Liard Hot Springs, four hundred seventy miles northwest of Dawson Creek, British Columbia and Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway, provided a thoroughly unusual experience for the soldiers who built the great Highway in 1942. More on the Soldiers Today it still offers an unusual experience for those lucky travelers who get to scratch driving …
Tag Archives: North Country
Monte’s Legs
The story of Monte’s legs has Alaska all over it. Another unique Alaskan Life there is like nowhere else on the planet. It takes a unique kind of person to live there and love it. A few months ago, researching our work in progress, my partner and researcher, Chris, ran across a story that ran …
Humble, Vaguely Malodorous Canvas
Humble, vaguely malodorous, canvas, on the Alaska Highway in 1942, supported life in bivouac. Canvas tents provided barracks, mess halls and offices. Men slept on folding canvas cots. Canvas “lister bags” stored treated drinking water. Canvas enclosures became mechanical repair shops. In canvas enclosures, soldiers transformed empty fuel drums into stoves, showers and bath …
Port of Valdez in 1942
Valdez grew a bit between the Gold Rush and 1942, but not much. Robert Kelsey and his Valdez Dock Company had installed a rickety dock mounted on timber pilings across the mud flats at the water’s edge. The town had acquired a Presbyterian Church and a Café. Gateway to the Richardson Highway Valdez had acquired …
Chicken
Chicken, Alaska represents a lot of why Researcher/Team Leader and I love the North Country. Alaska and Northern Canada offer some of the most unique and unusual people and places on earth. Those of you who have made the trek know about the town of Chicken, Alaska. Chicken beat the Klondike to a gold strike …
The Road from Ft Nelson
A few weeks ago, I posted about the dramatic effort of the 35th Engineering Regiment to get to Ft Nelson before the spring thaw. On the first of April, bedraggled, surrounded by their abused and broken machines, the soldiers of the 35th bivouacked there. General Hoge had ordered the 340th and 93rd Engineers into Skagway …