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May 18th ,Wednesday 7456 starting mileage. Party cloudy so, partly sunny. 60 degrees
I thought I would take some time to give a short history lesson. We are currently traveling up the Alaskan Highway completely built in 1942 by American troops in 8 months and 12 days from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks , Alaska . Working from both ends, the troops averaged 6 miles of completed road a day. When built, it was strictly a military highway with checkpoints all along the way. It wasn’t opened to the public until 1948.
Mileposts were set every mile along the way so that there was some way of knowing where you were along the road as it was built through absolute wilderness. For example, Dawson Creek had a population of 600 people and Fort Nelson was 200 Indians and a few white trappers. To give you an idea of the impact of the building of this road, Dawson Creek had 10’s of thousands of troops and 600 carloads of supplies arrive by rail in a 5 week period of
time. By May of 1942, 4720 carloads of equipment and supplies had arrived to support the construction. Communities and business addresses along the way were often named by the milepost.
Continuation of Tuesday the 17th
We left town about 5:00 pm and headed for Fort Saint John were we knew there would be a Wal-mart to camp at. Stopped at a couple of historical markers along the highway and then turned off the new road to travel a section of the old road and to drive across the 534 foot, 9 degree curved wooden bridge suspended 100 feet over the Kiskatinaw River. This is the only timbered bridge still being used today.
Rejoined the new road which was built to bypass the wooden bridge since trucks exceed the weight limit of the wooden bridge. Continued through farm and timber country to Fort Saint John and settled down for dinner and sleep at Wal-mart after getting our prescriptions filled.
On the morning of May 18th , we drove from the Wal-mart parking lot to the information center and sat there with their wifi to check on the e-mail and update our blog. Our first stop was Charlie Lake
where there is a historical marker to the memory of 12 American soldiers who drown when their pontoon boat collapsed in choppy water. A trapper was able to save 5 in his rowboat. The lake is still partly frozen and here it is mid-May. Valerie was able to capture a picture of a pair of ducks on the water.
Stopped at rest stop at mile 79.1 and had lunch. Drove on to Blueberry Checkpoint which was turned over to the RMCP in 1946. At this check point, to continue on North, you had to have a sleeping bag, tools and spare parts, extra fuel, food, chains, and $200 in cash. That amount of cash today would get you two tanks of gas! There were no grocery stores at this location back then, so orders were taken and sent to Dawson Creek every ten days---they called the town Wonowon
There was a steep drop down to the Chief Sikanni River Bridge. This is typical of this stretch of road---deep drops into the river canyon and then steep climbs back up. The grades go from 6-10 degrees. Can you imagine doing that in a WWII Army truck?
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