The Overland Stage and Telegraph Lines

The Overland Stage and Telegraph Lines

The extending of the telegraph line across the continent, under the management of Edward Creighton, in 1861, was the undoing of the Pony Express, which had been inaugurated in order to have a better and more rapid mail service from the Missouri River to San Francisco. The through telegraph was put into operation on October 24, 1861, when the first transcontinental message was flashed over the line. Thus, a distinctive step was taken in the binding and uniting of the Missouri with the Pacific Ocean. This telegraph line ran parallel with and over the Oregon Trail, and soon became to the Indians a symbol of the white man's despotism and his determination to finally possess the country through which the singing wires had spun their way to the lands of the mining camps and new mountain homes.

There were established two stage and telegraph lines from the Missouri, one running from Fort Leavenworth, [Kansas] to Fort Kearny, [Nebraska] and the other going from Omaha to Fort Kearny.

Pony Express rider.

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Here, at this last named post, the lines consolidated, going up the Platte valley as far as Julesburg, a conspicuous stage station near the mouth of Lodge Pole Creek, where it emptied into the Platte.At this characteristically -- alive border town the lines again separated, the main telegraph line going north-westward to Fort Laramie and beyond to South Pass and Utah, while the stage line went southwestward to Denver, by the way of the South Platte. From Denver the coaches went north to Fort Collins, thence to Virginia Dale, across the Laramie Plains, Fort Halleck, Elk Mountain, Bridger's Pass, Bitter Creek, out to Fort Bridger, on to Utah, California, Oregon, and Montana. Just east of Fort Bridger the Oregon Trail and the Overland Trail united and became one.

The history of the experience of the men having in charge the stage and telegraph stations has been the tragedy of many a tome, for around these buildings was to be the battlefield of numerous Indian depredations and bloody conflicts -- a contest between the white and red man, for the possession of the West.

The route of the stage lines crossing these savagely contested lands, had stage stations situated about every twelve miles along their length, while the government troops were posted along the route at specially constructed forts or stockades or blockhouses at intervals of about one hundred miles. The scarcity of soldiers, particularly during the Civil War, available for this dangerous duty, made the lives of the few who served one of extreme danger. Only a few armed and trained men were distributed at each station. In addition to these fortified buildings along the way, were the occasional farmer and ranchman, the relay stations for changing horses and the eating houses.

Julesburg, near the mouth of Lodge Pole Creek, has been described by General Grenville M. Dodge, soldiers, engineer, and Indian fighter, as celebrated for its Desperadoes. No twenty-four hours passed without its contribution to Boot Hill (the cemetery where every occupant was buried in his boots) and homicide was performed in the most genial and whole souled way." At this station, which was built of logs hauled one hundred miles from a point down the Platte, were the express and telegraph stations, several stables and corrals, besides a log store or warehouse in which were stored the supplies belonging to the stage company. Just west, one mile up the South Platte, was located Fort Sedgwick, the beginning of a new road to Virginia City, Montana, called the Bozeman Trail. This fortification was at one time called Camp Rankin, established in August, 1864, becoming a fort the following year. Troops of cavalry were stationed here in order to prevent Indian depredations.

Wagon Train

At this typical western town of Julesburg there was always a scene of excitement and tremendous activity, for here was located a large supply station where long strings of wagon-trains stopped and discharged their freight, which ultimately was to go to the camps and town both up the North and South Platte route. In the middle sixties the town consisted of a number of adobe houses, one story high. Shingles could not be obtained, the substitute being poles with sagebrush on top of them. On the top of the brush were gunny sacks, and then six inches of dirt. This was the style of roofing used on all of the buildings on the plains at this period of house construction. Not exactly rain proof; not perfectly stable, for the constant winds played havoc with the dirt; yet, for all of this, the covering to the house was adequate to keep out the hot sun, the snow and rain.

Our government ruled, as Indian warfare became more menacing, that additional posts must be established and maintained along the roads leading to the West. Many camps, forts and blockhouses, as a result of this mandate, were erected. Not too numerous were these buildings, as could be testified to by those who occupied them, and by those who had to defend the human freight and the commerce of the highway.

“A military necessity for the soldier's presence at a certain point arose, and orders were issued for a post to be built. A command was marched out, say on to the wide plain far from any one else, and halted beside a stream. It had been told to build a post, and a post was built. All of the labor of constructing it was done by the command, and with the few supplies procurable wonders were accomplished. There was not time to wait for the slow processes of Congress and appropriations bills. And so small frontier forts were created in this manner all over the West. These posts were badly needed, and needed at once, for many purposes. There were settlements to be protected until they were able to take care of themselves, roads to be opened, and travelers to be guarded. Indians had to be held in check and compelled to remain on their reserves, and depots maintained at favorable points. So these stations were constructed by the soldiers on the wind-swept plains, in lonely mountain passes, on desolate hillsides, in groves on the banks of swift-flowing rivers and in sunny valleys at the foot of snow clad mountain peaks."

All through the history of this pioneer condition of our western uninhabited country are written, in supreme sacrifice, the stories of narrow escapes-of camps attacked, stock stolen, human suffering from sudden and continuous snow storms, extreme cold without adequate fire, the hardships of those who were separated by hundreds of miles from sufficient aid; of the heroic acts of those who were thrown on their resources for life and preservation. These were not the record of one brave sentinel, but that of hundreds of station men, telegraph operators, frontiersmen, and soldiers.

It would be difficult for the present day to realize the speed attained and maintained by one of the swaying and rocking stage coaches thundering along the dusty road. To go from one station to another no stops were made. There could not be, for there was no time to be lost, the stages being required to make the scheduled time of seven hundred miles in every seven days. Time lost on one day had to be added to the next. These roughly-built stations of sod, located in the most isolated places, would hold from twelve to twenty head of well-built, well-fed, and hard-worked horses. A detachment of infantry and cavalry guarded the stations, while, when danger was great, or even when it seemed there was no danger, the coaches were accompanied by from four to twenty mounted soldiers.

That the spirit of the Civil War extended to these plains is made manifest by the words used by the "Major-General of the Bullwhackers," as a leader of a caravan of oxen was called, who sang out, with oaths " most generally: "Come here, Grant! You Sheridan! g'long, Abe!" using the fierce, long and stinging whip with wonderful dexterity on the calloused backs of the oxen, all named for the favorite officers of the owner of the patient beasts, giving evidence of sympathy with the North or the South, as the animals responded to their high-sounding names.

The remains of these road stations have long since become a record of the past, though once in a while the more substantial foundations have left a bare outline, marking the site of their occupation. A mere mention only of some of these "isles of safety," is given, to be remembered, however, that to keep the plains from destruction by the Indians was to invite death -- worse by torture and mutilation of the most horrible nature, revolting to an extreme.

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