Crossing Paths with Sam McGee
The US Army Corps of Engineers crossed paths with Sam McGee in June 1942. Hell bent to build a land route from the lower 48 to Alaska, the Corps descended on Northern Canada and Alaska early in the year. By the end of June three regiments had themselves relatively organized and working on the center portion of the Highway in Yukon.
I’ve been telling stories from the efforts of the 93rd Engineers and the 340th Engineers south of Whitehorse but neglecting the efforts of the 18th Combat Engineering Regiment. The 18th had been driving north from Whitehorse toward Alaska since April.
One of two combat engineering regiments on the project, the 18th had come in country experienced and organized, got out on the road very quickly. And for the first miles out of Whitehorse the Yukon wilderness proved relatively friendly. By the end of June, the 18th had completed 112 miles of road and had 43 more under construction.
But, in June they came to the Aishihik River, just short of today’s Haines Junction.
According to sightsandsites.ca, https://sightsandsites.ca/south/site/canyon-creek-bridge natives had had been coming to the high terraces overlooking the river for 7,000 years to hunt bison. Over the last 1,000 years the prey had changed to caribou and moose, but the camping and hunting site persisted.
A couple of years after the frenzied Klondike Gold Rush ended, in 1904, prospectors found gold along Kluane Lake north of Whitehorse. Miners came to try their luck and Yukoners build a rough wagon road north from Whitehorse. The high terraces overlooking the Aishihik acquired a roadhouse and store where the ancient hunting camps had stood. And a Yukon road builder named Sam McGee built a timber bridge over the river.
According to Wikipedia Sam died of a heart attack at his daughter’s farm in 1940. But the Yukon Poet, Robert Service, had loved his name, got permission to use it and immortalized him in legend, if not in fact, by writing a famous poem about his cremation.
A Source on the Real Sam McGee
“The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the strangest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.”
In June 1942 the 18th came to full stop at Sam’s old timber bridge. It could no way carry trucks and D8 bulldozers. And the 18th had only timbers to build a replacement.
The engineers of the 18th got creative and the design they came up with for the bridge they renamed “Canyon Creek” became famous for its ingenuity. Notice the angled timbers driven into the opposite banks.
According to sightsandsites.ca the bridge served until the Yukon government rebuilt it in 1986. They left 10% of the 18th’s timber bridge in place.
