title: Wires in the Wilderness: The Story of the Yukon Telegraph
author:  Bill Miller 
description: "Miller is a good storyteller, and you really feel the cold of the frostbite, the rage of the torrents, the sting of the mosquitoes and the smell of food cooking. . . read and marvel at the persistence of men who brought words across the wilderness" --Pamela Mar, Nanaimo Historical Society
zlib_text: ![](images/00001.jpg)
  
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  Wilderness Station
  
  
    
    
  I.  
    
  II.  
    
  III.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  
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  # Wilderness Station
  
  
  ### Elia Wilkinson Peattie
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  * I.
  
  
  * II.
  
  
  * III.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ###  I.
  
  
  THERE was a yucca in sight, and a bunch of stunted pinon, and there
  
  
  were cacti by the thousand, and a settlement of prairie dogs; which
  
  
  last made the place look almost sociable at times.
  
  
  On a siding stood a box car, and in the box car were two things —
  
  
  a man and a telegraph instrument. The man was put there to operate the
  
  
  instrument, and the instrument was put there — fifty miles from
  
  
  anywhere — to make the desert less incommunicable.
  
  
  The instrument was a good one, and calculated to perform all that
  
  
  was required of it, but the man — well, the man was something of a
  
  
  curiosity. When he offered himself to the Santa Fe company, he wa