Perry McDonough Collins, an American, interested the US government in a plan to connect America and Europe by means of an overland telegraph line. This line was to pass through BC and Alaska to Siberia where it would connect with the already existing Russian line. Western Union, an American company, took up the project.

Work began in early 1865 at New Westminster, and by September the line had reached Quesnel. The crew which was clearing the trail, cutting and erecting the poles, stringing the wire and building station houses worked so fast that their supplies could not keep up with them. In less than four months the crew cleared 444 miles of trail, set 9,200 poles, strung 390 miles of wire and built 15 stations.

Part of the line ran through Matsqui, between Abbotsford and the Fraser River. John Maclure, a former Royal Engineer who had taken up a land holding at Hazelbrae overlooking Matsqui Prairie, became a telegraph operator and his home was used as a repeater station. One of the first messages he received announced the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Maclure's entire family were involved in the telegraph operation at various times. The edlest son, Samuel, went on to became one of BC's pre-eminent architects.

On October 2nd, 1866, work was halted for the winter and never started again. An Atlantic cable had in the meantime been successfully laid across the ocean and Western Union realized that finishing the telegraph would be useless. The portion of the line from New Westminster to Quesnel was maintained but the rest was abandoned. Some First Nations used the wire and insulators from the abandoned sections to make ornaments. The Kispiox, with the wire they gathered, built a bridge over the Bulkley River. Glass insulators have become collector's items.