What Are Those Weird Brick Buildings Along I-80 Wyoming?

If you spend enough time along Wyoming's highways, you'll start to notice things that make you go "HHMmm."

Like, for example, what are those little, windowless, red brick houses you see every so many miles? In today's world, we can just look things up on our mobile devices. So, I asked.

Don't worry about wondering. I was driving across Wyoming with a friend, and after a long while of no talking, she asked about those buildings at the same moment I was wondering about them.

Those isolated, windowless red brick buildings along Wyoming highways—particularly dotting the Interstate 80 corridor—are historic telephone line equalizers and repeater stations. This goes back to the days when most everyone had a landline, not a cell phone.

They were constructed by AT&T and the telecommunications industry during the mid-20th century to serve the transcontinental coaxial cable network. We still use them today, but not as much.

Hard-line telephone and telegraph signals degraded over long distances. These stations were placed every 30 to 50 miles to amplify, clear, and direct transmissions so signals could travel across the country.

These old lines were buried alongside major travel corridors like the Union Pacific Railroad and the Lincoln Highway. That is why these stations naturally aligned with today’s highway routes.

Those buildings are still used today. The original copper coaxial cables are largely obsolete; the buildings and the underground corridors still function as critical infrastructure, often housing modern fiber-optic network equipment.