A quarter still buys a phone call in this small town

In most places, payphones have become relics of another era — rusting reminders of a time before smartphones fit into every pocket. But in the tiny town of Mineral Springs, Arkansas, one payphone is still standing, still ringing and still working for anyone with a quarter. KTBS via CNN Newsource

MINERAL SPRINGS, Ark. (KTBS) -- In most places, payphones have become relics of another era — rusting reminders of a time before smartphones fit into every pocket. But in the tiny town of Mineral Springs, Arkansas, one payphone is still standing, still ringing and still working for anyone with a quarter.

Outside the Walnut Hill Communications building on West Runnels Street hangs a fully functioning public payphone, a rarity not just in the ArkLaTex but almost anywhere in America.

For locals, it is more than a novelty.

“Everyone knows everyone,” said longtime resident Wendy Haddan, whose father served as mayor during the town’s busier years in the 1970s.

Back then, Mineral Springs had thriving local industries and a bustling small-town identity.

“The Clarks made the brooms, the Winchesters made the mops, which was very cool back in the day,” Haddan recalled.

Today, the town’s payphone has become an unexpected attraction for visitors passing through.

“I’ve had more people walk past my house and say, ‘Okay, what’s the deal with the payphone?’” Haddan said with a laugh. “I just leave it at that. I love that part.”

And yes — it still works.

“People still use it,” she said. “I’ve got pictures of people using it. So yes, we still have a public payphone.”

The phone charges just 25 cents for a local call, bringing back memories of searching for spare change, slamming the receiver down in frustration or making an important call away from home.

While the payphone gives off a retro charm, Walnut Hill Communications general manager Guy Middleton said there is a practical reason it remains in service.

“We just do it for the community,” Middleton said. “Somebody that, for whatever reason, doesn’t have a cell phone.”

In an age when many people rely entirely on mobile devices, the old-fashioned phone can still serve as a backup during emergencies, power outages or natural disasters when cellular networks fail.

Mineral Springs is not alone. Middleton said Walnut Hill Communications also maintains public payphones in nearby Foreman and Lewisville — and possibly a few others he has forgotten about over the years.

For now, the Mineral Springs payphone remains a small but steady connection to the past, quietly reminding people that modern communication did not always come with apps, touchscreens or monthly data plans.

Sometimes, it just took a quarter.

By Shannon Brinias