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The Alaskan gold rush (1898-1900) also focused attention on Alaska’s communications needs. |
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In May 1900, Congress appropriated nearly half a million dollars to establish a communications |
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system connecting the military posts in Alaska. This system, which came to be known as the |
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Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS), was constructed by the |
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Army Signal Corps. Construction of the telegraph cable portion of the system began in the summer |
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of 1900. In 1903, a 107 mile wireless system crossing Norton Sound on the west coast of Alaska |
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was added. Also, in 1903, a submarine cable between Sitka, Alaska and Seattle, Washington was |
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laid, allowing rapid communication between Alaska and the lower ‘continental U.S.’ [Note 18] |
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By the time WAMCATS was completed, it included 2,079 miles of cable, 1,439 miles of landlines, |
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and 107 miles of wireless system across Norton Sound, linking Fort St. Michael to Nome, Alaska, |
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for a total of 3,625 miles [Note 16 pg.108]. Fort Gibbon was centrally located, in the middle of the |
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Territory, and played a key role in linking Alaska to the U.S., Canada, and the rest of the world. |
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By 1908, the landlines had been replaced by wireless radio communications [Note 21.b.]. |
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Major Charles S. Farnsworth, an Infantry officer, was post commander at Fort Gibbon, 1910-1912 |
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[Notes 21.c., 31.a.]. “Farnsworth encouraged skiing and hunting parties for recreation and for the |
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Arctic training value, as well as to obtain fresh meat. Sports and recreation programs and various |
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forms of entertainment the men devised contributed to their high morale” [see Appendix B, entries |
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No. 1869 (Nov. 12, 1910) and No. 1913 (Dec. 23, 1910) notes on hunting parties and rifle practice]. |
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A 1916 Signal Corps publication reported this description of the system: “The Signal Corps |
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has installed 10 radio stations in Alaska, ranging in size from 1 kilowatt at Petersburg, Wrangell, |
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and Kotlik, to 8 and 10 kilowatts at Fort Gibbon, Fort Egbert, Nulato, and Nome [i.e. two towers]. |
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Stations of 3 to 5 kilowatts have been installed at St. Michael Circle, and Fairbanks.” [Note 19] |
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Vern Arrives in Alaska, and up the Yukon River to Fort Gibbon |
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On the west coast of Alaska, the mighty Yukon River flows into the Bering Sea on the south shore |
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of Norton Sound, near Fort St. Michael; for thousands of years, the Yukon River had long been the |
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water ‘super highway’ into the Alaska interior. The Yukon River is about 2000 miles long, rising |
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in northern British Columbia, flowing north through Canada’s Yukon Territory, and then crossing |
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Alaska from east to west, ending in the multi-channel Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, which empties into |
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the Bering Sea. It was one of the two principal routes during the 1896–1903 ‘Alaska Gold Rush’ |
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to the Klondike in Canada, up the Yukon River, or via Skagway and Chilkoot Pass or White Pass). |
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Although we do not know the name of the ship, nor the exact dates of the northbound passage, |
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Vern’s 2600-mile ocean voyage would have ended at Army headquarters post at Fort St. Michael, |
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where he would have officially joined Signal Corps Company ‘K’, in Alaska. Following a short |
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transition period at Fort St. Michael, Vern and his unit would gone up the Yukon on a riverboat |
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(probably on a wood-burning sternwheeler owned and operated by the Army), traveling 10-14 days |
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up the river (against the current), half-way across the Alaska Territory, 900 miles to Fort Gibbon, |
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and landing at Tanana, Alaska, in July 1910 [Note 25.a., Note 37 a., b.]. |
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_________________________________________________________________________ |
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McAninch Family History NL v.XX n.3 / July 2012 / Frank McAninch, Editor / page 2012-22 |