The last obstacle, the Tanana River. The soldiers of the 97th had to build access road to it and cross it before they could turn south and finally start building Alaska Highway. At the beginning of August 1942, a new commander launched a fired-up regiment into the Tanana valley with sixty miles to go to get to the last obstacle.
Just twenty days later, the survey party that worked ahead of them, staking the path of the access road, reached the designated crossing point at the junction of the Tok and Tanana Rivers. They crossed the Tanana, turned right, and started staking, not access road, but Alaska Highway.
Link to another story “Tanana River Starting Line”
The lead Company working behind them, Company A, reached the Tok Tanana junction just a few days later. But they had a problem. Pontoon boats and bridging material, ordered well in advance, had come to Skagway instead of Valdez, wound up in Whitehorse way down in Yukon. Re-routed, the equipment headed up the Gulf of Alaska, but company commanders in Colonel Robinson’s regiment knew not to wait around for someone else to solve a problem.
A local civilian’s sternwheel steamboat, travelling from Fairbanks to trade with the Tanacross, Tetlin and Northway First Nations, happened down the river. Captain McMeekin, A Company commander, hailed the steamer, struck a bargain with its owner/captain. The old steamer ferried Company A and at least some of its equipment across. And the soldiers of Company A turned to follow the surveyors toward Canada—building Alaska Highway.
Three more companies, including Captain Parsons’ Company F, arrived at the river right behind Company A. At the end of the month, when he had time to write a letter, Parsons brought his wife Abbie up to date. “The Tanana River has given us some trouble since it’s too wide for our pontoon bridge. We have had to build a ferry.”
A company of the 73rd Pontoon Engineers had made it to the River. The soldiers of the 73rd assembled the pontoons into a ferry, powered it with four outboard motors. On August 31, the soldiers of five companies had crossed the river and turned toward Canada.
The last obstacle was no longer an obstacle.
Sounds like alot of Yankee ingenuity and Alaska “can do” involved there. Very interesting read.
I would agree. That’s exactly what was involved.