Starting at the Little Tok River, the young black soldiers of the 97th Engineers raced north, ever deeper into Alaska, in early August. They would start constructing their portion of the Alaska Highway on the north bank of the Tanana River. But they had to build their own road to get there. Tanana River Starting …
Category Archives: Alaska Trails and Roads
Tanana River Starting Line
On the north bank of the Tanana River, near present day Tok, Alaska the black soldiers of the 97th Engineering Regiment would finally reach the starting gate. The white soldiers of the 18th Engineering Regiment raced north through Yukon Territory toward the Alaska border. From the north bank of the Tanana the 97th would race …
Cresting the Continental Divide
Moving west from the Gulf of Alaska into the interior means cresting a rugged range of mountains that separate two great drainage systems. One system drains from their crest back to the Gulf. The other drains north through the Yukon River System to the Bering Sea. The generals who routed the Alaska Highway through Alaska …
Schemers and Dreamers
Schemers and dreamers, over a century and a half, created ways to travel and transport material through the great subarctic North—a few ways. This difficult piece of the world fought back at every turn. But over time a stream of adventurous; brave; inventive; and, above all, greedy schemers came to do battle with it. More …
Towns Sprang from Nothing
Three towns sprang from nothing in 1896, created by Skookum Jim and his partners. They created them from a distance, from Dawson up on the Klondike. But, fittingly, Skagway, Carcross and Whitehorse sprang up in Jim’s old stomping ground. Defending Skagway First the town of Skagway. A boom town of mythic proportions sprouted on …
KV Nelson Froze to Death
KV Nelson served with the 97th Engineering Regiment on the Alaska Highway in Alaska—until February 5, 1943. On that day he died. He and a fellow soldier named Smith, driving a truck on the icy highway back to camp from the little settlement at Station Creek, slid off the road into a ditch. The truck …
Will Rogers’ Brush with Alaska
Will Rogers entertained America through the Great Depression—can’t have been easy. He talked on the radio, he wrote newspaper columns, he appeared in movies; and, whatever the venue, he made people laugh. It’s hard to find humor in his brush with Alaska. More about the Comedian Almost as famous, Will’s friend Wiley Post didn’t …
Alaska Highway Churns Up Stories.
The main artery of the North, the great Alaska Highway churns up endless stories. Blogging Far North History Ron Brooks commented on a post that his father had worked on the highway. I messaged him, and we exchanged emails. Like so many of you, Tom has a treasure trove of information about his dad’s service …
The Road to Fairbanks
Richardson’s road to Fairbanks replaced Abercrombie’s trail to Eagle on the Yukon, but nobody replaced the Richardson Highway until the US Army Corps of Engineers, in a feat many had considered impossible, installed a totally new way to get to Fairbanks—a land route from the railhead at Dawson Creek, British Columbia. More on the …