The Annandale Telephone Exchange was purchased from William Kiehn in 1945 and on January 25, 1946, was incorporated under the laws of the State of Minnesota as Lakedale Telephone Company with only a few hundred subscribers. From the beginning of telephone service in Annandale in 1901 through 1967, every phone call had to go through an operator. The era of the local telephone operator ended when Lakedale Telephone Company installed direct-dial equipment in 1967 — eliminating the need for operators.
