The Pioneer Telegraph in Western Canada
Date
1976
Authors
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Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
In 1874 the government of Alexander Mackenzie let four contracts for
a pioneer telegraph line to be built as part of the project for a Canadian
Pacific Railway. The line was to extend from Thunder Bay on Lake
Superior through Selkirk on the Red River to Cache Creek in B.C., where
it would connect with that province's telegraph system. The contractors
for the second section of the pioneer line built a short line from Selkirk
to Winnipeg giving them connections with Ottawa and their suppliers in
the East. Almost immediately after awarding the contracts, the Mackenzie
government stopped work on the most westerly contract, leaving the pioneer
line with a terminus at a point south of Edmonton, but not before the
section from Cache Creek to Kamloops had been completed. This section of
the pioneer line was eventually transferred to the Canadian Pacific Railway
when its railway lines were built along that route, as was the section
from Thunder Bay to Selkirk. A change of policy with regard to the route
the railway would follow resulted in the abandonment of the inter-lake
section and a portion of the prairie section. The remainder of the
prairie line functioned as a sort of branch line of the newly-built
Canadian Pacific telegraph line, giving service to Battleford and Edmonton
by way of the "fertile belt". A part of it continued to operate until
1923, by which time it had outlived its usefulness.
This thesis examines the construction of the pioneer line and the
extent to which the Mackenzie and Macdonald governments made use of it
as part of national policy. Materials in the archives of the four
western provinces and in the Public Archives of Canada, along with a body
of material accumulated in the field, form the central core of the study.
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Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Program
History