North to Alaska!  A Personal Perspective of Building the Alaska Highway

Introduction

A reunion of surviving members from the 341st Regiment of the US Army Corps of Engineers in June 2003 provided an opportunity to gather new human interest stories from some of the men and their families, who worked on building the Alaska Highway. The focus of North to Alaska! A Personal Perspective of Building the Alaska Highway, was to gather some of those stories and others as part of a larger project being undertaken in Dawson Creek, called, Alaska Highway House.

Alaska Highway House will be a Genealogical Research Station that will connect the public to an interpretive and informative history of the world famous Alaska Highway . At the thematic center of the Alaska Highway House there will be opportunity to research the personnel involved in the building the Alaska Highway. The centre will eventually become the archival centre for artifacts and living history of the Alaska Highway and provide local residents, students, academics, educators and visitors with the opportunity to conduct research or track their ancestors footsteps via Interactive web based kiosk(s) and database that will link with updated archival and historic information on the 10,000 + personnel involved in the 1942 building of the highway.

This project, North to Alaska! A Personal Perspective of Building the Alaska Highway assembles the personal and human history of some of the men and women who were involved in the Alaska Highway 's construction. It serves as an almanac of their stories and pictures, all of which will be also used within the Alaska Highway House.

History

During World War II, the Alaska Highway was built to create an overland link between the state of Alaska and the Lower 48 states. It was deemed necessary in order to defend the west coast of North America from the growing Japanese threat in the Pacific Ocean. The building of the Alaska Highway took eight (8) months and 9 days – an incredible feat!

It was agreed that the road would be built through more than 1500 miles of wilderness. Mile 0 of the highway would be Dawson Creek, British Columbia as this was the terminus of the Northern Alberta Railway system. The route would continue north, extend through the Yukon Territory to Delta Junction, Alaska and connect with the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks, Alaska.

Surveyors, cat skinners, engineers and army construction corps came from all corners of the United States. These people forever altered the landscape of the Peace River/Northern Rockies region and they left an enormous mark on Northern British Columbia’s history.

Project Objective

The objective of this project was to interview, film and document personal stories and history of the men and women who built the Alaska Highway, and to save their history for perpetuity. In a visual format, the human-interest stories of men of the 341st and 35th Regiment of the US Army Corps of Engineers will be recorded. This will facilitate in the education of local citizens and visitors in a digital visual manner. The project will also enhance further research for the collection of more names and other stories of the human history which will be added to Alaska Highway House displays.

Project Deliverables

The deliverables include a video/DVD of the interviews and stories of the men in the two regiments mentioned above. These interviews are the basis of the display, the web-based database and other aspects of the larger project. As part of the deliverables, Living Landscapes received a hard copy of each interview, a ‘word’ formatted copy of each interview, a VHS copy and a Digital/DVD copy of each interview. (Access to copies should be arranged through Tourism Dawson Creek).

Throughout this project, Tourism Dawson Creek has interviewed the following people:

This Living Landscapes project was originally only going to interview members of the 341st Company. As it turned out, we took advantage of other opportunities that arose, to gather additional stories. If it was not for the Royal British Columbia Museum’s Living Landscapes Program, Tourism Dawson Creek would not have been able to record the oral histories of the men and women who contributed to building the Alaska Highway.

Project Summary

It has been an interesting experience recording the stories of the above mentioned men and woman. It was particularly interesting to have such a diversity in the group interviewed. Tourism Dawson Creek was expecting to interview several men that did the same job, this was not the case at all. Each interviewer had a different job and a different story to tell. The men consisted of an officer, a cook, a catskinner, a clerk, and civilian guides. The stories of the widow and the children were just as interesting. These stories have been shared with the years and are being passed down to other generations. Everyone interviewed recounted similar experiences but all had specific stories about their time building the Alaska Highway. This project was a learning experience and Tourism Dawson Creek and we look forward to further opportunities to interview the men or women who built the Alaska Highway. If it was not for the assistance of the Living Landscapes program through the Royal BC Museum it would be uncertain if Tourism Dawson Creek or anyone would have been able to record these oral histories.

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