Richardson, Major Wilds Richardson, came to Alaska in 1906 to replace Abercrombie’s trail with an actual highway. Like Abercrombie Richardson started at the Port of Valdez, upgrading Abercrombie’s trail. But by 1906 the Klondike Gold Rush lay in the past. New gold fields lay close to Fairbanks. That and the city’s central location turned Fairbanks into early Alaska’s version of a bustling city. And Richardson built to Fairbanks, not to Eagle.
He upgraded Abercrombie’s trail through Keystone Canyon and Thompson Pass and on to the little roadhouse at Galkona. But from there he veered left and built his road to the Tanana River. Travellers would cross the Tanana by Ferry and then follow Richardson’s new road on to Fairbanks. A little community—Big Delta—consisting mainly of two roadhouses grew near the Tanana Ferry.
Alaska named Richardson’s road the “Richardson Highway” in 1919 and Valdez officially became the “Gateway to the Richardson”.
For all of Richardson’s efforts, Alaskan Wilderness suffered no man to build an actual highway. Richardson built a two-lane path of dirt and gravel that crossed endless rickety timber bridges. Snow in Thompson Pass closed the road every winter to any traffic except dog sleds.
Freight wagons moved laboriously up the ‘Highway’ carrying material ordered by people in Fairbanks, carrying mail. Stages carried travelers. Everybody stopped at roadhouses, spaced at one day intervals (every fifteen or twenty miles) all along the way.
The Roadhouse at Tonsina