The Trail at Muncho Lake

The men of the 35^th Engineers stood by in Ft Nelson, ready to build a road. And McCusker had bequeathed a route. Scouting that route from the air, though, Colonel Twichell and civilian Curwen could only see the relatively easy terrain to Summit Lake and sixty-five miles beyond. At a cloud-shrouded pass near Muncho Lake (just a little past today’s Toad River) the faint trail disappeared.

The key to the McCusker route lay beneath those clouds.  Consulting with the local Canadians who knew the country had worked once; Curwen suggested they do it again. And local experts agreed that a route down the Liard River and then up the Trout River would work. Back in the air, an ecstatic Ingalls found that suggestion entirely workable.  A sheer limestone cliff blocked passage along Muncho Lake, but, with enough dynamite they could fix that problem.

While Twitchell and Curwen worked on the path from Ft. Nelson to Watson Lake, Hoge took on routing through Yukon. Flying with Les Cook in his Norseman, Hoge found an unexplored and unmapped network of valleys from Lake Teslin to the Upper Liard Valley west of Watson Lake. The elevation never rose higher than 3200 feet. The valley network would do.

So, at the end of the month, here’s General Hoge’s April…

He had four regiments on the ground—the 35^th in the Southern Sector, the 18^th already forging north from Whitehorse toward Alaska, the 93^rd and the 340^th in Skagway. And he had three more on the way—the disorganized but game black 97^th anchored in Valdez Harbor, the inexperienced but game white 341^st ready to invade Dawson Creek via the railroad depot, and the relatively organized and experienced black 95^th who would bring up the rear into Dawson Creek.

He had tasked the 341^st and 95^th to upgrade the winter trail to Ft Nelson—hopefully before the 35^th starved to death.

If he had his men in country or on the way, though, supply, equipment and transportation problems had just got started. Worse, poor to non-existent communication between Ft. Nelson and Whitehorse rendered command and control nearly impossible.

At the end of the month, Washington divided command of the project—Hoge would command the four regiments in the northern sector. Colonel “Patsy” O’Connor would take command in the south.

By May 1, with headlong effort and absolute determination, mired in colossal confusion, the Corps had the vital land route to Alaska under construction.

Sort of.