(Radio Iowa) – The last day of this month is the final call for the “Hello Operator” exhibit at the Sioux City Public Museum. It features iconic telephones, historic photographs and switchboards.

Museum curator Matt Anderson says Sioux City was among the first cities in Iowa to have a telephone switchboard that provided commercial service. “The very first telephone exchange was in 1879 in Dubuque,” Anderson says. “Sioux City followed a year later and it was definitely among the first cities to have telephone service and so it was a real leader that way and from really that point on Sioux City was kind of our regional hub for telephone service.”

That exchange was a local franchise of the American Bell Company, owned by Alexander Graham Bell — who invented the telephone. The early patents for telephones began to expire in the 1890s, though, and that let independent companies compete for business. The Sioux City museum’s exhibit shows local telephone service was offered by the Sioux City Telephone Company and New State Telephone offered regional long distance service. “Sioux City Telephone and New State kind of worked hand-in-hand and were a significant competitor for Bell Telephone in Sioux City for about 20 years,” Anderson says.

“Hello Operator” exhibit at Sioux City Public Museum runs through Nov. 30, 2025. (KSCJ photo)

New State — the Sioux City-based long distance phone company — was established by Cloid Smith and he sold it to Bell in 1912. Two years later, Smith founded the American Pop Corn Company that produces the Jolly Time brand. Like the rest of the country, Sioux City’s telephone market ultimately came under the full control of Northwestern Bell and Sioux City had a regional office for Northwestern Bell from 1921 until the nationwide Bell System monopoly ended in 1984.