- Fort Egbert
Fort Egbert was a
U.S. Army base inEagle, Alaska . It operated from 1899 to 1911.History
Fort Egbert was established in 1899, during the
Klondike Gold Rush , as U.S. Army headquarters in theDistrict of Alaska .Citation
title = Soldiers Off For Alaska: Men Engaged in Garrison Duty Start Today
newspaper = The Nebraska State Journal
pages = 1
year = 1899
date = June 25, 1899 ] It was named by U.S. PresidentWilliam McKinley in honor ofColonel Harry C. Egbert , who died in battle on March 26, 1899 inManila .Citation
title = Alaskan Posts Named After Officers
newspaper = The New York Times
pages = A3
year = 1899
date = June 11, 1899 ]The base was constructed next to Eagle Bluff, a rocky outcropping overlooking Eagle, a
Yukon River mining community near the Canadian border. Eagle, which was established on a military reservation, was placed under the jurisdiction of the new base “until such time as some form of civil government may be established.” Eagle was released frommartial law on July 23, 1900.Fort Egbert was designated as the first station in the
Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS), a network of telegraph lines connecting Alaska with the contiguous United States. The first link in the system was completed in October 2000, running fromDawson City in the CanadianYukon Territory to Fort Egbert. Another link, completed August 24, 1902, connected Fort Egbert withFort Liscum in Valdez. In 1905, Norwegian explorerRoald Amundsen used Fort Egbert's telegraph station to announce his successful crossing of theNorthwest Passage .Fort Egbert was abandoned in 1911 except for an
Army Signal Corps contingent, which continued to operate a station until 1925, when the wireless station (which had replaced the land lines) burned to the ground.Five buildings of the original Fort Egbert have been preserved under the jurisdiction of the
Bureau of Land Management .References
;General
* cite book
title = Eagle - Fort Egbert: A Remnant of the Past
publisher = Bureau of Land Management
date = 2003
url = http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ak/aktest/culture_res/culture_pdfs.Par.15716.File.dat/Eagle_Fort_Egbert.pdf ;SpecificExternal Links
* [http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/prog/culture/fort_egbert.html Fort Egbert National Historical Landmark (Bureau of Land Management)]
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