Hunger permeates Chester Russel’s memory of his first weeks on the Alcan Project. The stuff of legend, his regiment’s race against the spring thaw got them to Ft Nelson in the nick of time—just before the winter trail disappeared from under their rolling dozers and trucks. That meant, as Chester remembered, “no supply line.” Awards, …
Tag Archives: Canadian Rockies
Speaking of Chester Russel
Speaking of Chester Russel a few episodes back, I told you about his unique background. Then I told you how he stumbled into “Catskinning” (operating a bulldozer) by accident. Private Russel at Ft. Nelson In his interview with Earl Brown and Hank Bridgeman Chester remembered details that no book of Alaska Highway history includes. And …
Obsession Genesis, Next Step
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 3:51 PM Subject: Next Edition So last night I wrote out a new edition and sent it… And it promptly disappeared into cyberspace. As soon as that occurred, the message turned into the most profound and eloquent piece of writing I’ve ever done–or ever read, for that matter. Sorry you …
Cameron Cox
Cameron Cox came up by train from Fort Ord, California and detrained with the rest of the 35th Engineers into bitter cold at the Dawson Creek depot. They travelled to Fort St John and started building road northwest from there. Cameron remembered moving constantly, taking down pyramidal tents, moving a few miles, setting them up …
The Only Possible Route
How on earth did they find the only possible route? Canada Used the Route Before the Corps Drive the Alaska Highway, look left or right virtually anywhere along it. You look down steep mountainsides, you look up steep mountainsides, you look out across trackless swamps, you look out into hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles of …
Schemers and Dreamers
Schemers and dreamers, over a century and a half, created ways to travel and transport material through the great subarctic North—a few ways. This difficult piece of the world fought back at every turn. But over time a stream of adventurous; brave; inventive; and, above all, greedy schemers came to do battle with it. More …
Sikanni Chief Bridge
The Sikanni Chief River, glacial, 300 feet across, pours through a canyon between two mountains and directly across the route of the Alaska Highway north of Fort St. John. The grade down to the river and back up exceeds ten percent. And The Alcan builders needed to bridge it. The segregated 95th Engineers, working north …
Into the Muskwa Range
The Muskwa Range loomed in the Southern Sector. On the Alaska Highway project progress happened in June 1942 in Yukon. In Alaska and British Columbia, not so much. Down in Yukon In Alaska the 97th had struggled to get over Thompson Pass, still waited for their heavy equipment to make its way to Seattle and …
The Trail at Muncho Lake
The men of the 35th 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 …