The Telephone Museum just north of Ellsworth is one of the more unexpected attractions in Hancock County. The collection covers the entire span of analogue telephony, from early candlestick phones to room-sized electromechanical switching equipment that once routed calls across northern Maine.
What sets it apart is that nearly everything still works. Volunteer engineers, many of them retired Bell System employees, demonstrate live calls being switched through 1920s step-by-step gear and 1950s crossbar systems. Tours are typically given Saturday afternoons in summer and by appointment off-season.