MINK, LOUISIANA

Mink, Louisiana did not get traditional landline telephone service until February 2005.

Mink is an unincorporated community in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States, approximately 100 miles south of Shreveport. It is in Kisatchie National Forest.                      Mink was one of the last places in the United States to receive traditional landline telephone service. Service began in February 2005, when BellSouth spent $700,000, or about $47,000 per phone, to run a cable of 30 miles (48 km) through thick forests to the hamlet. The thrust to bring the telephone service to Mink began when a resident of the community, Alice Louise Johnson Bolton (1921-2014), a retired teacher's assistant, spoke out at a town hall meeting in Natchitoches in 2003 called by Foster Campbell, one of the five members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Mrs. Bolton renewed her long-term quest for telephone service by noting that Mink was repeatedly bypassed by the phone company. Bolton became a short-lived celebrity for her outspoken campaign. She was featured in several news articles, including one in The New York Times and another in The Independent in London. When service finally came to Mink, Bolton's first caller was to then governor Kathleen Blanco.