A mortal threat to America from Japan, inspired Canada to build the series of airfields north to Alaska known as the Northwest Staging Route. The NWSR would at least get some defense material north, and it established a rough path for the land route to come—the Alaska Highway. By 1943 the Japanese, permanently on the …
Tag Archives: Ft Nelson
There to Meet the Corps
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Soldiers of the 35th Went Hungry
And the soldiers of the 35th went hungry–the ones who didn’t have serum hepatitis. Read about the Serum Hepatitis When, in March, their commanders dispatched the soldiers of the 35th over the 250-mile winter road to Ft Nelson, they took a hell of a chance. The road behind them would soon melt into impassible muck. …
Precarious River Ice
Four separate trains hauled the 43 officers and 1230 enlisted men of the 35th Engineering Regiment to Dawson Creek. The last train arrived in late afternoon on March 16. Everyone confronted the Peace River. The First Soldiers on the Highway Colonel Hoge had flown to Fort St. John and set up temporary headquarters in a …