995 Miles of Wire

A long line of juniper poles set 70 yards apart ended Pipe Spring’s isolation. From 1871 on, telegraph wire connected the ranch first to Utah and then to the outside world. By 1880 Mormon settlements from Idaho to Arizona could communicate easily with their neighbors and Church leadership through the Deseret Telegraph system. The transcontinental telegraph’s passage through Salt Lake City in 1861 inspired Brigham Young to plan a new Mormon Church-owned communication network, and after 1864 falling prices for Civil War-surplus telegraph materials made those plans affordable. From 1871 to 1888, at least seven women operated the telegraph instruments at Pipe Spring.

Kaibab, Arizona · United States