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 …
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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 …
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 …
Richardson and His Highway
Richardson, Major Wilds Richardson, came to Alaska in 1906 to replace Abercrombie’s trail with an actual highway. Like Abercrombie Richardson started at the Port of Valdez, upgrading Abercrombie’s trail. But by 1906 the Klondike Gold Rush lay in the past. New gold fields lay close to Fairbanks. That and the city’s central location turned Fairbanks …
Luckily only a Few
Luckily few people had any reason to travel from the Port of Valdez into Alaska’s vast interior. Those who did faced a thoroughly daunting challenge. They faced subarctic weather; and, much worse, they faced range after range of virtually impassable glaciers and mountains. But then came the gold strike on the Klondike. Luckily no longer …
Outsiders Inevitably Came to the Far North
Outsiders inevitably made their way further and further north. Europeans found their way to every part of the world that offered anything of value to them. When Europeans decided they liked clothing made from fur, European traders went north looking for the exquisite pelts of the native animals. Furs attracted the First White Men to …
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Mushroom Ice
Mushroom ice opposed soldiers in British Columbia and Yukon. In Alaska mushroom ice defeated them. During the winter of 1942/43 commanders positioned regiments along the length of the brand new, rough draft of an Alaska Highway to keep it open for truck convoys from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. More on Subarctic Ice Against daunting …
Rugged, Remote and Austere
The Only Possible Route Rugged, remote, austere, breathtakingly beautiful and viciously inhospitable, the area spanned by the route of the Alcan Highway is unique in the world. Nature is a dictator, not a ‘mother’ in the North Country. The Highway threads through a vast expanse of raw nature with virtually no population. Alaska, alone, encompasses …
The Only Possible Route
How on earth did they find the only possible route? Canada Used the Route Before the Corps Drive the Alaska Highway, look left or right virtually anywhere along it. You look down steep mountainsides, you look up steep mountainsides, you look out across trackless swamps, you look out into hundreds, maybe thousands, of miles of …
Line on the Map
The line on the map that the Corps of Engineers would turn into the rough draft of the Alaska Highway in 1942, started at Dawson Creek, British Columbia and ended at Delta, Alaska. The Corps had no idea what lay in front of them. The land of the Midnight Sun could offer a traveler …