Rika Wallen and people like her couldn’t keep motorized vehicles and airplanes from killing off most of the roadhouses along the Richardson Highway. They could, though, save a single roadhouse by improving it and knowing how to run it. Big Delta where travelers ferried across the Tanana River on their way to Fairbanks hosted two …
Tag Archives: Stories from History
Murder on the Yukon
Murder? The last thing on the minds of Fred Clayson, Lynn Relfe, and Lawrence Olson as they spent Christmas morning walking down the bank of the Yukon. A couple of hours later and a few kilometers away, their nude corpses floated under the Yukon ice. Information included came from Michael Gates’ book The link will …
Sometimes Funny
Sometimes funny, the exploits of bush pilot Les Cook on the Alaska Highway Project make great stories. Most stories portray Les as a hero. Cook flew when no one else could or would. He and his plane saved lives. Cook’s plane brought food, mail, emergency equipment and doctors to places no other mode of transportation …
Alaska Nellie
Alaska Nellie took everything by storm. Born Nellie Trosper, she learned to take the woods that way on a farm near St. Joseph Missouri. She trapped and, a terrific shot, she hunted. In her spare time she helped her parents raise 11 younger siblings. As soon as her parents could spare her, though, Nellie headed …
Ada Blackjack—The Toughest Woman You’ve Never Heard About
Ada Blackjack travelled with four inexperienced young men on an ill-advised expedition to Wrangell Island in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. Stuck there for two years, the four young men died, leaving Ada to survive on her own. Link to another story “Badass Women” Ada, born Ada Deletuk, hailed from Spruce Creek just a …
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The Fairbanks Freight
The Fairbanks Freight would, if senior officers had anything to say about it, make scheduled runs north to Fairbanks from the Dawson Creek railhead through the winter of 1942/43. Convoys making their way over the brand new road that winter traversed a very rough draft of a Highway. Link to another story, “Awards, Celebrations and …
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 …
Stuff, Mountains of Stuff
Stuff, simple stuff but mountains of it, caused enormous problems for Alaska Highway builders in 1942. Swarming over the mountains and through the woods carving out the Highway, thousands of soldiers consumed mountains of rations. And thousands of soldiers needed underwear, boots, coats, sleeping bags, and toilet paper and an untold number of other things …
Castner’s Cutthroats
Castner’s Cutthroats, a platoon of unique soldiers commanded by Colonel Lawrence V. Castner, launched into subarctic history shortly after the Japanese occupied Kiska and Attu in June 1942. Relentless cold, impenetrable fog and endless hurricane force winds called “williwaws” threatened the Japanese survival on their two captured islands far more than the Americans. The Americans, …
Most Horrific
Most horrific event in recorded history, World War II has no real competition for that title. But horrific events challenge those who face them and epic challenge inspires epic response. The construction of the Alaska Highway offers a perfect example. The words, “World War II”, familiar, prosaic, have long since lost the power to convey …