South Peace Historical Society

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  • Table of Contents

    • Part 1: First Nations of the Peace River Region
    • Part 2: The Fur Trade Era
    • Part 3: Transportation and Communication
    • Part 4: Old Timers and the Price of Land
    • Part 5: Dawson Creek: The Story of the Community
    • Part 6: Mysteries, Adventures and Indian Legends
    • Part 7: Arts, Crafts and Recreation
    • Part 8: Agriculture
    • Part 9: Church Histories
    • Part 10: Schools
    • Part 11: Health Care
    • Part 12: Industries and Enterprises
    • Part 13: Policing the Peace
    • Part 14: Pouce Coupe, Rolla, and Other South Peace Communities
    • Part 15: Chetwynd and the Fort St. John Area
    • Part 16: The Alberta Peace
    • Part 17: Natural History of the Peace River Region
    • Part 18: Interviews with Old Timers
    • Part 19: Remembering Our Veterans

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05-016: The Extension of Telegraph and Telephone Communications in the Peace River Area

Courtesy of Mr. Alex Caldwell formerly of Pouce Coupe and formerly with the Northwest Communications System who enlisted the help of Mr. D. S. Robertson of the Ministry of Transport, Department head of the Northwest Communications System and Mr. A. Roberts presently of Pouce Coupe who set the research in motion and finally made the report available.

By Dorthea H. Calverley
INTRODUCTION

 
Mr. Caldwell, between 1947 and 1966, went over all of the Government Telephone and Telegraph System lines in Western Canada to advise on what services could be abandoned on account of newer systems which could better accommodate the public. Some lines to very remote places still had to be left for a while but before 1966 were completely abandoned. Some lines were offered for sale to Northwest Communications Systems and Alberta Government Telephones even at $1.00 per mile but offers were declined. Some of the abandoned sections were used by farmers and small Telephone Companies such as Bonanza but maintenance costs gradually doomed them.

In 1943 all of the material to construct a telephone line to Alaska had been collected at end-of-steel in Dawson Creek, preparatory to an early start by the American Army. Much material was stored in a large frame-construction livery barn in the main commercial block in the village. Spikes, cross-arm braces, thousands of miles of wire, and all of the tools needed to build the line were also stored there. This included metal things such as crowbars, hammers, etc. and many vehicle tires. A sub-contractor had the use of the southern end of the structure. Somehow two hundred cases of percussion caps and a truckload of dynamite got into close proximity, before the whole building became enveloped in flames.

When everything was heated red hot, and the building was about to collapse, the inevitable happened – the whole thing blew up. A visiting doctor, who had seen “block-busters” and incendiary bombs in England, said that the resulting explosion was a combination of both. A windowpane shattered twenty-six miles away and dishes rattled in cupboards as far away as Spirit River.

Being an American Army enterprise, it would not be a subject for a Canadian Government report. However, the telephone exchange in Dawson Creek was burned in the holocaust that followed, leaving the N.A.R. telegraph line as the only communications with the “outside” until emergency facilities could be provided. Mr. Alan B. Elliott, the N.A.R. agent at the time, had a gigantic task to keep the military and domestic service going.

Radio service was available during the war, operated by the American Army, so that we got programs from New York. On one occasion an American program was being broadcast to the United States, and being picked up from the American network by local Station CJDC. When the newly arrived British bride of the Commanding Officer answered the question put to her by the interviewer, “What are your first impressions of the American soldier as compared with the British military?” Unaware that the broadcast was going outside the local Army headquarters recreation hall, she pronounced distinctly, to the delight of the local listeners, “Oh – their appearance is much more slovenly.” For that instant, before someone who had been tuned in to CJDC rushed in the Peace River area knew it was part of a continent-wide hook-up.

A few days after the explosion some citizens found that Dawson Creek had an intercontinental communications connection when “Lord Haw Haw” infamous British traitor-broadcaster from Germany, announced on British radio, in effect, “Attention everybody! Fifteen minutes ago, Dawson Creek, British Columbia, the beginning of the Alcan military Highway to Alaska was blown up, and the whole town is now on fire.”

Amazingly, after taking into account the time zones, he was correct.

« 05-015: B.C. Tel Enjoys Phenomenal Growth

05-017: The Birth of Radio Station CJDC »

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