Swimming? Not a topic you would expect in a story from the Alaska Highway Project, but here it comes… Near the end of June, with the critical task of getting the 340th to the Teslin River behind them, Headquarters moved up to Squanga Lake. One day, when the air temperature climbed to 80 degrees the …
Tag Archives: North Country
Jerry Potts, A Mountie’s Mountie
Jerry Potts, born to an Indian mother and white father in Montana, learned to fight early. Good thing. Tough, smart, expert with pistol rifle or any other weapon that came to hand, he lived at the heart of a violent and murderous time in the Canadian and American northwest. Link to another story “A Quest …
Bill Miner—Canada’s Most Polite Bandit
Bill Miner—or “Grey Fox” or ‘Gentleman Robber” or “Gentleman Bandit”—invented the phrase, “Hands up”. A claim to immortality? I would say so. Link to another story “Sleeping Standing on their Heads” Born in Michigan he made his way to California and began his sterling career, finding himself in prison three times between 1866 and 1901. …
Heat Meant Fire
Heat, on the Alcan Project, came from fire. And God knows, the soldiers needed heat. But the soldiers lived in canvas tents. An escaped live coal smolders on canvas and then ignites it with obvious consequences. Link to another story “Bivouac in the Woods” From a company bivouac, soldiers ‘commuted’ daily to their work …
Stop a Steer Head On?
Stop a steer head on and wrestle it to the ground? That’s just one story from the legendary life of Canadian cowboy John Ware. He could ride, shoot—and eat–as befits a legend. Some said he could cross a herd of cattle on their backs and easily lift small cows. No wild horse could throw him …
Morale Leads the 95th to Sikanni Chief
Morale among the black soldiers of the misused and abused 95th Engineers confronted their new commander, Lt. Colonel Heath Twichell, with his biggest problem and he proposed to fix it. Link to the last story in this series “Pink Mountain and the 95th” The Army, Twichell knew, considered his new troops substandard; didn’t trust them …
Three Hundred Sixty-five Miles
Three hundred sixty-five miles of Richardson Highway, barren of towns or settlements lay between Valdez and Fairbanks when Richardson built it just after the turn of the century. For travelers, the rough road took a toll in exhaustion, and winter added snow and bitter cold. In summer people travelled it in wagons pulled by mules …
Bitter Cold Could Kill a Man
Bitter cold could kill a man–softly, even kindly, but very, very quickly. Most of the soldiers who wintered on the Alaska Highway in 1942/43 survived, but the survivors would never forget the miserable experience. Reading their memories today still produces involuntary shudders. A soldier named Boos spent evenings with his four tent mates huddled next …
Pack Mule
Pack mule out front, soldiers of the 97th Engineering Regiment started their road out of Slana, Alaska in 1942. Technically the mule didn’t lead them because a Lieutenant named Razo led him—but close enough. A few days into the woods, the Lieutenant made the mule extremely unhappy. Link to another story “Blazing the Path of …
Youngest Alaska Highway Trucker
Youngest Alaska Highway Trucker? Without any doubt, Owen Ose holds that title. When three-year-old Owen piloted his truck on the Highway, the Corps of Engineers hadn’t even finished it. Owen, when he shared this claim with me a couple of years ago, hastened to add that the truck the youngest driver drove had “Tonka” printed …