There to meet the Corps of Engineers in 1942, Harold and Anna Engelson had made Ft. Nelson their home in 1939. I promise you will love this video. Click to see the video the story and more photos. Click Link to video The link will take you to an utterly fantastic video their son Monte …
Tag Archives: Fort Nelson
Standing on Their Heads to Sleep
Standing on their heads to sleep, the men of the Canadian company, Tomlinson Construction, would end a brutal 12-hour shift by going to sleep in a bunkhouse mounted on a crew sleigh. The sleigh typically rested nearly vertically on a steep mountainside, chained to a tree. Link to another story “Cooperation built the Alcan” Canada …
Deep Forest and Rugged Mountains
Deep forest and rugged mountains, 175 miles to the Sikanni Chief River and then 150 more miles on to Fort Nelson, confronted a traveler going north from Dawson Creek at the turn of the century. He travelled a path that had changed little from that used by the primordial First Nations. The forty-six miles from …
Sad Comment—Marl Brown
A sad comment appeared on one of my posts last night. Aaron OrKaden wrote “Hey folks. Sadly, this great man just passed a few days ago. I’m honored to be one of his grandkids. He will be sadly missed.” The sad comment appeared on the following post about Aron’s grandpa, Marl Brown. Everyone who has …
Steep Ridges—Choosing the Alcan Path
Steep ridges came one after another, one so steep they had to put three dog teams on each sled and haul the three sleds up one at a time. Two survey teams had set out together from the Hudson’s Bay post at Sikanni on the winter trail between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson. Looking …
Out of Dawson Creek
Out of Dawson Creek, one man, Colonel William Hoge, started the Alaska Highway Project when he left on February 12, 1942 in a car, driven by Homer Keith, his Canadian escort. Nearly a month later Lt. Miletich and his men took themselves out of Dawson Creek in a small convoy of trucks, headed for Fort …
Doug Bell
Doug Bell worked the length of the Alaska Highway from its earliest days. When I first met him, I thought him one of the most fascinating and funniest men I’d ever met. Doug’s memories made life on the early Highway come alive. His eloquent stories made it real. Doug passed away on April 18. His …
Vivid Memories and Christmas on the Highway
Vivid memories of his time as a civilian surveyor on the Alaska Highway stayed with Joseph Hutlas for the rest of his life. Dances and a Christmas Eve service may have been the most vivid of all. Link to another story “Burwash Bounce” He told his stories to Donna Blazor Bernhardt and she included some …
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Colonel Hoge
Colonel Hoge, William Hoge, of the United States Army Corps of Engineers stepped onto the platform of the Dawson Creek railroad station seventy-eight years ago this past February. In early 1942, his country, suddenly at war with the Empire of Japan found its Alaska outpost in dire danger. Its Army needed a land route from …
Sleeping Standing on their Heads
Sleeping standing on their heads? That’s just one of the things the Tomlinson men hadn’t anticipated when they headed north. Link to another story “Ft. Nelson, Chester Russell’s Passage” At the beginning of World War II, officials in Washington and Ottawa developed a propensity for dispatching men deep into the subarctic north to accomplish all …