Since 1942 thousands of men and two governments have struggled to complete the Alaska Highway. It hasn’t happened yet.
In the summer of 2017, men and heavy equipment worked over several miles of the Highway north of Kluane Lake. Waiting for their turn to pass through the construction zone, some drivers got out to stretch their legs. One of them asked the flag man how long they had been working on this stretch. His answer said it all.
“Since 1942”
The road builders in 1942 fought geography and climate for every single mile, and the road they built stands as an epic achievement. But the geography and climate of Northern Canada and Alaska didn’t go away when the soldiers did. When civilian contractors showed up in 1943 to rebuild bridges and widen and straighten the road, they fought geography and climate just as the soldiers had.
They left the road improved but still only convoys of vehicles accompanied by wreckers used it—very carefully.
The 1942 agreement with the Canadian government that allowed the United States to build the Highway specified they would turn it over to Canada after the war. Contractors, working for the United States Public Roads Administration, kept improving and repairing until 1946. After that contractors fighting geography and climate worked for Canada’s government. The fight didn’t get any easier.
In 1948 Canada opened the Highway to limited civilian traffic. Civilians who drove the Highway may have found it uplifting and exhilarating, but they by no means found it easy.
One lady told us of her trip up the Highway with her husband and their infant daughter. She mounted a bucket full of soapy water to the front bumper of their car and tossed soiled diapers in as they travelled. The bumps in the road agitated the baby’s laundry as thoroughly as any washing machine.
Through the decades Canada has slowly but surely improved the Highway, and it offers a vastly different experience today. But the men who struggle to keep it in repair, know what the flag man knew.
The geography and climate will never stop fighting back.