Clarence Leroy Andrews (1862-1948); Anchorage Museum collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Fort Egbert was established during the Klondike Gold Rush as US Army headquarters in the District of Alaska. It was constructed next to Eagle Bluff, a rocky outcropping overlooking Eagle, a Yukon River mining community near the Canada-US border.
Fort Egbert was designated as the first station in the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System, a network of telegraph lines connecting Alaska with the contiguous United States. The first link in the system was completed in October 1900, running from Dawson City in the Canadian Yukon Territory to Fort Egbert. In 1905, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used its telegraph station to announce his successful crossing of the Northwest Territory.
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 burned to the ground.
Five buildings of the original Fort Egbert have been preserved under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management.
Source: Wikipedia
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One of the oldest roads in the state, Fort Road was originally built by the federal government after Fort Ridgely was completed in 1853-54. Supplies were shipped from Fort Snelling to Traverse des Sioux, then transported by wagon to Fort Ridgely.
Nicollet County Road 5 runs more than 42 miles from its eastern terminus at its intersection with US Highway 169 in St Peter to the Renville County line. Old Fort Road presumably extended from Traverse des Sioux, although the portion running through the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College has been blocked off. Fort Road as an address runs from the western edge of St Peter to the end of CR-5.
In an ideal world, a paved trail would have been installed when the road was refurbished in the early 2010s. This planned geocache trail will have to suffice, but won’t alleviate my anxiety when biking here.