October 22, 1961 d U.S. want of a FROM OLD journals, newspaper accounts, material prepared by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and other horse was lost. sources at the Utah State His- AND A NATION, tea the Mason-Dixon bag its western seam. Sound farfetched?. It torical Society, an account is available of what had to be done to link the half million living west of the people Rockies to their government in Washington, D.C. The Mormons would close 500 miles of the line, Brigham Young had said. Trees were to be cut in the Salt Lake Valley, Echo and Weber canyons for | poles. GOV. GEORGE D. city officials, represent of the Church of Jesus ( of Latter-day Saints, Salt Rotary Club and Chamk Commerce at a noon Utah. will meet Tt luncheon in They will commemorat ELSEWHERE, the transcontinental pace was to have calamitous implications. James Gamble was to aim toward Salt Lake City from the west; Mr. Creighton, from the East. The work gang which came in first would get a prize. meeting of East and W telegraphic line in Salt’ City Oct. 24, 1861. was halted on few missed the horse; fornia editor the saw beginning. And perhaps able the to tap the Western same the more sentimel! states strong secessionist forces urging an independent 1 lic there at the start of Civil War. “UTAH but is firm and laws country,” HAS NOT sece for the Constitu of our once he Brigham Yor ice the ee For transcontinental commu tion system 100 years ago, James Gamble east to Salt ... Pushed. Lake City. was loyal to the union “under all fortunes.” A great leap forward had been made, but not without at least a couple steps backward for every one forward. IN 1844 Samuel Morse tapped the first long-distance telegraphic message from o| Washington to Baltimore: ° What hath God wrought?” he 12 years after he had egun work on the telegraph. Scattered lines burgeoned tinental line wass completed to and in 1851 one was incorpSalt Lake City. a orated as the New York and Valley Printing SIX DAYS later, ‘the United Mississippi e,| Lelegraph Co., which became - States at last spanned by wire1d Western Union in 1856. Chief Justice Stephen J. Fie of California reassured PresiTHAT A_ transcontinental dent Abraham Lincoln in th line to yoke the East and West first electronic message ser could be constructed had been cross-country that Californi {considered and, after a con| gressional appropriation of $40,000 annually was made in June, 1860, rival companies met to discuss the project. But most of them became sgruntled and indecisive. WESTERN UNION’S Presi- BUT MR. GAMBLE’S work was cut out for him. Delayed by: supplies which had to go around Cape Horn to California and then over the mountains, and often without water, he found he was also hard-pressed for poles and sought scrub trees 100 to 200 miles away from the line which was growing from Carson City through Ruby Valley, Egan Canyon and Deep Creek, First telegraph office in Salt Lake City was completed after hook: -up of transcontinental line on Oct. 24, 1861. An Era Begins— Tt N0 Years Ago nination of the roe Express through South fas to| inauguration of e perpetuating te memory Salt Lake City.’ Ona hot July day in 1861 the first poles in Utah were up on East Temple Street in front of Livingston and Bell Co.’s store. A few months later Mr. Gamble’s men had lost, but Western Union had: won. of the west’s pi oneer heritage, is in: Salt Take City od the occasion. With Mrs. Driggs he arrived here via the old trail from St. Joseph and has contacted organizations from Salt Lake City to Sacramento to make arrangements for the observances. THERE WERE, to be problems. the Sons of nor St. : Presiding of course, Dr. Howard organization R. Drig preside s, pioneer landmark and Horace A. Sor- ensen, SUP Museum director, study telegraph operators’ earliest key one of units. City News Briefs MEANWHILE, Mr. ‘Creighton’s men worked from Omaha up the Platte and Sweetwater rivers and THE SERIES OF commemorating events will open Sunday with a reception for Dr. Driggs from 2 to 4 p.m. at Utah Pioneers at the Museum reception will be Village, 2998 Crawford Con- Houston, president of the National Society of Sons of Utah Pioneers. The program will be conducted by Milton V. Backman. HORACE A. SORENSEN, director of the Sons of Utah Pioneers Museum, said veteran telegraph operators are invited to the reception as special guests. They will be given medals recently issued by the U.S. Mint to mark the transition from Pony Express to telegraph communicaOn. vir, and Mrs. Sorenson assembled the Pioneer Village and gave it to the Sons of Utah Pioneers, THE MAJOR EVENT Monday will be ceremonies in schools all along the. trail and the installation of commemorative Pony Express plaques in the schools. Dr. Driggs said this feature of the observance was inspired by experience arising from the Diamond Jubilee of the Pony Express when the states were given plaques equal to the number of miles of Pony Express Trail within their respective borders, ALL THE STATES EXCEPT Kansas installed the markers along the trail. But they quickly disappeared or were mutiliated by persons using them as targets. Kansas distributed them to schools as a means of instilling in youth an appreciation of the era. “We feel,’ Dr. Driggs said, “that this is an appropriate way to pass on to Young America an appreciation of their precious heritage. It is particularly appropriate US. Policies. An address on United States foreign policy will highlight a general meeting of the Women’s Legislative Council of Utah Thursday in the. ‘State Office Building Auditorium. SPECIAL GUEST speaker will be Warren I. Cikins cial assistant to the as secretary for Poneressio Ordnance Oitfice Invites SL. Area Businessmen Salt Lake area small business representatives will have the opportunity Tuesday to meet U.S. Army Ordnance procurement officers at a newly established office in the General Services Administration Building, 1750 S. Redwood Rd. J. C. LITTLEFIELD, chairman of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce indussubject will be “Most cr ucial trial committee, said Saturday Aspects of our Foreign Policy, the new establishment to assist Including Our Role in tI small business concerns in obUnited Nations.” 9 taining work from the OrdThe meeting will start at nance Corps. will be open: be9:30 a.m., said Mrs. Heller G. tween noon and 2 p.m. Woolley, chairman of the WLC Judiciary Committee, who will be in charge of the program. Name Nominee MR. CIKINS will be intro. duced by Supreme Court Justice J. Allan Crockett. ' After the general meeting, council members will separate into committee meetings. © The Salt Lake Valley Historical Society nominated T. Edgar Lyon, 3087-23rd East, as candidate for president of the group for 1962. SPEAKERS scheduled for the committee sessions include Kleon Kerr, principal of Bear River High School, Education Committee Dr. Gerald A. Curtis, Health Committee; State Tax Commissioner Orville MR. LYON, unopposed, was nominated at a meeting at the Utah Historical Society Building, 603 E. South Temple. Other candidates for of- Wallace Clinger Ralph E. Baker, Robert Edwards James, treasurer; Grand Woolley and Doman, three-year and Mrs. secretary; and John Dr. LeRulon W. director. To Open Bridge Bids Bids for construction of a new concrete bridge over the Surplus Canal at 5th South near 23rd West to replace a narrow wooden structure will be opened Nov. 9 by the Salt Lake City Commission. STREETS Commissioner Joe L. Christensen said cost of the new bridge being built to handle increased traffic and improve safety conditions, is estimated at $72,200. Deacons to Meet An annual assembly of deacons and deaconesses will be conducted Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Calvary Baptist Church, 679 E. 3rd South, the Rev. William I. Monroe, pastor, announced. THE CHURCH’S gospel chorus will singe at the Veter-