A mortal threat to America from Japan, inspired Canada to build the series of airfields north to Alaska known as the Northwest Staging Route. The NWSR would at least get some defense material north, and it established a rough path for the land route to come—the Alaska Highway. By 1943 the Japanese, permanently on the …
Category Archives: Northwest Staging Route
Standing on Their Heads to Sleep
Standing on their heads to sleep, the men of the Canadian company, Tomlinson Construction, would end a brutal 12-hour shift by going to sleep in a bunkhouse mounted on a crew sleigh. The sleigh typically rested nearly vertically on a steep mountainside, chained to a tree. Link to another story “Cooperation built the Alcan” Canada …
Doug Bell
Doug Bell worked the length of the Alaska Highway from its earliest days. When I first met him, I thought him one of the most fascinating and funniest men I’d ever met. Doug’s memories made life on the early Highway come alive. His eloquent stories made it real. Doug passed away on April 18. His …
The Million Dollar Valley
The million-dollar valley collected a million dollars from the US Army Air Corps in January 1942—collected it in the form of 3 B-26 Marauders at Greyling Creek near the British Columbia, Yukon border. Link to Another Story “Lend Lease and Canada’s Northwest Staging Route” In the run up to war Canada had installed the Northwest …
Cooperation built the Alcan
Cooperation between soldiers and civilians and between the citizens of two countries made the colossal project, the Alaska-Canada Highway, happen. Canada entered WWII when Great Britain did, two years before Pearl Harbor pulled the United States in. Mackenzie King and Canada’s other leaders recognized the Japanese threat to North America long before leaders in the …