The heliograph was an instrument with mirrors and a shutter to convey messages by flashing rays of sunlight. It had limitations that it would not work in smoke or haze, cloudy weather or at night.. It also frequently had to be reoriented due to the rotation of the earth and some men did not have the patience to learn the code, according The Clearwater Story by Ralph Space.

Recognizing these problems, the Forest Service set out to establish a telephone system to link every lookout to a ranger station and every ranger station to the supervisor's office. The first of these wires was spiked on trees. The maintenance was slow and expensive because every time a tree fell across the line it broke and frequently tore off the insulator they were hung on, Space said.

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