Publicity–the impact of Contact Creek
In late August and early September 1942, the soldiers of the 340th and those of the 35th plunged toward each other, and toward the first great climax of the Alaska Highway Project, through the rugged mountains of the Mackenzie-Yukon Drainage area. Their imminent meeting would open the road all the way from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Whitehorse in Yukon Territory.
On September 1st, the entire 340th —roughly 1,000 men—toiled along the 34 miles of road between the Lower Rancheria River and the Little Rancheria River. The next day the lead elements of the regiment stretched it out; moved 10 miles to just past the Upper Liard River crossing. From there Company A surged through September to Watson Lake and on to Lower Post. Contact Creek lay just 30 miles further east.
On September 24, an advance crew from Company E loaded a D8 with extra drums of fuel and pushed out ahead to the west bank of Contact Creek. They waited, hearing the dozers of the 35th coming through the woods, engines pounding, closer and closer, until they burst from the thick trees, lumbered down the bank and splashed into the creek.
The men ‘lost it’. From both sides of the little creek, wildly happy soldiers competed to see who could yell the loudest. The woods rang with profane argument about who got there first and who built the most miles. Major McCarty rode the lead dozer from the 35th and Colonel Lyons clambered up on his regiment’s lead dozer. The machines lurched forward until their blades touched.
The road reached from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse.