People who learned we were headed north to Dawson Creek, quickly advised we not miss the wooden statues in Chetwynd, BC (population 2,503) about an hour west of Dawson. Not having a clue as to what they meant exactly, we responded with an uncertain “uh-okay.” From the moment we entered town, the statutes lined the roadway. There were so many it was difficult to capture them in pictures without stopping. Here are some examples, but after seeing so many, I just had to research the back story.
Chetwynd established the Rendezvous ’92 Committee to help the community determine how to celebrate the 50th anniversary of completing the Alaskan Highway. The committee commissioned master carver Terry McKinnon to create three chain-sawed wood bear sculptures, which were added to the town’s massive wooden welcome sign. But this was just the beginning. The city then hosted its 1st Annual Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Championship in 2005. By 2008, the Chetwynd championship was picked up as a qualifier event for the 4th Annual ECHO (power tool manufacturer in Northbrook, IL) Chainsaw Series and Championship held at Albuquerque’s Inernational Balloon Festival. Chetwynd now conducts its own International Chainsaw Carving Championship Invitational annually during the 2nd week in June. I didn’t count them, but the city claims to have over 120 carvings in various locations. We probably saw between 30 to 40 as we drove through town.
We stopped for 3 nights at the Northern Lights RV Park & Cabins in Dawson Creek (population 12,978). The city’s chief claim to fame is that the famous Alaskan Highway officially begins here. Unfortunately, this is also where I claim a lot of confusion also begins; confusion over the correct name of the route, confusion over where it ends, and confusion over its actual length. I say this because the route is also referred to as the Alaskan International Highway, the Alaska Military Highway, Alaska Highway, and the ALCAN (Alaska-Canada) Highway. Depending on the historic time period, the route originally terminated at Big Delta, AK (today called Delta Junction); however, after it was subsequently extended as part of the Richardson Highway, its terminus is now considered to be Fairbanks, AK. Finally, depending on your cited reference, time period, and terminal city; the stated length varies. To make the confusion worse, the route is inconsistently measured and marked in either kilometers or miles, sometimes both. Luckily, we weren’t anal enough to let the confusion bother us much.
If you sensed I’m about to impart another history lesson, then your instincts are excellent. Thomas McDonald, Director of U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, first proposed an international highway across the U.S. and Canada in 1920, but nothing came of his idea at that time. In 1929, the government of British Columbia proposed a highway to Alaska to encourage economic development and tourism; however, with only several thousand residents in The Yukon, the proposal was seen as having a low return on investment and dropped. But then, President Hoover appointed a board of three Canadians and one American to further flesh out the idea. The Board’s 1931 report concluded that not only was the proposal of economic value, but it would benefit Alaska’s military presence. In 1933, another U.S. commissioned Board proposed the we commit $1 million toward the highway’s capital cost, while the governments of Canadian and British Columbian cover the remaining $12 million. Not surprisingly, the project went no where, because the Canadian government still lacked interest, and the U.S. was forced to deal with the Great Depression.
In 1933, Clyde Charles “Slim” Williams; a hunter, fur trader, adventurer, and ardent proponent of an Alaskan highway; took a dogsled, traveled south during the winter along one proposed route, and demonstrated the viability of a future highway. He made a second summer trip south via motorcycle along the proposed route in 1939. Since most of the proposed highway would run through Canada, support by the Canadian government was known to be paramount, and “Slim” again proved it could be done. After his second trip, he met with President Roosevelt and legislators and was known to have discussed Alaskan issues and concerns. It is unknown whether his treks south from Alaska or his U.S. government discussions mpacted subsequent highway decisions, but he’s credited certainly with keeping consideration alive.
Our government approached Canada about the highway proposal again in early 1936, but Canada refused to commit any funding for a road connecting Alaska with the contiguous United States. Later that year, President Roosevelt addressed with Canadian Prime Minister W.L.M. King the military importance of a shared highway which allowed reinforcement of Alaskan’s military should a foreign crisis occur. When Prime Minitster King visited Washington in early 1937, President Roosevelt continued his initial discussion, suggested that a $30 million highway would strongly support a larger defense against Japan and hoped Canada would provide a stronger military presence along their shared Pacific coast. Privately, President Roosevelt believed in the highway, and in August 1937, he told his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, that he wanted the highway built as soon as possible.
Of course, national priorities changed significantly after Pearl Harbor. Two months after the bombing, Roosevelt and Congress approved construction of the Alaskan Highway and authorized funding, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was instructed to proceed on February 11, 1942. Canada agreed to permit construction through British Columbia and The Yukon, but stipulated the U.S. be fully responsible for all costs, and we turn over the highway with associated facilities built on Canadian land to Canadian authority upon completion of the project. The U.S. agreed to these stipulations.
While it took 22 years for the idea of a highway to finally become a reality, the Corps was tasked with completing 1,500 miles of pioneer roadway in only 9 months. The description of what it took to construct the highway simply can’t be adequately captured here. Therefore, I recommend interested readers Google “Construction of the Alaskan Highway” and watch referenced videos. We’ve watched these and others, which not only covered the facts but personalized this monumental effort with period film footage and interviews.
The government quickly mobilized 10,000 soldiers; 8,000 contract civilian workers; 250,000 tons of material and supplies; 11,107 pieces of construction and support vehicles; and building began in March 1942. The soldiers belonged to seven regiments, which were divided amongst three locations. Three regiments began at Dawson Creek and worked north, one began at Delta Junction and worked south, and the remaining regiments worked out from the middle at Lake Teslin, with one regiment going west and north and two going east and south. Support for the Dawson Creek regiments came via Canadian rail, support for the Delta Junction regiment came via ship into Anchorage then overland, and support for the Lake Teslin regiments came via ships into Skagway, AK then north via The White Pass and Yukon Railway. (We subsequently travelled all of these routes during our trek this year).
The route chosen for the highway connected a number of Canadian airfields with the U.S.’s at Fort Ladd (Fort Wainwright today) in Fairbanks. With endpoints roughly known, the Army Corps established four work groups to complete the job. First, field surveyors did the best they could in laying out the construction path, often just climbing trees to set and maintain the appropriate compass heading. Second, three larger bulldozers knocked down trees for a 60′ to 90′ wide roadway. To keep the crews moving, temporary pontoon and wooden bridges were built to cross the many creeks, streams, and rivers encountered. Third, smaller bulldozers cleared away the remaining muck and debris. Last, a fleet of graders, loaders, scrapers, shovels, and dump trucks cut and filled the roadbed where needed, graded it for drainage, installed culverts and more permanent bridges, and finally applied a gravel surface. Seemed like an efficient, workable plan, right? Hardly!
Execution of the plan was negatively impacted by a number of unforeseen problems. None of the engineers had any experience with constructing a highway in arctic conditions, and few of the soldiers had experience driving heavy construction equipment. The subsequent learning curve caused early delays. Working in winter weather, while never easy, brought temperatures as low as -75 degrees F. In those conditions, vehicle engines were left running to prevent the oil from freezing, and some unprepared soldiers froze to death. With warmer weather came an insect invasion of flies, mosquitos, and the dreaded no-see-ums; and soldiers had to work netted to stay unbitten. Muskeg (a soggy, saturated wetland soil, which could actually devour vehicles) also resulted from higher temperatures and slowed construction crews. Under these circumstances, the roadway either had to be diverted around the unstable quagmire or covered with a corduroy road. A corduroy roads were built by chopping down trees, lining them up across the roadbed, and covering them with dirt and gravel. Obviously, these solutions were much more labor intensive and impeded progress. Finally, crews further north encountered permafrost, which thawed when exposed and also required a corduroy road to act as an insulation layer to keep the permafrost frozen. The impact of these problems jeopardized completion of the road as scheduled. So… the contracted civilian workers, who were contracted to make immediate improvements to the “pioneer road,” were pulled from that task and redirected to helping the Army meet their deadline.
Beating nearly insurmountable odds, the pioneer road was completed on October 29, 1942. But it was only suitable for the heartiest of 4X4 and 6X6 trucks. Despite decades of improvements, the Alaskan Highway maintained a bad reputation for being a brutally rough highway until the entire length was eventually paved in 1964. However, from then through today, sections still require annual repairs of damage caused by seismic shifts, thawing sub-base, ice heaves, and the constant beating of heavy truck traffic. We experienced all of these damage conditions during our drive, and my pictures don’t adequately illustrate them. Fortunately, maintenance districts posted reasonably good warnings, but by the time we reached Fairbanks, our patience for enduring repeated rough roads had worn thin.
The original pioneer road was completed at a cost of about $15 million, while the cost of the subsequent contracted civilian improvements increased the total expense to approximately $130 million. Interestingly, much of the construction equipment was left along the entire route. At nearly every stop we made, we saw the seemingly wasteful 70+ year old remnants of abandoned vehicles.
The Alaskan Highway, as bad as we thought it was at the time, was but a foreshadowing of worse things to come once we decided later in the summer to travel to the Actic Circle and Arctic Ocean.
