Big Devil Swamp swallowed a Company B bulldozer whole in June 1942 and immortalized the Company’s commander, Captain Pollock. Commanding General Hoge had assigned the Black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers to create a path from Carcross to the Teslin River. The white soldiers of the 340th Engineers would use it to get to their starting point at Teslin.
Racing to make that path, the soldiers of the 93rd, including Captain Pollock’s Company B had passed Summit Lake and plunged through Big Devil Swamp—left a barely passable trail. Then, once the soldiers of the 340th had worked through and around, got to the Teslin and moved on, Captain Pollock’s Company B turned back to make the road through the swamp more permanent.
Link to a story on “Lunging Dozers”
Days of heavy rain beset the whole regiment. One young officer wrote to his girlfriend, “It has rained here for three days and man you never saw such mud in your life. Seemed like it was miles thick.” The rain primed the swamp for Company B’s arrival and set its soldiers up for an event immortal in the history of the 93rd Engineers.
Long stretches of road turned to the consistency of wet concrete. Entire sections simply slid away. One by one the swamp immobilized Company B’s trucks, stranding them on the side of the road.
Finally, one of the Company’s precious bulldozers, growling through the muck, eased over into a muskeg bog. The operator threw his machine into reverse and accelerated, trying desperately to back away from the sucking mud. The great treads spun and slung mud defiantly toward the bog—to no avail. Capt. Pollock hurriedly dispatched another dozer to pull it out–too late. Big Devil’s Swamp swallowed the D8 whole. Prodding deep into the mud with a ten-foot pole, a soldier tried to locate the machine by feel—no luck. The North Country swamp holds its giant mechanical meal to this day.
This man actually likes Yukon Mud
On an old Army map of the area, one spot in the middle of Big Devil Swamp is labelled, “Pollock’s Graveyard”.