BUILDING THE ALASKAN TELEGRAPH 



SYSTEM 



By Captain William Mitchell, U. S. Army, 



Of the United States Signal Corps 



Under the personal direction of General A. W. Grcely, U. S. Army, the United 

 States Signal Corps has recently laid the submarine cable connecti?ig Sitka and Seattle, 

 thus completing the Alaskan Telegraph system of 2,500 miles. Fort St Michael, 

 I 'aldez, and points on the Yukon and Tanana rivers are now in direct telegraphic 

 communication with the world. Some of the fearful natural dijfic7ilties that were met 

 and conquered in the frozen wilderness of Alaska by the Signal Corps officers and 

 men are described by Captain Mitchell in the following article. 



TO one unfamiliar with conditions 

 in Alaska it is hard to give an 

 idea of the difficulties of travel 

 and the hardships which have to be en- 

 countered in constructing a telegraph 

 line through that vast and little-known 

 country. Suffice it to say that Alaska 

 contains one of the greatest rivers in 

 the world, the Yukon, navigable for 

 2,200 miles, though frozen over during 

 S months of the year, and the highest 

 range of mountains in North America, 

 culminating in Mt McKinley, which is 

 over 20,000 feet high. The weather 

 varies in temperature from ioo° in the 

 summer to lower than 70 below zero 

 in the winter, and to add to the discom- 

 fort of summer travel the mosquitoes 

 are a terrible pest. The snowfall varies 

 from 60 feet along portions of the coast 

 to 4 feet in the remote quarters of the 

 interior, and in the entire territory there 

 is no road which is good enough for 

 wagons to travel, and the trails in winter 

 must be broken through the snow 

 which covers the ice on the rivers or 

 the rough and rugged land on the moun- 

 tain sides. 



It is an extremely healthful country 

 and very rich in game and minerals. 

 Except along the Yukon and the coast 

 few white men can be found, the only 

 inhabitants being the Indians, the last 

 vestiges of once powerful tribes, who 



before consisted of thousands, but now 

 are fast disappearing. It is a country 

 of vast distances (in round numbers 

 being about 1,400 by 2,000 miles in 

 extreme breadth and length, respect- 

 ively), yet with all its drawbacks and 

 hardships its strange fascination ap- 

 peals to one who enjoys adventure. 



In the summer of 1902, when the 

 lines between Fort Egbert and Fort 

 Liscum had been finished by Captain 

 G. C. Burnell working from the south, 

 and myself working from the north, 

 preparations were made at Fort Egbert 

 for the final work, namely, the joining 

 of some point on the Fort Egbert-Fort 

 Liscum line to the line from Saint 

 Michaels and Nome, the extreme west- 

 ern towns in northern Alaska, which 

 Captain (then Lieutenant) G. S. Gibbs 

 had succeeded in constructing up the 

 lower Tanana River. This work, when 

 completed, would put the above-men- 

 tioned places in communication with 

 the outside world, from which they had 

 been shut out before for more than five 

 months of the year. All stores and 

 equipment of special make for the work, 

 special sleds, harnesses, and transport 

 animals — dogs, horses, and mules- 

 were sent to Fort Egbert. As practi- 

 cally nothing was known of the coun- 

 try between Fort Egbert and the lower 

 Tanana River, reconnoissances were 



