Springfield, Missouri · 1994–2001

Before most of Springfield had the Internet, it had ORION

The library's free, text-only community network: a phone number, a modem, and a menu that put the whole region online for the price of a local call.

• Apr 18, 1994Grand opening at the Main Library
• 864-6100The number thousands of people dialed
• 18,023Registered users at the peak, Sept. 1998
• $0What it cost to use

ORION was never meant to be an Internet provider. It was the Springfield-Greene County Library's idea of a public square: local news, school menus, bus schedules, election results and e-mail, free to anyone in the region with a terminal program. For a few years it was also the easiest way, and for many people the only way, to get online in the Ozarks. This site tells that story from ORION's own archived pages, its board minutes, and the newspapers of the time.

The story

1. 1985–1993

   Before ORION

   Bulletin boards in the 417, a state research network called MOREnet, and a free-net in Columbia that Springfield wanted one of.

2. 1993–1994

   Information is the new utility

   The library and four partners build a community network, and 1,100 people sign up before it opens.

3. 1994–1995

   The text years

   Numbered menus on a Sun server in Columbia, the first spam crash, Santa's e-mail address, and a users' group born from a complaint.

4. 1995–1996

   orion.org

   A new domain, Lynx instead of numbers, a federal grant, and a week offline to make the move to the Web.

5. 1996–1997

   48 modems, still busy

   IRC arrives for Christmas, the user count passes 13,000, and AOL's flat rate changes everyone's math.

6. 1998

   The New ORION

   A budget gap, a $12 donation appeal, a town hall, and the decision to stop being everyone's dial-up.

7. 1999–2001

   Last modems off

   The corporation dissolves into the library, ORION Community carries on, and the e-mail ends in 2001.

8. 1994–today

   The Ozarks get online

   The local ISPs, the $19.95 era, @Home and the cable shutdown, and City Utilities' fiber reaching every address.

Were you on ORION?

If you had an account, worked the helpdesk, sat on the board, or just remember the busy signals, we'd like to hear from you. Your userid, the menus you used, what you did on it, how it ended for you. Share a memory →