Pack mule out front, soldiers of the 97th Engineering Regiment started their road out of Slana, Alaska in 1942. Technically the mule didn’t lead them because a Lieutenant named Razo led him—but close enough. A few days into the woods, the Lieutenant made the mule extremely unhappy.
Link to another story “Blazing the Path of the Alcan”
Ordered to start building road at Slana, the soldiers of the regiment had the devil’s own time getting themselves and their equipment there, had struggled since early April. Finally, on May 26 soldiers of Company C got there. The soldiers of Company B joined them on June 8. And those of Company A arrived on June 12. A tent city ballooned at Slana filling with young soldiers—and, of course, at least one pack mule–ready to build road.
Ready to launch them, Colonel Whipple, their commander, dispatched Lieutenant Joseph Razo with a small survey party and the pack mule to stake a trail for the bulldozers to follow.
Razo and his party filled packs with food, camping gear and a few tools, draped them over the mule’s back and led it out along the Slana River, over the sand hills that border the little settlement and into the woods, following the remains of the old Valdez-Eagle trail toward Mentasta Lake.
Technically a “location party” they searched for the faint traces of the old abandoned trail and drove stakes along it. On June 12 Razo’s party and its mule reached Carlson Creek, eight miles out from Slana.
A few days later, working their way through the woods along the river, approaching Mentasta Lake, they came to a deep ravine. Luckily a tree had conveniently died and fallen across it. They ventured out to pick their way across on its trunk; good idea for the men, not so much for the mule.
Halfway across, the mule slipped, straddling the log, and dropped, hee-hawing at the top of its lungs, on its belly. Razo and his men had to remove the mule’s pack and then drag the very unhappy animal across to where it could stand up off the log.
The Alaska Highway required sacrifice from everyone.
