Bead-Telephone Green Stone TB

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 18-Mar-24 this trackable had survived for 8.8 years but it had been moved by only 9 cachers, for an average drop every 358 days, or 1.0 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This is one of a series of large beads obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs.  They are named for Texas towns with interesting names or histories.

Telephone is in northeastern Fannin County.  While settlers had moved into the vicinity as early as the 1870s, the community was not established until around 1886.  It was named for the fact that the only telephone in the area was in the local general store owned by Pete Hindman.  Apparently postal authorities had repeatedly refused Hindman's applications for a post office in his store because the names he submitted for it were already being used by other Texas post offices.  The merchant finally submitted the name Telephone. The name was accepted, and the post office was opened in 1886.  

By 1890 the community population had reached thirty, and it reached 100 on the eve of World War I.  Unlike many rural communities, however, Telephone grew noticeably during the late 1930s and early 1940s.  By the mid-1940s it had ten businesses and 280 residents, the peak population.  The population remained at over 200 by 2000.