Manitoba Telephone System Building
(Badger Creek Museum)
350 Broadway Avenue,
Cartwright
(Cartwright Heritage Park)

Designation Date: May 15, 1995
Designation Authority: The Village of Cartwright
Present Owner: Cartwright-Roblin (M)

A private telephone system was in place in Cartwright as early as 1903. This original service, operating under the auspices of the Bell Telephone Company, was purchased in 1906 by the Manitoba Telephone System (MTS). The building that housed MTS was destroyed by fire in September of 1929, but a new building was quickly constructed and was officially opened on December 13, 1929 with 129 telephone service subscribers. When the new Cartwright telephone exchange commenced service, an operator was quoted in the December, 1929 issue of the Telephone Echo, an early MTS publication, as saying that even though the new building opened on the dreaded "number 13," "we are not superstitious, we are as snug as a bug in here." Operator-assisted service continued until 1972 when rotary dial telephones were introduced to the community. This modest structure features a gable roof with wooden support brackets and carved wooden moulding around the entry door and its transom window. The interior possesses much of its original millwork, along with an intact telephone booth. The former telephone system building was reopened as the Badger Creek Museum in 1975 to display artifacts depicting the pioneer and settlement era of the Village of Cartwright.