The Victorian Internet

Samuel Morse Telegraph Key – Contributed photo

San Juan Island has had its communications problems in recent months, but not for the first time. Learn how and when the first telegraph came to San Juan Island, as well as its context nationwide in the mid-1800s, in an illustrated talk with Park Ranger Doug Halsey scheduled for 7 pm, Wednesday, August 6 at the San Juan Island Library.

“It is said that no innovation affected the world more, after the printed word, than the telegraph” Halsey said. “When President Lincoln, ironically a great supporter of the telegraph, was assassinated and then died early on the morning of April 15, 1865 in Washington D.C., news of the event reached San Francisco, Portland and Seattle within hours by telegraph.”

On the local scene, word of Kaiser Wilhelm I’s decision regarding the disposition of the San Juan Islands on October 24, 1872 arrived in Victoria a day after Wilhelm spoke the words in Berlin, Halsey said. Communication with the East Coast had gone from overland wagons to swift clipper ships, from overland stagecoach to steamship and rail passage via the Isthmus of Panama. The famous Pony Express briefly accelerated communication starting in 1860, but was put out of business on Oct. 24, 1861, the day the first transcontinental telegraph was completed.

The Telegraph’s arrival on San Juan Island in late 1865 was part of a growing West Coast network, the generation of which was largely because of the efforts of one man, Perry Collins, a young government lawyer.

“Who was Collins and how and why he caused that line to be built?” Halsey said. “Come to the program and find out.”

The program is free. For accessibility information, contact the park at 360-378-2240, ext. 2226, or the library at 360-378-2798.

You can support the San Juan Update by doing business with our loyal advertisers, and by making a one-time contribution or a recurring donation.