9/11/04-- ICONer Steve Kelly who has hiked and researched many miles of the Arizona Military Telegraph has provided additional insight that I thought was useful. He doubts this is an original military telegraph pole and sidepin. He thinks it is a rancher's pole from the 1920's. Steve said all of the original line that he has seen were the original red side pins used by EC&M that were nailed to a pine or Juniper tree. Given the scarcity of tree cover in large parts of Arizona, I think the builders would have had to use poles or something else vertical to put up the line in many places. Of course these abandoned poles would have been the first things scavenge for fences and corals. Next Picture [id=98151400]