The lady, The Scottish Lady, began her life a graceful clipper ship, ended it a barge in the Gulf of Alaska. With her graceful female figurehead out front, the proud Lady plied the seven seas for decades. Dismasted in a typhoon out of Manilla in 1871, she recovered (with help from shipyards, of course) …
Tag Archives: Alaska Highway
Circus Tent at Gulkana
A circus tent housed Iowa civilians in Gulkana Alaska in July 1942. They came in droves to help build the Alaska Highway through Alaska. Filled the big circus tent to bursting. More on the Iowans at Gulkana The contractors and their managers had never operated in total isolation, and Alaska threw them a curveball. Consequences …
Planes to Alaska
At the end of June, civilian workers began piling into planes for the trip north. Forest fires raged north of Edmonton and the planes flew through heavy smoke. Max Smith wrote, “I am writing this letter from a plane 15,000 feet in the air going 165 to 185 miles per hour somewhere over the northwest …
Iowa Expeditionary Force
The “Iowa Expeditionary Force” came to Alaska with the 97th Engineering Regiment. Forced by the shortage of troops to send the segregated 97th to build the Alaska Highway through Alaska, two reluctant generals planned to surround them with white civilian contractors. They found an Iowa management contractor, Lytle and Green; and Lytle and Green went …
Dropping It In
Dropping it to the soldiers in the woods, that’s how flying anything to them usually ended. If they happened to work near a lake or river, the incoming plane could land. But more often they worked in deep woods. The flying part worked well, the dropping not so much. Bush pilot Les Cook flew a …
Segregation came to Skagway in 1942.
Segregation meant that soldiers, at least the black enlisted soldiers, in Skagway in 1942 lived separate, not just from their officers, but from everyone else as well. Six year old Carl Mulvihill spotted black soldiers quartered across the alley from his house. Excited, he waved and called. They ignored him. Only later did he learn …
An Exploded Repair
The tank exploded, and that shouldn’t have surprised the man repairing it. Donald L. Hall drove trucks out of Dawson Creek in 1942. He also fixed trucks. Driving, he brought up the rear of his convoy, piloting a truck full of spare parts and tools. When trucks broke, he fixed them. For more on mechanics …
The Rude Bear
We can excuse a rude bear. They don’t, after all, attend finishing school. Roy Lee of the 140th Quartermaster Truck company would beg to disagree. More on Quartermaster Trucks Roy had passed a very long July day driving a deuce-and-a-half in convoy from Dawson Creek up to Summit Lake. The rough road and the long …
Alaska Highway Churns Up Stories.
The main artery of the North, the great Alaska Highway churns up endless stories. Blogging Far North History Ron Brooks commented on a post that his father had worked on the highway. I messaged him, and we exchanged emails. Like so many of you, Tom has a treasure trove of information about his dad’s service …
Tanana Crossing
Crossing the Tanana remained vivid in Lt. Walter Mason’s memory of his time on the Alaska Highway in 1942. Mason’s regiment had built road through the Alaskan wilderness since spring. But they hadn’t been building the Alaska Highway, they had been building a road to get themselves to the Alaska Highway. Once across the Tanana, …