32 THE UPPER YUKON 



Telegraph Creek got its name in a very 

 curious manner. Some forty-seven years ago 

 the Western Union Telegraph Company ran 

 a line of wires via the "Ashcrof t Trail," which 

 starts in at the town of that name, located on 

 the C. P. R. system about two hundred and 

 forty miles from Vancouver. The Western 

 Union's purpose was to carry this line up to 

 .Behring Strait and lay a cable under that 

 body of water — which is but a few miles across 

 — and then build a line to St. Petersburg, to 

 Paris, and other European capitals, and finally 

 to London. 



M^hen the line reached this creek, a message 

 came that the Atlantic cable, just laid, was a 

 complete and successful line, and was then in 

 operation. The engineer corps in charge of 

 the work of stringing this overhead line was 

 ordered back to New York. Thus the creek 

 became known as Telegraph Creek. 



In the Bear River country, in Upper Brit- 

 ish Columbia, I came across several bridges 

 built by Indians with the wire left stranded 

 from this abandoned line. They would fasten 

 the wires firmly to trees or rocks on each side 

 of a canyon or stream, and then lay boards — 

 sawed with the whip saw — over the wires. 

 The bridge work was rude, but it was safe and 



