When the 35th Engineers came through Dawson Creek, crossed the barely frozen Peace River and moved on up toward Ft Nelson, their number included Chester Russell.
An ex rodeo bronc rider, 6’4” Chester Russell, had once worked the rodeo circuit with a future star of Hollywood westerns, Slim Pickens. In the Army in 1942, Chester worked the Alaska Highway.
I posted last night about the rotting ice of the Peace River. In his memoir, Tales of a Catskinner, Chester remembered it vividly. A flatbed carried an Osgood Shovel down the 10 percent grade toward the river until the heavy trailer pushed the tow vehicle sideways and the shovel and the flatbed rolled over into the icy mud along the trail.
Chester also remembered the winding winter trail to Fort Nelson—at best a two track. An endless stream of men, trucks, dozers and other equipment crawled over it through snow and ice for three weeks in March, and with the spring thaw, the trail behind them disappeared. If they hadn’t brought it with them, they wouldn’t get it for awhile.
The men got by on rations barely fit to eat. On July 4th Chester Russell killed two mountain sheep at Summit Lake—the first fresh meat in months.