Tiny Carcross, Yukon. The soldiers of the 18th Engineers barely noticed as they travelled past and on to Whitehorse in April. In May the trains carrying the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers, to the surprise and delight of her citizens, stopped in Carcross and discharged their passengers. Link to another story “Carcross Met the …
Category Archives: Alaska Highway in Yukon
Carcross Met the Black Soldiers
Carcross had seen trainloads of soldiers pass through and on to Whitehorse. Now, to little Millie Jones’ delight, the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineering Regiment stopped and climbed down in Carcross. Lt. Price’s platoon came first, brought up the Regimental Chaplain, Lt. Finis Hugo Austin, and set up a post office. Millie Jones and Carcross …
Horses vs Mosquitos
Horses struck the soldiers of the 340th as a fine idea but not as a personal gift to Yukon’s mosquito population. The mosquitos thought that part up for themselves. Working south out of Teslin, the bulldozers of the 340th could knock trees down but not out of the way. Downed trees left an unacceptable pile …
Greyhound on the Alaska Highway
Greyhound buses actually drove the Alaska Highway in its infancy, while it remained a rough draft of a Highway. Who knew? Link to another story “Rough Draft of a Highway” In a comment on one of my stories, Tom Lymbery wrote, “…12 Canadian Greyhound coaches driven and serviced entirely by Canadians… set up regular service …
Tiny Teslin Post
Tiny Teslin Post never saw it coming. In July 1942, the soldiers of the 93rd Engineers, with their bulldozers and trucks and graders suddenly roared out of the woods beside Teslin Lake. The soldiers bulldozed at and around the tiny village and its 130 citizens, dropping trees in every direction. Link to another post …
Motor Pool
Motor Pool–the soldiers of the 93rd Engineers needed one desperately. And locating one and getting heavy equipment to it presented a problem. In May 1942 the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers plunged through Yukon’s forbidding wilderness working with a couple of borrowed bulldozers and hand tools. But Ships carrying their heavy equipment steamed out …
The Press and Beaver Creek
The press, in the person of Harold W. Richardson of the Engineering News-Record, came to the Alaska/Canada border in the nick of time. American and Canadian newspapers had kept their readers focused on the last fifty miles of the Alaska Highway. That meant the Army’s publicity machine focused on the last fifty miles. And that …
The Pressure Ratcheted Up a Notch
The pressure on the 97th and the 18th Engineers, working toward each other at the northern end of the Alaska Highway, ratcheted up on September 24. On that day, down in British Columbia, the 35th and the 340th Engineers met at Contact Creek and completed the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse. LInk to …
Going about Their Business
Going about their business the 130 citizens of Teslin Post heard strange noises in the woods, noises that grew louder, and then soldiers and trucks and bulldozers poured and roared down along the river out of the woods. Little Dolly Porter hid in panic from the massive machines pitching trees in every direction through …
A Thousand Pair of Army Boots
A thousand pair of Army boots had tromped across a railway platform into northern Canada in March at Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The second set of a thousand pair to tromp into northern Canada warmed—sort of—the feet of the 18th Engineers at the depot in Whitehorse, Yukon. The first troops to Dawson Creek When FDR …