Greyhound buses actually drove the Alaska Highway in its infancy, while it remained a rough draft of a Highway. Who knew?
Link to another story “Rough Draft of a Highway”
In a comment on one of my stories, Tom Lymbery wrote, “…12 Canadian Greyhound coaches driven and serviced entirely by Canadians… set up regular service between Dawson Creek and Fairbanks in spite of a trail under construction 1942-1944.”
I’ve done a bit of research and ExploreNorth , Murray Lundberg’s excellent website on the North Country, included a terrific article about the Greyhound’s on the Highway. The page explains that the article is from an “unknown source”. On December 23, 1942 the United States Government signed a contract with Western Canadian Greyhound to provide service on the barely completed Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks.
Explore North Article on Greyhound Canada and the Highway
The rough, dangerous road posed a challenge—especially through the winter. Drivers out of fuel actually stopped and sucked what they could get out of abandoned fuel drums along the way.
Richard Neuberger wrote an article about his bus trip up the Highway that Representative Homer Angell read into the congressional record in 1944.
I followed Explore North to that portion of the Congressional Record and I’m posting a photo of a portion of it with this blog. I’ll also post a link if you would like to read the whole article.
