WU museum tag attached to object: "The metal jacked wood insulator bracket was found on Kenosha Pass, Colorado. This bracket was placed on a pole constructed between Denver and Fairplay, CO in 1874. At that time Fairplay was the center of and the most important point in the mining district west of Denver. To reach this mining district the WU Tel. Co. in 1874 constructed a pole line of native poles cut along the trail, on which one 10-gauge iron wire was erected on wooden brackets. Upon discovery of gold in California Gulch (later Leadville) in 1878, the line was extended to that point and wire used as a duplex circuit, Denver to Leadville. This was the first instance in which multiplex telegraphy was used in this territory. Later upon completion of the telegraph line along the Denver and South Park [Rail Road] (now the Colorado & Southern), the old overland route was abandoned, wire taken down and junked."
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