Mapleton's Mountaintop Tv Tower, 1954

In the 1950s, when television was first being sent into the area, Mapleton had a problem. The borough's 1966 centennial book says it was almost impossible for the community to get good reception.

So a group of local men brought in an electronics engineer. In the summer of 1954 he tested the "Peak" on Jacks Mountain, southeast of town, and found excellent signals. Townsmen volunteered to cut a right of way up Ryefield Hollow so materials could be hauled to the top, and a tower went up.

From the tower, an open line was run on topped trees down the old Swope incline east of town to Main Street. Amplifiers went in, and the first test came on Labor Day, 1954. It worked.

The men formed a nonprofit corporation, got a charter and went into business. Volunteers strung open wire all over town, about 18 miles of it, later replaced with coaxial cable.

By the centennial in 1966, the Mapleton Community T.V. Antenna Corporation was serving 233 families. It covered the whole borough, a mile out Hares Valley, Birdvale to the west and on to Polecat Hollow. Subscribers got Pittsburgh on channel 4, Washington on 5, Johnstown on 6, Lancaster on 8 and Altoona on 10.

The same book counts the borough at 742 people in 1950 and 666 in 1960. Zimmerman Electronics of Six Mile Run installed the system, but townsmen cut the right of way up the mountain and volunteers strung about 18 miles of wire, in a borough the same book counts at 666 people in 1960.

Checked 2026-10-31 · County histories and primary sources, read in full

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