[stonogo]

The 'poor souls' were given a house to live in near the signal tower. There were just under three hundred of these beacons; lots of them ran off of grid power. almost all The article does not claim this replaced the Pony Express. It mentions the Pony Express to highlight the fact that a mere 60 years separated mail-on-horseback and mail-on-airplane.

[drzaiusapelord]

Wikipedia and other articles claim they were all generator powered. There was no 'grid' in those areas at the time.