The telegraph line reached Hootalinqua in 1900 and Livingstone miners came to Hootalinqua to record their claims, send telegrams, and stay overnight at a roadhouse. In 1907, the North-West Mounted Police helped the telegraph service install a spur telegraph line from Hootalinqua to Livingstone Creek. When the noncommissioned officer at Livignstone started to act as the mining recorder and as an agent for Crown Timber and Land, the population of Hootalinqua sharply declined.
Jack Ward was the telegraph operator at Hootalinqua from 1913 through the 1920s and he married the sternwheeler watchman’s eldest daughter. The family lived in the Telegraph Station and Weather Bureau and at least one of the Ward children was born there.