North to AlaskaIn December 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and seemed to be poised for their most audacious attack yet - the invasion of North America via its least populated region, the Far Northwest. No one doubted that this threat was real, certainly not the U.S. military command. In an act of speedy co-operation, unmatched before or since, the governments of Canada and the U.S.A. agreed to the military's request to build a road, post-haste, across the vast wilderness of the North, so that troops and armaments could be moved rapidly from the continent's heartland to its vulnerable edge in Alaska. Ten thousand soldiers under the command of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rushed north to push a pioneer road 1,500 miles long through the forests and mountains and over the muskeg, the permafrost, and the many icy rivers of the Far Northwest. Fast on their heels came an equally large "army" of civilians - eager to do their bit for the war effort and to earn the colossal wages offered - to build a permanent highway in the pioneer road's muddy tracks. Seven and a half months later the highway was ready for war duty, just as the threat that initiated it collapsed. But their effort was not wasted. The Alaska Highway gave the towns of Fairbanks, Big Delta, Whitehorse, and Fort St. John road access to the South for the first time, and many smaller communities sprang up along its path to service the truckers and tourists who plied the highway. For immediately after the war, driving the highway became a popular vacation for intrepid tourists. Despite the great improvements to the road that have been made over the years, the highway has lost none of its appeal nor any of the romance that surrounded itsbeginnings. In 1992 the Alaska Highway turns fifty, and Ken Coates has written North to Alaska to commemorate the work of those men and women, soldiers and civilians, who endured the bitter cold, the blackflies, the mud, and the murderous mosquitoes to build the road and defend their homeland. The Alaska Highway remains the world's most remarkable highway - remarkable for the speed in which it was built, its military origins, the binational co-operation it symbolizes, and for the spectacular natural beauty and rich history of the land through which it passes. Today it still offers the unique adventure of a 1,500-mile drive through the mysterious North into the land where men once moiled for gold. |
Contents
Introduction | 9 |
Setting the Stage | 19 |
The Invasion of the North | 39 |
Copyright | |
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North to Alaska: Fifty Years on the World's Most Remarkable Highway Ken S. Coates No preview available - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
adventure Alaska Highway Alberta army's arrived assigned Big Delta British Columbia building built bulldozers Burwash Landing Canadian and American Canadian government civilian workers cold construction contractors Corps of Engineers crews culverts Dawson Creek driving dust early Edmonton employees equipment Fairbanks Fort Nelson Fort St GARBUS Grafe Haines Junction highway project highway to Alaska highway workers Hoge Hugh Devitt hundred isolated John Klondike Kluane Lake Liard major ment mileposts miles military months mountains moved Muncho Lake muskeg NATIONAL ARCHIVES Native Nelson North America Northwest Northwest Staging Route operators particularly paved Peace River pioneer road Prairie Public Roads Administration Public Works Canada quickly reconstruction region signs Skagway snow southern story sub-Arctic summer supplies survey surveyors territorial Teslin tion took tourists town traffic trail travellers trucks U.S. Army UNITED STATES NATIONAL vehicles wartime wash-outs Watson Lake Whitehorse winter women Yukon