Tolstoy, Onaka, Seneca, and Hoven exchanges with extensive damage in the Wessington exchange in the hills south of Vayland. Ice, up to three inches in diameter, formed on the wires, breaking corner poles and allowing poles in line to go down like dominoes. Estimates as to the number of customers in all exchanges in the ice belt ran in excess of 600. Restoration was almost impossible, as there were no signs of the ice falling off the wires and splices re-broke as fast as they were fixed.

The storm damage was estimated at $50,000, but officials felt that if the wind started blowing in excess of 25 miles per hour, plant property in excess of $350,000 could be destroyed.

When the crews started restoring service to the Sully Buttes exchanges, over 300 poles had to be replaced and ice had to be stripped off the downed wires before the several hundred wire breaks could be repaired.

Extra crews were brought in from surrounding telephone cooperatives to help restore service. There were 40 men working in the various areas affected by the storm.

Tabulation of the ice-covered facilities revealed that at one time over 1,500 miles of telephone plant had from 1 to 3 inches of ice on the wires. Lack of wind saved what did not go down.

Early March of 1966 again brought trouble for Sully Buttes telephone facilities. Large amounts of ice, coupled with high winds and heavy snow, contributed to lost communication services. Crews were unable to move to restore service for some time, and then only because so many people were using their phones that the main circuit breaker kept blowing.

Many of the troubles in the rural areas of all exchanges were caused by the wrapping lines that had not been re-sagged after the December storm. The cooperative had over 1,500 miles of line in that condition and had been unable to get it fixed by the time of the spring storm.

Plans had been made the previous fall, before the ice storm, to start replacing the aerial wire facilities with buried service. Sully Buttes had wanted to start with Hitchcock, Tulare, and Langford and upgrade to a maximum of four customers per line in the rural areas, and toll-free service to the adjacent major town of each exchange.

The plan was to convert these three areas in 1966 and progress through the remaining 12 exchanges over the following four years. The ice storm changed the plan so that in addition to the three above named exchanges, four more would have to be upgraded by the use of underground cables in 1966. Because of the imminent rate increase brought on by repairs to fix the damage, the Board of Directors decided that in the best interests of the members and subscribers, the plan would be accelerated and that in 1967 the exchanges of Ree Heights, Highmore, Harrold, and Blunt would have to be converted.

A loan was applied for and received from REA in the amount of $968,000 to start the upgrading. Work plans for 1966 included the lowering of cable in the Hoven, Tolstoy, Seneca, and Onaka exchanges the first part of August. These were the exchanges hit hardest by the December ice storm. A new headquarters building was constructed and moved into in 1966.

After the seven exchanges (Hoven, Tolstoy, Seneca, Onaka, Hitchcock, Tulare, and Langford) were upgraded to 4-party buried service, it was determined that the remaining exchanges might as well be upgraded to all buried 1-party service. Plans were made to start this project, which began several years later, with Highmore being the first exchange to be cutover to 1-party service in 1972. The remaining fourteen exchanges were gradually upgraded to 1-party service with the last one being cutover in early 1977.

After Jim Olson resigned in 1975, the managerial position was assumed by James E. Nielson, who had previously worked for Sully Buttes from 1957 to 1970. In 1970, he moved to Park River, N.D., as assistant manager of military communications for Polar Communications Mutual Aid Corporation.

Mobile Phones Added

Sully Buttes Telephone was asked to look into mobile service by residents of Sully County, and in 1977, a system was established East of Onida. After looking for a more cost-effective way to bring mobile communications to subscribers, smaller systems were added in Highmore and Hitchcock in 1985.

In 1990, Sully Buttes Telephone, in conjunction with Cellular Inc. of Englewood, Colorado, and other telephone companies in the state of South Dakota, were involved in the construction of cell sites in Aberdeen, Brookings, and Mitchell. Other sites were added later.

Upgrading, Remodeling, and Building

Since telecommunications requires never-ending upgrades due to technological advances, Sully Buttes Telephone upgraded the Highmore central office to the new digital switching equipment, which was cut into service in 1980. Tolstoy, Onaka, and Ree Heights were upgraded and cutover to this service in 1981.

When it was decided that the Highmore exchange would be converted to the new switching equipment, building space was needed for the equipment. A remodeling project was undertaken to convert the storage and garage area in the headquarters building to a room for the new switching equipment and to add an office for the trouble dispatcher and a repair room for the central office equipment crew.

This project created a need for a storage area for telephone equipment and a garage to house the service vehicles.

The property purchased adjacent to the headquarters building had an old apartment complex on it. The old building was raised and a new garage and storage building was erected. It housed 10 service vehicles and provided facilities for storing the new telephones and related repair parts.

The 1980s proved to be a busy time, as construction continued with the upgrading of many central offices to digital switches. In 1984, Hoven, Seneca, Harrold, and Blunt were completed. East Onida and West Onida went digital in 1985, followed by Wessington, Langford, and Rosholt in 1986, and Tulare and Hitchcock in 1987.

With rapidly changing technology, digital switching soon had many software and hardware changes. During 1989, Sully Buttes Telephone cooperative updated all 15 Northern Telecom digital switches to the latest 400 generic software. This also included adding HSO-SSO features to Highmore, which allowed 12 of the other offices to tie directly to Highmore for long distance, billing, and administrative purposes.

Fiber Optics Start a New Chapter

In 1989, a 150-mile fiber-optic cable project was completed. Westcott Construction of Holabird buried fiber from Hitchcock to Highmore. This route carries toll traffic from Tulare, Hitchcock, Wessington, and Ree Heights to Highmore, as well as matches with US West fiber by Wolsey to take calls on to Sioux Falls. Two other routes were built — Seneca to Highmore, and East Onida to Highmore. This fiber network ties 12 exchanges into Highmore, where all long distance calls are recorded for billing and sent on to US West.

Highlights of 1980s and 1990s

Cable television became a very hot item during the 1980s. Sully Buttes Telephone received permission to operate a cable TV system within the city limits of the towns in its service areas, operating separately from the telephone system.

The Highmore system was completed in 1982, followed by Hoven in 1983. During 1984, construction was completed in Tulare, Wessington, and Langford. Blunt received cable TV in 1985, followed in 1989 by Harrold, Hitchcock, Seneca, Ree Heights, Tolstoy, and Onaka.

It was decided in the 1990s that fiber-optic cabling would be installed to customer homes, and plans were put into place to install a backbone network between all of the exchanges to get started on this lengthy project.

A new toll network was in the beginning stages during this time, giving subscribers the option to choose who they wanted for their long-distance carrier. The South Dakota Network was proposed and put together by 12 independent telephone companies from South Dakota, including Sully Buttes. This would bring competitive long-distance rates to all subscribers in South Dakota. The South Dakota network was approved by the Public Utilities Commission in January 1991.

Cellular systems were established across the state with the help of Sully Buttes Telephone and other telephone companies. A new era of the cell phone craze had begun.

In January 1991, Sully Buttes Telephone was one of the 25 independent telephone companies to create Independent Long Distance Company which was later named Express Communications. This enabled Sully Buttes Telephone to provide subscribers with an out-of-state long distance product, provided by their own local company.

To make cable television available to rural customers, a partnership with NRTC and DirecTV was created in January of 1994. One year later, rural cable television equipment was available for new customers to purchase.

Remodeling and a new addition was started to the main headquarters in Highmore in November 1994 and completed in 1996.

Sully Buttes Telephone purchased nine exchanges, including Roscoe, with approximately 6,900 new subscribers. These customers became part of a new subsidiary called Venture Communications. The sale of these exchanges was finalized on June 22, 1996.

Caller ID became available in 1995, giving customers the opportunity to see who was calling before answering the phone. This service became a necessity to customers as telemarketing grew. In 1997, seven new switches were put into the newly purchased Venture exchanges to give customers services such as Caller ID, Voicemail and Local Internet Access.

On August 1, 1997, long-time manager James Nielson retired and Randy Houdek tood over the manager position.

Room to store equipment has been an on-going challenge. so in 1997, a new warehouse was built.

June 1998 brought more changes. Call Waiting Caller ID was added to the list of c features offered., and the decision was made to sell the rural cable business DirecTV. FITL (Fiber in the Loop) projects to upgrade outside plant from copper to fiber where in full swing in Britton, Rosholt, and Wessington Springs.

Sully Buttes Telephone and Venture Communications began to offer Citizenship and Community Service Scholarships to high school seniors in the service areas in February 1999. This is done to help students continue their education.

When customers were first given the option of having access to high-speed internet, it was the start of a great adventure. You might even say it was a rush. That’s why the product was named Rushnet. Surfing the web at the blink of an eye was unthinkable until then.

Highlights of 1999 included purchasing the cable systems in Wessington Springs and Britton as well as installing a new ATM Network switch in Highmore to enable Sully Buttes Telephone and Venture Communications to bring new data services to subscribers.

2000

An exciting event took place bringing Venture Customers into the cooperative putting both companies together as Sully Buttes Telephone Cooperative.
Sully Buttes begins to publish their phone book displaying the pictures taken by subscribers on the front.
Continuing to grow, SBTC purchases the Internet service from CamWall, Stillson Service and River Basin Comm/ Northern Valley Comm. The Sisseton exchange was also purchased in December of 2000.
New billing software was purchased.

2001

A New digital switch was installed in Sisseton to enable SBTC to provide Voice Mail and other valuable class features to the subscribers in that area.
Telemarketer call screening and Prepay/Budget toll features are added to SBTC’s list of class features.
Clear Connections, a television show about telecommunications, debuts on Keloland.
We purchased a new billing hardware and software system to enable us to put into play E-statement. E-statement allows subscribers to receive and pay their bill online.

2002

SBTC has the privilege of providing Vice President Cheney with the communications needed for him to enjoy a visit to South Dakota.
Sully Buttes Telephone celebrates its 50^th Anniversary.
With the vote of the membership the name of the company Sully Buttes Telephone Cooperative was changed to Venture Communications Cooperative.
Venture Communications purchases the cable systems in Britton, Eden, and Pierpont.

2003

First Digital Video TV is installed and the CATV systems in Sisseton, Rosholt and Gettysburg were purchased.
Web Wizard is offered to our subscribers, giving them the tools to create their own website.

2004

During 2004, Venture purchased Onida’s cable TV system. The cable systems in Langford, Eden, Pierpont, Rosholt, Onida and Gettysburg were upgraded to a digital system.

2005

Wild Blue, a high speed internet product, is available for Venture to provide to subscribers. This product gives Venture the opportunity to make sure that everyone who wants high speed internet can have it.
Sisseton is upgraded to the new digital TV product.
The big event this year was the power outages across the Eastern part of the state. This portion of the state was hammered by an awful combination of freezing rain, snow and wind. During this outage we had 68 remote cabinets and 14 Central offices out of power at one time or another. Power was out from Wessington Springs to Rosholt. In the Northeast corner of the state 90% of our area was out of power. Fortunately, we had plans. All of the central offices in our communities have large standby generators and we have a supply of smaller, portable generators that we use to service the rural remote cabinets when necessary. This obviously is not the first time we’ve had outages, but the magnitude was much greater than anything we had previously experienced.

2011

Rural Wessington Springs, Highmore, Harrold and Western exchanges

2012

REDLG Loan/Grant Program initiated.
Board Allocated member patronage in the amount of $3,783,722 for the year 2011.
Board approved $900,000 general patronage retirement to be paid in 2012

2013

Board Allocated member patronage in the amount of $4,398,609 for the year 2012.
Board approved $900,000 general patronage retirement to be paid in 2013.

2014

Board Allocated member patronage in the amount of $4,528,347 for the year 2013.
Board approved $900,000 general patronage retirement to be paid in 2014.

2015

Board Allocated member patronage in the amount of $5,506,746 for the year 2014.
Board approved $1,300,000 general patronage retirement to be paid in 2015.
Board approves roll out video product in Selby, Bowdle, Roscoe, Roslyn, & Java – actual roll out started in

2016

Board Allocated member patronage in the amount of $6,970,500 for the year 2015.
Board approved $2,000,000 general patronage retirement to be paid in 2016.
Venture rolls out video product in Selby, Bowdle, Roscoe, Roslyn, & Java
FTTH construction completed in town area of Rosholt, Pierpont, Hoven, & Langford
Formed ATV Holdings (Alliance, Trio-Tel, and Venture) to purchase Mitchell Telecom
$5000 donation to the South Dakota State Fair 4-H Exhibit Hall

2017

Board Allocated member patronage in the amount of $6,240,233 for the year 2016.
FTTH construction completed for towns of Agar, Akaska, Blunt, Harrold, Hitchcock, Onaka, Ree Heights, Seneca, Tolstoy, Tulare, and Wessington

2018

Board allocated member patronage in the amount of $4,616,158 for the year 2017.
Board approved a general retirement of patronage in the amount of $2,500,000.
FTTH construction completed at Bob’s Resort, Oahe Trails Outpost, Stephan, West Whitlock, and South Whitlock.
New in 2018 were Rushnet Solo, Video on Demand, Extreme WiFi, and paperless bill credits.
Central office hut placed in Miller to aid in transporting traffic from Highmore and Hitchcock and provide the opportunity to provide data services to a few businesses located on the north end of Miller.

2019

Board allocated member patronage in the amount of $7,049,829 for the year 2018.
Board approved a 2019 general retirement of patronage in the amount of $2,500,000.
FTTH construction completed at Clear Lake, Pickerel Lake, Roy Lake, and Buffalo Lake.
Venture achieves goal of 100% fiber-to-the-home plant.
Venture provides 23 business customers in Miller with high-quality broadband services.
Venture is awarded a $2,764,759 Governor’s Broadband Grant for western rural Hughes County. Venture built FTTH facilities to provide internet, video, and phone services to the first customer in the area, who was installed on 8/28/2019. 400 residential customers and 27 businesses were connected to the new services by year-end 2019.
The Federal Communications Commission’s rules have changed from support based on access lines to support based on broadband connections. The FCC offers Alternative Connect American Cost Model (A-Cam) II support for rate-of-return carriers such as Venture. The Venture Communications Board of Directors accepts an ACAM II support model, which will be in effect for 10 years.

2020

It was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. March 23, 2020, Venture quickly transitioned to a work-from-home environment and the office is closed. The office became half-staffed in mid-summer with the doors remaining locked to the public. During the remainder of the year, the employees transitioned two more times to a work-from-home status due to spikes in COVID cases. The office remained closed to the public throughout the rest of the year.
Venture participated in the Keep America Connected Pledge to help ensure that our members did not lose their broadband and telephone connectivity because of their inability to pay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Venture provided assistance to families and schools to ensure that all students had a broadband connection when local schools transitioned to remote learning.
Venture postponed director elections until late July and early August. Director elections were held in an outdoor, drive-up format.
President John Langer presided over the first-ever virtual annual meeting via Zoom.
Board allocated member patronage in the amount of $6,200,000 for the year 2019.
Board approved a 2020 general retirement of patronage in the amount of $5,000,000
Venture was awarded a $2.8 million Governor’s Broadband Grant for Phase II of rural Hughes County. Venture built FTTH facilities to provide internet, video, and phone services to the new customer in Phase II Project. 373 residential customers and 9 businesses were connected to the new services by year-end 2020.