| Summary: | Caption on mount: Telegraph's only hotel. Filed in British Columbia--Telegraph Creek Telegraph Creek gets its name from an overland telegraph line to Yukon, the assembly of which started in 1866. The project was stopped when the first Trans-Atlantic submarine cable was laid, then started again during the Klondike Gold Rush. The cable was finished in 1901, and abandoned in 1936, when wireless radio killed it. Though the Yukon Telegraph Trail is mostly overgrown over to the south of Telegraph Creek, a 265-km stretch still survives between Telegraph Creek and Atlin, and is open to the serious backpacker. The history of the Dease Lake and Telegraph Creek area dates back a century to the Yukon Gold Rush era. Telegraph Creek witnessed the discovery of gold by prospectors on the Stikine River in the 1860s, and was the head of navigation for paddlewheelers during the plans for the Collins Overland Telegraph Cable. Today, Telegraph Creek is a predominantly Native settlement, with many restored buildings dating back a century or more. There are many deserted historic buildings in the town itself, as well as some that have been restored, including the original Hudson's Bay Company Store, which is now a cafe, general store and lodge. Probably the most remote town in BC assessable by road, Telegraph Creek is reached via a rough Forest Service road that runs southwest from Dease Lake, passing through the Stikine River Recreation Area, skirting the Grand Canyon of the Stikine River, and passing through Telegraph Creek to end in Glenora, another gold rush boomtown in its heyday.
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