The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-05-14
JORDAN NOW REAL
RADIO STATION.
GOVERNMENT FORCES MONTANA
WIRELESS OPERATORS TO
PASS EXAMINATION
So A. @. Campbell, Who Talks in
Sparks at That Town and Bill Fer
guson, Who Holds Down Station at
Miles City, Hike to Chicago and
Get Licenses.

Jordan, Garfield county, count.
seat 100 miles off the railroad, hat
run-in with the department of com
merce at Washington last month ovel
the fact that this enterprising littl'
town had installed a wireless tele
graph station and was holding com
munion in dot and dash sparks will
Miles City, where another wireless.
outfit had been established. The re
suit of the difficulty with Uncle Sam
was that A. G. Campbell, who oper-
ates the wireless at the Jordan end
and Bill Ferguson, secretary of the
Milestown Commercial Club, took q
trip to Chicago and showed the gov
eminent smart Alecs that they knew
how to sling the wireless by passing
the radio examination that allows IL
censes for operators to be issued.
Until last fall Jordan felt no need
of any means of communication more
rapid than the mails. 1t was "cow
town." in the heart of the last of
Montana's open range. AS the rem
devious and supply station for sew
eral hundred cow punchers, the town
found nothing troublesome in it's iso-
lation.
Then the Montana legislature de-
cided to facilitate the fencing of the
open range by chopping famous Daw-
son county's 300-miIe border into
three parts. Jordan, being near the
center of one of the two new coun-
ties, was made the seat of govern
ment.
Now, county seat, with a court
house and sheriff and records to
keep, has responsibilities unknown to
a cow town. Jordan, began to look
about itself, toward the rest of the
world.
1t saw nothing but prairie for 100
miles in any direction. Miles City
was the nearest town of size. Jordan
had neither railroad nor wire. Not
even the roads were much to boast
of, for COW punchers don't need
smooth going.
eve didn't know what to do" said
Campbell. There wasn't a chance
of getting wires strung across all that
range, and we won't have a railroad
for year or two-not until our oil
wells get going and we have regu-
lar city.
wireless was our only chance, so
got busy, studied old man Marconi's
stuff and rugged up an outfit. Down
IA Miles City they set up another sta
ton to- help US out, and Ferguson,
who used to be an army aviator, did
The sending and receiving"
During the winter the wireless was
he only link connecting Jordan and
he official business of Garfield coun-
" with the rest of the state. Heavy
SHOWS blocked the roads. But for the
ampbell-Ferguson wireless, Jordan
night as we'll have been at the north |
)o1e.
Perhaps the operators weren't able
% send and receive as fast as some |
wireless experts, but they managed to |
make each other understand a great |
many life-and-death messages during
he winter.
They did so we'll, in fact, that the
heard about their wire
ess. The department of commerce
wooped down on them with an
farming communication, to the eff
ect that amateur wfrelessing on such
scale could not be permitted-not
ven in Montana. 1t was intimated
hat the operators might save them
elves from prison by hurrying to
'hicago to take a radio examination.
1--WE did our darnedest to stall out
f it." said Campbell. "The govern
lent examination was made for the
cean steamship operators, and it's
stiff one. But they wouldn't listen
} us.
$50 we fooled 'em by passing their
They had to give us IL
snses. Now we're at work again.
7atch Jordan grow"