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| Officer's Quarters Ft. Whipple (1871) |
As 1873 dawned, the Weekly Arizona Miner lamented that Arizona was “about the only great geographical division of the Union that is not now connected with the Capital of said Union…by telegraph.” Indeed, Lt.-Gen. George R. Crook, the man in charge of fighting in the Indian Conflicts, requested that the War Department build a telegraph line from California into the Arizona Territory in 1871. However, by 1873, Crook had already made peace with the Apaches and the “Indian Wars,” as they were called were winding down. Yet the wiring of Arizona to the rest of civilization would still be of great benefit in case of conflict from Mexico and Arizona “would no longer be isolated,” the Miner observed.
At the behest of Arizona’s delegate to the US House, Robert McCormick, asked the Secretary of War, (William Belknap,) to write a letter to Congress requesting the construction of the telegraph to connect the military posts of Arizona. In February Congress passed a bill allocating $50,000 (over $2 million today,) “to construct a military telegraph from San Diego to Fort Yuma and thence into the interior of Arizona,” the paper reported, and President Ulysses Grant signed the appropriation into law. The proposed route was San Diego to Yuma, then to Maricopa Wells where it would split with one wire going to Prescott and the other to Tucson; a distance of 628 miles.
“The construction of the telegraph lines from San Diego, California to the military headquarters of the department of Arizona at Prescott…will be entirely under the management of the military authorities at San Francisco and General Crook,” the Miner reported. Some believed the $50,000 allocated would only accomplish half the job. The most difficult stretch would be through the desert to Yuma. The area was devoid of water and trees, and poles would have to be shipped in. Indeed, engineers were having difficulty finding a good route for the line from San Diego to Yuma without passing through Mexican territory.
In late May Western Union signed a contract with the government and would pitch in three times the amount the government dedicated ($150,000.) The line would now run from San Diego to Fort Yuma, Maricopa Wells, Phoenix and Wickenburg to Prescott. Another line would run from Maricopa Wells to Tucson.
In mid-July, Capt. Price, military telegraph agent, and Mr. Haines, agent for Western Union, arrived in Prescott to investigate “the feasibility of bringing a line to Phoenix. As no provision [was] made by the government for an office in [that] town,” the Miner explained. M.Goldwater volunteered to provide an office free of charge, “and, if needed, to purchase a battery at his own expense” for Phoenix to be included.
From the San Diego end, work commenced August 28th, and was expected to continue at a rate of three miles per day. However, General Crook and others saw no use in waiting for the live telegraph line to reach Prescott, and it was decided to start raising a wire at the Ft. Whipple end, where Gen. Crook was headquartered.
The story and history of electricity coming to Prescott, AZ.
So on September 2, 1873, a large crowd assembled at Ft. Whipple “to witness the erection of the first telegraph line in Arizona,” the Miner reported. “At 10 o’clock, Mrs. Gen. Crook broke the ground for the first telegraph pole in [the Territory].” Simultaneously, the wife of Gen. Dana broke a christening bottle of wine on the pole itself.
In just a few minutes the work crew had erected three poles and stretched the wire upon them and three cheers were given by the crowd.
Men were called to speak at this stirring, historic occasion. First up was the publisher of the Weekly Arizona Miner (John Marion,) who’s business would soon be radically affected. Next, General Crook was asked to speak. However, he “made his usual excuse,” the paper said, and Captain Nickerson spoke on the general’s behalf. He spoke at length recognizing anyone and everyone who had a part in bringing this joyous day.
“The ladies from the post made gay the scene with their presence,” the Miner observed. Music was provided by the 23rd US Infantry Band who played several patriotic numbers and the crowd gradually dispersed “all happy over the thought that a new and bright era had opened for Arizona.”
THE MYSTERIOUS, LOST(?) TIME CAPSULE:
Later, the Miner revealed that “under the foot of the first pole, at Whipple, a box containing the following printed statement and the various papers therein mentioned, was buried:
“This, the first pole of the telegraph line, to connect Prescott and the Territory of Arizona with San Francisco and civilization, was placed in position at 11 o’clock, Tuesday September 2nd, 1873, in the presence [of] Lt.-General George Crook, [many other officers,] and a large concourse of spectators.
“A copy of the Arizona Miner, and one of the Arizona Citizen are herein deposited,—as also copies of orders issued by Gen. Crook upon the conclusion of his campaign against the Apaches—and a roster of officers serving at this date in the Department of Arizona.” It then noted the President (US Grant,) the Governor (APK Safford,) and Arizona’s delegate to Congress, (RC McCormick.)"
Two months later, the Miner seemed more precise in the location of the time capsule. It related that the first pole was “raised at Gen. Crooks headquarters near Ft. Whipple.”
The author was unable to find an account of this time capsule being recovered. Perhaps if Gen. Crook’s headquarters site could be located, a ground penetrating radar could be utilized to locate it! What a delightful find that would be!
Field work was done to figure out the best route from Prescott to Tucson. Capt. Price, who was in charge of this investigation believed that the line should follow the trail over the mountains from Prescott to Skull Valley, then through Kirkland, and Peeples Valley; to Wickenburg and some point on the Salt River to Maricopa Wells.
Yuma started a line toward San Diego September 18th. Maricopa Wells started toward Yuma October 11th. “[The] length of wire strung [in Arizona was] 417 miles,” the Miner revealed.
It took a month for the line to reach Wickenburg. At 4pm on September 29th, the first telegraph pole in Wickenburg was erected “in front of the General office of the Arizona Stage Lines, amidst cheering and firing of guns, etc. Wine flowed and a health was drank to [for] all the gents connected with the undertaking,” the paper noted.
On November 11th “the military telegraph line was completed between Yuma and Prescott. The first military messages over the line announced and congratulated Lt.-Gen. Crook on his new promotion to Brigadier General,” the Weekly Miner chronicled. “The good citizens of Arizona who furnished the poles, etc., are entitled to everlasting gratitude for the several parts performed by them and thus enable us to gather and control the lightning which the great Morse first subdued and applied to man’s use.”
In its next weekly publication, the Arizona Miner reported an even “greater event.” It was November 18th when the wire from San Diego to Yuma was completed and Prescott was no longer isolated from the news of the world. “The first dispatch from San Diego was received at Whipple about 3pm [November 19th] at which time a gun was fired in honor of the event.”
Telegrams were sent to John Marion, editor and publisher of the Weekly Arizona Miner, from San Diego: “Californians greet their brethren of Arizona joyfully, and send hearty congratulations. Our sympathies were with you in your dark days, and we rejoice with you in the better time at hand.” Another message from San Diego read: “Shake, Shout. This is the best item I’ve had for some time!”
“The date of completion of this work [was] more than one month sooner than the earliest date set by the Superintendent,” when work began. When Gen. Crook first urged the government to bring the telegraph into Arizona in 1871 “as a measure of economy in facilitating military movements in…Arizona, few of the old settlers here expected to live to see it operational,” the paper said.
The stretch from Maricopa Wells to Tucson would still be a month away. “The telegraph will, very soon, be extended to the Verde, 45 miles east of Prescott,” the Miner wrote, “and we hope to Camp Apache, which is farther east. Now that [capitalists] can hear from us every day, [they] will invest in our mines and, in other ways, aid us to conquer this aged wilderness.”
The completion of the telegraph line to outside civilization brought a great celebration to Prescott. “A ball, in honor of General Crook, (who was present,) and the completion of the Arizona telegraph, came off at Congress Hall November 24th, the Weekly Miner disclosed. “It was the affair of the season. The Fifth Calvary brand furnished the music.”
The arrival of the telegraph caused another “Prescott first,” and a most notable change to the town. On December 1st, 1873 the Daily Arizona Miner was born. There had been times when various Arizona papers published daily on a temporary basis to cover big, ongoing stories, but the Daily Arizona Miner
was intended to be the first regular daily paper of Arizona. It would require “a faster printing press than any of the three now in our office,” the Miner confessed. Money would be borrowed to purchase a fast, modern printing press, and Marion openly asked for patronage for the new daily to help recoup the cost. He divulged that the telegraph line “has been the prime factor in causing us to start a daily paper.”
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At the end of November, rates to send messages were published. It was stated that “Duly authorized Government messages will take precedence of all other business.” But that being said, the charges set to use the telegraph were as follows:
(Note: $1 back then had the buying power of over $35 today.)
From Prescott to San Diego, 10 words: $1.50
From Prescott to Yuma or Tucson: $1.25
To Florence, Maricopa Wells, or Phoenix: $1.00
To Wickenburg: $0.75
Because of concerned citizens who donated to the cause of bringing Arizona on-line, (mostly from providing the poles,) the final cost to the government was only $45,000 of the $50,000 Congress appropriated. As 1873 drew to a close, bringing the wire to the Colorado River and the Verde Valley were the next desired locations and would occur late the following year.
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SOURCES:
Weekly Arizona Miner:
2/24/1872; Pg. 3, Col. 3.
3/16/1872; Pg. 3, Col. 3.
5/9/1872; Pg. 2, Col. 4.
5/11/1872; Pg. 4 Col. 2.
1/25/1873; Pg. 1, Col. 4.
2/1/1873; Pg. 1, Col. 3 & Pg. 2, Col. 2.
2/22/1873; Pg. 2, Col. 2.
4/12/1873; Pg. 2, Col. 4.
6/7/1873; Pg. 1, Col.2.
6/28/1873; Pg. 2, Col. 1.
7/12/1873; Pg. 1, Col. 2.
8/23/1873; Pg. 3,Col. 3.
9/6/1873; Pg. 3, Col. 1.
9/13/1873; Pg. 2, Col. 1 & Pg. 3, Col. 2.
10/4/1873; Pg. 2, Col. 2.
11/15/1873; Pg. 2_C2
11/22/1873; Pg. 2, Col. 1.
11/29/1873; Pg. 1, Col. 3.
12/5/1873; Pg. 1, Col. 2 & Pg. 2, Col. 2 & Pg. 4, Col. 2.
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