The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-08-31
YANKEE INGENUITY.
How a Telegraph Line Was I'm
proved.
washington Post.o

washington Post)
1t is. after all, very little wonder that
the west has furnished such large
number of great men, for when one
comes TO review the history of the set
Element of that great region extending
from the Mississippi valley to the Pa
cific ocean he encounters case after case
of where the pioneers of this country
were put to tests of ingenuity, courage.
and staying power that would have
proven the death of ordinary mortals.
Houses were built without TOOLS and
long journeys into the unknown regions
were effected without maps.
OF the many enterprises of this nature
that marked the early settlements of
the great west, few are more interest
ing and typical of the self-reliance OF
the western pioneers than the story of
the building of the Fort Robinson. Neb
and Hat Creek telegraph line, which is
still in operation. despite the fact that
it was laid off without a single survey
ing instrument, compass, level or tran
sit, and built by soldiers with guns
slung over their shoulders expecting
every moment TO be attacked by the
hostile Sioux The facts of this re-
markabIe enterprise We're related sey-
eral days ago to a Post reporter by
Lieutenant William W. Jordan. of the
district police, who is an old Indian
fighter and plainSman. having served
throughout the celebrated Big Horn and
Yellowstone campaign against the
Sioux in 1876. Lieutenant Jordan said:
AT the conclusion of the Big Horn
and Yellowstone campaign of 1876 a
portion of the Fourteenth infantry of
which 1 was a member, and the Fourth
cavalry took up winter quarters at
Fort Robinson, Neb., under the com
mand of Colonel Alexander Mckenzie
Fort Robinson was then a brand new
post. having been built and established
only a few months before We were
CHARTERED there, and although it was
fairly well stocked with provisions. ii
was completely cut off and isolated
/; from the rest of the world, the nearest
telegraph station being forty miles dis
tant. at Hat Creek. where a small gar
rison Of soldiers had been stationed to
protect those who travelled over the
Hat Creek route going to the Black
hills
THE prospect of spending a long and
gloomy winter, such as we have in the
northwest. cut off from civilization and
the outside world, with mail proba bIv
once every month. was far from at
tractive, and the longer we remained
at the fort the more the enuuf and gen
eral Generalization incidental TO isola-
ton seemed to affect US. from the OF
ficer in command down to the cooks
and teamsterS- As a matter of fact
a telegraph line to the outside xorld
would have increased the actual s1ln
Of our welI-being very little. but that
was not the question.
We were in the same fix as Robin
! son Crusoe land the boys often said
/ that those who named the fort forgot
/ and left of the 'Crusoe' part of it)
who had all and more than he could
eat and wear. and who was not
obliged to work. but who. for all that.
was miserable for the reason that he
| was exiled from the rest of the world
and men. Such was our condition at
/ the fort. We had all we wanted and
I needed to eat and wear and very little
work to perform. yet We were as mis-
I cradle as a cat in a strange garnet. for
/ the simple reason that we knew and
realized that we were cut of from the
/ world II was the consciousness that
we were not likely to hear the news of
great events until weeks and perhaps
months after their occurrence that
made US uncomfortable
Consequently. when Colonel McKsn-
zie conceived and suggested the idea
OF building a telegraph line over to