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Connecting the west at Humboldt

Original Humboldt
Telegraph Station
The Humboldt telegraph station sent out its first message on Aug. 25, 1878. The site today now has interpretive panels telling the story of Original Humboldt. photo by Becky Zimmer
It was just a speck on a hugely undiscovered map of Western Canada, but the Original Humboldt site was the start of Humboldt’s history.
 
This month will mark the 140 anniversary of the first telegraph to leave Humboldt’s Dominion Telegraph station on August 25, 1878.
 
Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery director Jennifer Fitzpatrick says we do not know what the message said, however, we know “first commercial telegraph message from Humboldt was sent by the Stobart Co. in Duck Lake to the Stobart Co. in Winnipeg,” she writes in the Original Humboldt history book. 
 
The message would have been sent in morse code, something Catherine Weldon, the first telegraph operator, was taught by her brother on the way over from Ireland.
 
During a time when telegraph was one of the only forms of communications connecting western Canada to the east, this anniversary speaks to the importance of communication, says Fitzpatrick.
 
“That’s the reason we built a replica of the telegraph line (at the site) is because we wanted people to understand and explain to them that this poplar pole and this wire had to be kept up across the country. It’s really hard for people to wrap their heads around.”
 
With communication now being instantaneous, it is hard for people now to related to how isolated people were back in those days, she says.
 
However, we are not so different, says Fitzpatrick since, even today, people have trouble communicating, just in a different way compared to those who lived in 1878.
 
But Catherine and her family, including husband and linesman, George, daughter Birdie, and sister, Maggie, were far from the first to set foot on the Original Humboldt site back when they arrived in July 1878. Humboldt was a crossroads between a northwest divergence of the Carlton Trail and was well travelled by First Nation and Métis people, and traders who used the trail.
 
The Weldons’ hospitality was famous along the trail, says Fitzpatrick.
 
“There were people who would write and would say ‘Catherine stopped everything to put on a pot of tea and bannock in the middle of the day.’” 
 
The telegraph line would be one of many from Fort Garry (Winnipeg) to Edmonton, however this is one of the few telegraph line sites which is nationally recognized.
 
This is an important part of our story, says Fitzpatrick; not just for people in Humboldt but also Saskatchewan and Canada.
 
The site was purchased by the Original Humboldt committee in 2008 and today has interpretive plaques, art installations, and annual archeological digs.
 
The national plaque marking the site was originally placed in the Humboldt campgrounds before being moved to the site 11 km southwest of Humboldt.
 
The Original Humboldt Committee is a branch of the City of Humboldt’s Cultural Services department, which includes the Humboldt and District Museum and Gallery.