For the telegraph in the mid-nineteenth century, eastern North America held an abundance of trees for telegraph poles; ample riverine systems for transporting telegraph poles and equipment; a growing system of railroads, post roads, and canals; and established telegraph entrepreneurs. None of this was available in western North America. Centered on the Great Plains, this chapter discusses the challenges of the high ground: the lack of trees, the extremes of climate and topography, the relative lack of navigable riverine systems and other transportation conduits, the reliance on trails, and the lack of technical expertise for establishing the telegraph in the Trans-Mississippi West. The chapter concludes with the completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph in 1861.
