Russian–American Telegraph
The route of the $3,000,000 undertaking (equivalent to $59.7 million today)[1] was intended to travel from California via Oregon, Washington Territory, the Colony of British Columbia and Russian America, under the Bering Sea and cross the broad breadth of the Eurasian Continent to Moscow, where lines would communicate with the rest of Europe.
A Government of Canada historic plaque adds these specifics: "In 1867 ... construction ceased at Fort Stager at the confluence of the Kispyap and Skeena rivers.
[4] Meanwhile, entrepreneur Perry Collins visited Russia and took note that it was making good progress extending its telegraph lines eastwards from Moscow over Siberia.
[5] On July 1, 1864, the American president Abraham Lincoln granted Western Union a right of way from San Francisco to the British Columbia border and assigned them the steamship Saginaw from the US Navy.
[8] The Colony of British Columbia gave the project its full and enthusiastic support, allowing the materials for the line to be brought in free of duties and tolls.
"[7] The right of way for the telegraph line followed the shoreline west from the US border, then traversed the high ground of what is now White Rock and South Surrey to the Nicomekl River.
[8] Many of the Western Union workers were unaccustomed to severe northern winters, and working in frigid conditions made erecting the line a difficult experience.
[8] When the Atlantic cable was successfully completed and the first transatlantic message to England was sent in July 1866, the men in the Russian American division were not aware of it until a full year later.
[8] By then telegraph stations had been built, thousands of poles were cut and distributed along the route, and over 45 mi (72 km) of line had been completed in Russian America.
In 1866, the work progressed rapidly in that section, fifteen log telegraph cabins had been built and line had been strung 400 mi (640 km) from Quesnel, reaching the Kispiox and Bulkley Rivers.
The line passed Fort Fraser and reached the Skeena River, creating the settlement of Hazelton when it was learned that Cyrus West Field had successfully laid the transatlantic cable on July 27.
[12] Nevertheless, left behind in British Columbia was a usable telegraph system from New Westminster to Quesnel, which later would be run to the Cariboo Gold Rush town of Barkerville, and a trail that had been beat through what had largely been uncharted wilderness.
"[14] In the long run, the telegraph expedition, while an abject economic failure, provided a further means by which America was able to expand its Manifest Destiny beyond its national boundaries and may have precipitated the US purchase of Alaska.
[citation needed] The expedition was responsible for the first examination of the flora, fauna and geology of Russian America and the members of the telegraph project were able to play a crucial role in the purchase of Alaska by providing useful valuable data on the territory.
Originally very much for Russian settlement of the far East, on visiting the exile camps in the 1880s he changed his mind and later wrote Tent Life in Siberia: Adventures Among the Koryaks and Other Tribes in Kamchatka and Northern Asia.
The ethnocentric descriptions of aboriginal peoples in the places now known as British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Alaska, as well as the general region of Eastern Siberia, typify those attitudes of the time.
