Glacier route? Not really. When, in 1898, men and women headed for the Yukon came to the Valdez Glacier they came in ignorance. Some left it a lot more educated. Some never left it at all. Valdez in Later History You hear that gold in some place called the Klondike is making men filthy rich. …
Tag Archives: Yukon
Down the Yukon but Up the Teslin
Down the Yukon River but up the Teslin, steamboats like the SS Nisutlin carried the soldiers and equipment of the 340th Engineers to their starting point at Teslin and Morley Bay deep in the interior of Yukon Territory. General Hoge had ordered the 340th to build highway from there through into the mountains of British …
Heavy Equipment Breaks
For the 93rd Engineers in Yukon in June the motor pool’s first frantic mission, getting heavy equipment through and out to the road, rapidly morphed into an equally frantic ongoing mission—supporting the line companies in maintaining and fixing it once they got it. With heavy equipment, especially the big Caterpillar bulldozers, finally in hand, the …
The 18th, Pride of the Alcan Project
The 18th Combat Engineers, a crack outfit, came early to the Alaska Highway project. They came up the Inland Passage to Skagway, boarded the WP&YR and invaded Whitehorse in April. Their heavy equipment came up from Skagway in May. The only bright spot in General Hoge’s firmament, the 18th immediately headed north out of Whitehorse, …
Heroine of the Klondike–Martha Black
Heroine? The subarctic north had several, but Martha Black stood out even among them. News of Gold on the Klondike reached the ears of Martha Purdy in 1898. Privileged daughter of a Chicago businessman, mother of two, Martha talked her husband, Will, into following their star to Dawson City. Martha the heroine had not married …
Tech 5 Hargoves
Tech 5 Hargoves had no idea, but events in Washington would change his life profoundly. In early 1942, in the near panic that followed Pearl Harbor, FDR and the War Department ordered the Corps of Engineers to create a land route to Alaska—yesterday! At Camp Livingston, Louisiana Tech 5 Hargroves and the other men of …
Carcross Met the Black Soldiers
Carcross had seen trainloads of soldiers pass through and on to Whitehorse. Now, to little Millie Jones’ delight, the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineering Regiment stopped and climbed down in Carcross. Lt. Price’s platoon came first, brought up the Regimental Chaplain, Lt. Finis Hugo Austin, and set up a post office. Millie Jones and Carcross …
Grievous Error–Mine
Grievous errors, I commit them all too often. Here’s my latest. I’ve told you stories about Carcross Yukon many times, it’s a fascinating place. But until now I’ve completely ignored the town’s most famous and important citizen–Polly the Foul Mouthed Parrot. I apologize, and I am here tonight to correct that error or at least …
Highballing It At 60 Below
Highballing it at 60 below headlined an article in the November 27, 1943 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Captain Richard L. Neuberger who wrote it had watched the 770th Railway Operating Battalion struggle to shove enough men and freight up and over White Pass to build Alaska Highway through Yukon. In truth they didn’t …