Dumb going up there, the soldiers of the 35th learned. Master Sergeant King of the Motor Pool carried an old 45 to British Columbia; kept it in a holster at his side. With his 45 King could fix anything. At Dawson Creek a civilian warned King about muskeg. Chester laughed. “And old King, he… padded …
Tag Archives: Stories from History
Enlisted Soldiers like Chester
Enlisted soldiers like Chester fought the mud, mountains, cold and mosquitoes; did the actual work of building the Alaska Highway in 1942. The stories that pour from Chester Russell’s memory tell us what it felt like to actually do the epic job. The Most Colorful Soldier Speaking of Chester Russel In the last episode, Chester …
Pvt Russel and His Fellow Soldiers Didn’t Come Alone in March
Pvt Russel and the other soldiers of the 35th didn’t come alone to the Southern Sector in early March. Private Russel at Ft. Nelson On March 8, Captain Alfred M. Eschbach’s Company A of the 648th Topographic Engineers fell out into an overcast spring morning at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana—to be issued arctic uniforms. That night …
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December 25, 1942
December 25, 1942 found the black soldiers and the white officers of the 93rd Engineers deep in Yukon. In our book, We Fought the Road, we shared two memories from that day. For December 25, 2019 my Christmas present to all of you is to share those memories here. Another Holiday Story from Lt. Timberlake …
Women Came to the Klondike Too
Jack London Found a Different Kind of Klondike Gold Women as well as men heard the news of gold in the Klondike. If men endured hell to get there, women did too. With husbands or without them, miners or miner miners, women came north in droves. Some came out of desperation, hoping for money …
Jack London Found a Different Kind of Klondike Gold
Jack London found a different kind of gold in the Klondike. Leaving frustrated poverty behind in Oakland, California, he sailed north with a partner in 1897 to look for the traditional kind. At Port Townsend, Washington, they changed ships and sailed on to Juneau, Alaska. In Juneau, stories about the incredibly difficult and dangerous path …
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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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Spiritual Guidance on the Alaska Highway
Spiritual guidance, Chaplain Brown’s specialty; difficult to deliver on the Alcan. Thousands of the Chaplain’s “parishioners” scattered along the length of the Highway, scattered over a lot of the most difficult miles on the planet. And they brought every kind of spiritual need to the Chaplain. His routine included marriage requests/investigations, problems, complaints, morale, hardship …
Emma Did it Her Way
Emma Kelly lived in Topeka, wrote for a Chicago newspaper, thirsted, as they say, for adventure. In 1897 word came south from the Klondike that men had struck gold, and young Emma decided to head north to Dawson City. She arranged financing, acquired a list of newspapers that would print stories she sent back, and …
Twenty-something Mary, the Legend Continues
Twenty-something Mary moved to Alaska and never looked back. That doesn’t mean everything went smoothly. Legendary Alaskan, Mary Hanson In the early 1930’s Mary got pregnant; had a miscarriage; took herself to Nenana for medical treatment. Not by any means the Mayo clinic, whatever medical facilities Nenana had to offer did the trick. Twenty-something Mary …
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