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 …
Tag Archives: Northern Canada
Morley Bay Yukon
Morley Bay, today a beautiful body of water with quiet woods along its shore, teemed and bustled with soldiers and equipment in 1942. Ship dock, supply dump, motor pool—a sizeable military installation occupied the spot where two small, isolated houses now sit. Link to a story from Morley Bay “Dear …
River after River
River after river crisscrossed the path of the Alaska Highway. Smaller streams got quick timber bridges, larger ones brought out the barges and Ferries. Link to another story “Barge “Bridges” The black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers, tasked with building an access road for the white soldiers of the 340th from Carcross Yukon to the …
Winding in and Winding Out
Winding in and winding out… Retired Sergeant Troy Hise summed up his 1942 experience in northern Canada, “The Alaska Highway winding in and winding out, fills my mind with serious doubt, as to whether the lout that planned this route, was going to hell or coming out.” Sgt. Hise, referred to a potentially deal breaking …
Harriet Pullen, Queen of Skagway
Harriet Pullen, one of the ladies who joined a flood of men in their rush for Klondike gold, found her fame and fortune in Skagway, Alaska. She had no need to go on to the Klondike. “I only had seven dollars to my name. I didn’t know a soul in Alaska. I had no place …
Like Dirt in Front of a Dozer Blade
Like dirt in front of a dozer blade, the problems that plagued the Alaska Highway Project piled high in May and the hell-bent advance into the wilderness threatened to dissolve in chaos and confusion. Three entry points, Skagway, Valdez and Dawson Creek, swarmed with confused troops trying desperately to get organized. Getting equipment to the …
The Juggernaut
The Juggernaut, the Corps of Engineers proposed drive into Northern Canada would not “drive” easily. But the ‘very highest authority’ had ordered the Corps to build a highway to Alaska and do it immediately, and the Corps leaped into action. The Corps existed to build things fast under difficult circumstances. They could drive the juggernaut. …
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 …
The Land of the Midnight Sun
The Land of the Midnight Sun could offer a traveler the spectacle of a golden lavender sunset in the west and a rising moon, dusted with the same hue in the east. Oversized and spectacular, the land dwarfed every living thing in it—mosquitoes, moose, grizzlies and, very occasionally, men. Winters surrounded everything in this country …
Exquisite Pelts brought Outsiders
Exquisite pelts from various native animals attracted, in the 19th century, the first outsiders to the subarctic north. Russian fur traders made their way from Western Siberia across the Bering Sea to Sitka, Alaska and points south along the Alaska Panhandle. Link to another story “A Sailor Named Bering” From the south the North West …