My Wife and I drove out of Alaska from Anchorage in 1964 in my 1956 Chevy. The pavement ended at the Canadian border. The milepost booklet guided us. I carried 4 extra new tires, two jerry cans of extra gas, oil and lots of tools. It washboard gravel road from that Alaska / Canadian boarder for over a thousand miles until we reached Fort St John which was 70 miles north of Dawson Creek. After almost two weeks when we hit pavement. I turned 21 years on tha Alaska Highway. Some days I drove 18 hours just to travel 200+ miles. We did not get to use a motel until Mile zero at Dawson Creek. From there we traveled the Transcanadian Highway past Toronto and across The Nigra Falls area back the USA. In all we drove 7,000 miles to south Florida I hardly understood how they made the Alaska Highway in about 8 months. I still have that milepost logbook It was an adventure.
Wow that was an amazing story. The fact you did that I don’t think you realize is probably one of the coolest things I’ve heard. In a 1956 Chevy??? I don’t think you could get any cooler sir god bless you and I wish you very many more years. Hell if I could buy that log book if your kids didn’t want it or something I would totally love to own that and put in a case to display and look at sometimes in my mechanic shop.
Every time I see a relatively simple road construction project that seems to take forever I think of these men and what they accomplished in so little time.
With modern heavy equipment roads could be built much faster today but Government regulations and environmental wackos cause endless delays and excessive costs.
We did it in 1956 when I was a kid. It was all gravel road then. My Dad was Corp Of Eng. ( SCARWAF) My earliest memories are of the ALCAN. My story was even stranger. We had been stationed in N. Calf. building Beal AFB when Marysville and Yuba City were wiped out by the Christmas flood of the Feather River. SO they sent us to Elmandorf for Dad to work on the DEW line. We left N. Ca. and drove to our home in Atlanta, Ga. We then turned around and drove from Atlanta to Anchorage. On the ALCAN you stopped at every (few) gas station even if they were closed and you had to sleep in your car all night. SOmething the viewers might not notice. All the tractors and backhoe, etc. are worked with cable, not hydraulics back then.
Best part is parking for the night and not seeing one person or car all night. Makes you feel alone like the first settlers. Peace and quiet like nowhere else. And the feeling that if something goes wrong you are screwed. Liberty at its finest. Love it!!!!
@@jblob5764 Like you, I thought about doing this trip for years (actually decades) and finally pulled the trigger. My wife & I rode bicycles up to Fairbanks to get married, back in the 80s and again in the early 90s. On that second trip, I gave serious consideration to getting a dual sport and doing it that way. Just bought the bike last Oct and am dreaming once again (if the COVID restrictions ever lift)! Do it before too many years pass. It's a wonderful experience even with the more modern roadway of today.
My grandfather helped build the Alaskan Highway. The construction company he, his brother, and another gentleman owned were contracted.. I have a great photo album my grandfather put together.
I just came across this video. My grandfather was a road contractor in Alberta Canada and helped build the highway as well. It was a joint effort between Canada and the US, and not just army but private contractors.
My mothers first husband before he was killed owned his own construction outfit and worked on this road as well she used to have pictures of it all but there long gone now
That album is of great historical as well as sentimental and familial value, be sure to store the original in a secure place, like a bank vault along with any notes as to times, places and personalities pictured in the album. Make several copies of everything and see about even getting a condensed and/or edited version published. As the narrator said in the film, this was one of the great engineering and construction feats of the century and every effort should be made to preserve the record of it's completion and the people involved. Hats off to your grandfather for his bravery and hard work.
My Grandfather was one of the men who worked on this road. My father tells me that my grandfather, left his wife and 4 children in Oklahoma to go work on this project for 2 years. Those were real men who knew how to get the job done, think about what America could be if we all had a similar mindset. Rest in Peace Pops.
All I can add to this is my grandpas dad had worked on building Oklahoma first paved roads and highway . That’s all I can add. Very cool. Men were much stronger and definitely smarter back then
My parents met and married in Nome in 1946. She had traveled there by air to take a job teaching math. When she arrived they begged her to take the music opening. They had a young man just out the army who they wanted. That guy had a Masters in Mathematics. He’d proficiencied the whole of undergraduate education and was 23. He went on to author 35 math texts and was the Father of New Math. That was my dad. Mom outlived him by 49 years.
My grandfather on my mother’s side was always old to me. If you asked him what his father did, as an occupation, he would say, “My father was a gentleman.” That’s code for he was a slave owner.
I live in a Alaska and have driven the Alcan just recently...it’s an awesome feeling to be driving such a remote highway...Pink Mountain, Muncho Lake, Kluane National Park are all gorgeous
Excellent review of history. There are many older paths cut by this effort that today sit just off main roads as the bridges they led to have been replaced... some more than once. The 21st century explorer needs to go to the Library of Congress (in person or on-line) and obtain original maps in order to do an overlay, so to speak, to then be able to locate and identify these locales. I hope this story is never forgotten.
Yes , the Alaska Highway was been improved and realigned almost continously pretty much since the beginning . There are other roads in Alaska and Yukon Territory that are substantially similar to late 1940's era Alcan .
That is true of many highways as they make them straighter for higher speed traffic. We have lots of little side loops leaving and returning to our highways, often named "Old Route 9 Rd" or the equivalent. It they are just grown over abandoned grades, it it my hobby to find them . I suspect the Alaska highway has been improved in several stages, so those aren't necessarily the original pioneer route, but it would be nice to meet them anyway. The original grade was carefully charted though, so I don't think we are likely to forget where they are entirely.
My gypsy friend hitch hiked the Al-Can in the 80's. He got picked up by a trucker who asked him where his rifle was, my friend didn't have one. The trucker pulled out a revolver and handed it to him, telling him it was better than nothing, and how foolish he was when Bears or Wolves could rip him to shreds. When my friend got out of the truck he was told to drop the gun off at some store in the town he was headed to and trucker would pick it up on his return trip. Thanks to that trucker's advice, he ended up buying a 30-30 lever action at that same store, and was glad to have it when something was circling his camp one night...
WE traveled that road in a panel truck from PA to VALDEZ in summer 1952 and returned the same way in the summer 1955. TOOK 2 weeks each way AND camping in a tent at nights.
I drove the full length of it in the summer of 1973. At that time it was still just two lane gravel road. No safety rails and still steep hills and deep valleys. I've heard it's been updated since then.
Always is, southern half isn’t bad but the northern half is still pre rough, although nothing compared to how it probably was since you came though 😂😂😂
I would have loved to have been one to work on this road, see untouched wilderness, and help make America stronger. I appreciate the exhausting and dangerous work these men did. God bless America 🇺🇸
I supervised realignment/construction of sections of the Alaska highway, we also pioneered 100 miles through mountains & muskeg. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience what is involved & the challenges that come along with hard work & purpose.
With the amount of lies commenters have been caught in here I don't believe that story at all. You can thank all the idiot, F'N wannabes all over YT for that.
This footage is amazing! Back when men were expected to be men, and work hard until the job was done. It's incredible what they were able to accomplish with the machines and tools they had at the time. I'm sure most of these men are gone now, but their legacy will live on.
@@1456Sassy "Back when men were *men*! they didn't need no tools or horses! They cut the logs with stone axes, because that was the hardest way, and that was the way they liked it! And they never drank anything but dirty water, none of this newfangled "filtered" nonsense!" The silly nostalgia that always appears in the comments on videos like this is astounding. You bring up a good point Sassy, and there were probably old timers watching this video in the 40s thinking "men aren't men anymore...they just ride around on tractors letting those do the work for them..." There's no need to constantly be comparing X generation with Y generation and moaning about how things have changed. That's how the world turns, stop whining and complaining about things are different, it just makes you look like a big baby.
@@painfulsilence316 If you pay close attention...it is always men who are not "up to par" with "insert random bygone social phenomena" here. Can they just let these young men live peacefully...like their "elders" toiled and intended them too? What happened to "my kids will have a better future"? The cognitive dissonance is bewildering.
@@agentsmidt3209 Boomers, like the ones who make comments like this, never worked for anything they were gifted by society. Most of them never worked at all, and have little conceptual basis for the term. So they worship the mythical past while they disparage the struggling future, insecure about both their value and contribution, and unwilling to venture into the world like those before them or those after them. They’re both intellectually and socially terminally useless beings and the world is just waiting for their cancerous phase of existence to pass to attempt to clean up with their ignorant and destructive effluence.
Seems like they left a lot out of this. Even side from problems like the masses of mosquitos and blackflies in spring and animals, they don't talk about the surveying of the route, which is often the most difficult and complex part. They make it sound like they just sent a bunch of guys out and they started hacking a trail in the general direction they were trying to go. Somewhere had to go out and find the best route for the entire length first, with the fewest bridges and mildest grade, the fewest fills and cuts, and they have to stake the entire thing out and keep map it. Then the crews come and cut out the road they laid out.
I drove the Alaskan Highway in 92, the 50th anniversary. It was cool, there were parts on the old highway still open.. I have met people that actually drove the highway after the war, telling how they brought extra parts for the car, they would rely on gas in 55 gallon drums at points along the highway set up by the army. They would hunt and fish for there food along the way.. Today driving the Alskan Highway is a breeze, but it is a wonderful experience...
My grandfather worked for AE Jupp , they were roadbuilders out of Toronto . Jupp got a contract to supply skilled cat skinners , shovel operators , truck drivers , etc. Grandpa got a telegram from the boss , telling him to pack a bag and Meet him at Union Station in Toronto . All he said was you'll be gone for a while , they found out where they were headed at the train station. My Grandfather was the mechanic , he could fix and operate everything . He said that if something broke down and it was in the way it would be pushed off the road into the bush or muskeg , there are quite a few pieces of machinery buried deep under the old roadbed.
Anyone on here driving the ALCAN, please stop by and support The Double G at Muncho Lake B.C. Jack and his son Scotty make the best breakfast, homemade bread and the thickest, best bacon I have ever tasted. Legends.
Nov. 23 1989, my wife and I only made bout 90 miles that day. From Fort Nelson to Summit Lake/Summit lodge. Stayed there for 3 days contemplating on leaving our 24 ft. travel trailer there for the winter, we did and came back for it when the roads had thawed. Drove back in June 92. I don't believe the lodge/cafe is there now. I do remember Muncho Lake very well. A trip we will never forget
@@harryblackburn9556 The lodge and café is still there. Truckers are the primary support since the loss of tourism due to Covid. Its a family run buisness determined to survive.
@@mbjasondify That's good to hear, they were good folks, they didn't have kids when we went thru but don't know if it's the same couple or not. We stayed the night in 92 on the way back to the U.S. Good honest folks
We are from Valdez Alaska and my daddy worked on that hwy!! He even has black n white videos and showed just how deep that mud was that they had to trudge through by foot and by heavy equipment!!! They even had to tow some of that heavy equipment through that mud and spent a lot of time getting equipment unstuck!!! Amazing to see!!!
Drove a part of it a few days ago. From Whitehorse, did the Haines section and then to Kluane lake where the soldier's summit is. I thought the soldier's summit was the spot where they finished, but here in the docu the spot seems to be different. Great highway, obviously very different today but the landscape is impressive and it's incredible what they did almost a hundred years ago.
My grandfather's cousin was the first helicopter pilot in the Yukon Territory. He flew engineers up and down the roadway all throughout the process either in the helicopter or float/ski plane.
I'm Prince Rupert-born, on island just below Alaskan Panhandle. US & Canada whipped a road thru (none there prior) very twisty and skinny. We kids called parts of it The Snake
When I was rather young I remember an original wooden culvert being replaced with a steel culvert. This was at the south side of fort St. John. One special remaining landmark is the original Kistkatinaw bridge; a curved wooden bridge
My grandfather was the Canadian military officer who oversaw the construction of the Canadian portion of the Highway. I have a picture of my grandparents with their 4 young children, my dad being the oldest at 6, being the first to walk the first mile.
Was really cool to see the Studebaker U.S. 6 trucks in this. They were instrumental in the AlCan hi-way, the Red Ball Express and in the Lend-Lease program.
When my grandfather was still alive he didn't often talk about the road that was built but the insane amount of garbage, equipment and pollutants left behind and still there today. Success is brutal.
Imagine how cutting roads were before chainsaws, bulldozers and trucks! I knew a man who worked on a road here (hidden in the Ozark Mountains), carving it out on the side of a mountain by hand, back in the late teens and early 20's, before there were chain saws. . They used mules to skid the logs and loaded them on wagons to take to the saw mill. That road is still in use today, only 5 miles has been paved in the last few decades and it's still a treacherous road, steep and curvy.
this is surreal. i grew up in dawson creek, have driven the highway so many times. i know all about it, but have never seen this short film... the footage is really amazing in all honesty. especially knowing what life is like up here
My mother & aunt anchored an office on skids, moved w/woods cleared, for 'nearby' Hart Highway built mid-'40s Prince George north to Dawson Creek BC. Alaska project likely had a similar setup.
Actually, what they built was a ‘pioneer road’. It was meant to be a temporary access road so they could begin on a more permanent road basically running parallel. The pioneer road was supposed to be 12’ wide. It was still a real engineering feat, but you could barely drive a truck on it, especially in summer. I’ve driven the highway maybe 75 times since the mid 70’s.
4:25 of the video says your comment lol "In all, there were seven engineer regiments, or about 10,000 men. Their immediate job was to break through a pioneer road. A road without frills, but a road which could be used to supply the airfield and construct a permanent road later."
@@chuckmiller5763 men were men and woman knew it. I chased cats building powerline from rainbow lake ab to ft Nelson in 1990.know about cold,unstable muskeg and cold weather. Using propane torch,and having to turn torch on propane bottle to keep propane from freezing,is colder than -44
@@carlatamanczyk3891 people these days are too whiney, too wimpy! I worked on a bridge in central Yukon. I did find an old US Army truck in the bush with two tree's growing through it ( it was off the hwy about a 1/4mile). Anyways, people are too wimpy these days!. Too sensitive.
I drove from N. Calif to Anchorage with a buddy back in 1980. I've often wondered what it's like now. We only had 3 flat tires, broken windshield, a sheared distributor outside Prince Rupert, lost a muffler and we drove the entire way in 7 days (16 hrs a day). Adventure of a lifetime for a couple of 20 yr olds !!!
My father and mother lived along the highway in the Early forties well my father drove bus carrying US soldiers north during the war. We have old photos of the buses stuck in the mud and being pushed up the icy hills by the soldiers that were being transported north. My mother and her infant son my older brother lived in a tar paper shack in a small settlement for the wives. Dad a entrepreneur from the start gave every paycheque to Mom and paid his way by smuggling bottles of whiskey to sell in the north, as it was strictly rationed during the war. With the money from the few bottles he sold he would play poker with the soldiers to increase his income. Dad was a great poker player with a razor sharp memory and gift for numbers. He had many stories of the hardships and adventures of driving the Alaska highway and the fun they also had. It all ended quickly when he had a collapsed lung and was evacuated, then called by the draft board for duty.
My dad worked on this In ww 2. He was a Sargent with a light pontoon bridge company. They lived in tents and he talked about it being 40 below. Said they could never shut off the equipment because it was so cold they couldn’t get it started again.
Likewise even today in parts of Canada , and places in US like Montana . Don't turn them off for more than briefly unless inside a heated garage , or plugged into an engine heater .
I worked seismic in BC and northern Alberta well all over Alberta and the prairies Dawson creek tumblers ridge these are brave men to be the first in the wilderness there major toughness indescribable really
It is interesting when I visited Skagway to hike the trail, the historical focus was the gold rush, and no mention of it being a port of concern for the highway.
wow i seen pictures and heard story's from my grandpa about building this highway he was a heavy duty mechanic on the construction this was sure amazing for its time
These guys are who i looked up to as a kid wanting to work hard for my family. Most guys now days couldnt handle this type of work personally owning a tree business guys can barley handle a day or two maybe a week and they cant do it they say!!
There's an old wooden bridge, that has a curve built into it that crosses the kiskatinaw just north of dawson creek, it's not part of the main highway anymore but you can still go on it
Interesting documentary. I found the music a little distracting, but it is an amazing accomplishment to have constructed this highway in the middle of fighting a world war. I hope to drive it in the next year or two.
Hmmmm took them 20 months to build 1500 miles of hwy through mountains, bush, rivers, and don’t forget the -40 winters. Why does it take 12 months to pave and patch up 100 miles of hwy that’s already been built???
And the enherent economics of Bid Specifications . ie Longer time period with fewer workers and equipment vs bigger crews with more equipment working multiple sites simultaneously . Also factors of limiting disruptions of current levels of highway users .
Uncle was the group hunter, said it took 2 caribou or a moose a day to feed all. He talked about the bitter cold winter and how the summer was rough going.
A side note . In the late 1800s the Canadian government took a census of native people in western Canada . There was a band living in the area west of battleford . ( I think I recall they were Assiniboine) . When next the government came out 2 years later that band could not be found , and no one knew where they disappeared to . While the highway was being built they went through a area that had previously uncontacted people , but they were not uncontacted . They were the band who had disappeared. After the government had visited the band in the 1800s the spiritual leader had a dream that the white men were going to cause the death of many native people , and he convinced all the rest to move up to the interior of the Yukon . The next year small pox devastated all of the native people in the prairies
Yeah asshole that's all the whitemann's fault?!?! IF it weren't for US the natives would still be trying to figure out there asshole from their elbows!!!!
I am amazed at what was accomplished with that old equipment. If you put a 25 or 30 year old operator on cable driven heavy equipment they would declare it impossible. If modern tree huggers had a say back then I doubt the highway would be built today with all of the studies that take years to complete.
how shameful of them!! lol in those days there was an administration in DC during war time believed in just DOING IT! they also built oil pipeline from TEXAS to East Coast in under 2yrs. due to need for oil for the war effort.
My Wife and I drove out of Alaska from Anchorage in 1964 in my 1956 Chevy. The pavement ended at the Canadian border. The milepost booklet guided us. I carried 4 extra new tires, two jerry cans of extra gas, oil and lots of tools. It washboard gravel road from that Alaska / Canadian boarder for over a thousand miles until we reached Fort St John which was 70 miles north of Dawson Creek. After almost two weeks
when we hit pavement. I turned 21 years on tha Alaska Highway. Some days I drove 18 hours just to travel 200+ miles.
We did not get to use a motel until Mile zero at Dawson Creek. From there we traveled the Transcanadian Highway past Toronto and across The Nigra Falls area back the USA. In all we drove 7,000 miles to south Florida I hardly understood how they made the Alaska Highway in about 8 months. I still have that milepost logbook It was an adventure.
& a half... thanks for sharing 👍
What a great memory!
Fucking awesome! Thank you sir!
Wow that was an amazing story. The fact you did that I don’t think you realize is probably one of the coolest things I’ve heard. In a 1956 Chevy??? I don’t think you could get any cooler sir god bless you and I wish you very many more years. Hell if I could buy that log book if your kids didn’t want it or something I would totally love to own that and put in a case to display and look at sometimes in my mechanic shop.
Every time I see a relatively simple road construction project that seems to take forever I think of these men and what they accomplished in so little time.
With modern heavy equipment roads could be built much faster today but Government regulations and environmental wackos cause endless delays and excessive costs.
Nothing like a World War and the need to create a road for military access to protect the USA and Canada for motivation.
The Empire State Building was built in NINE MONTHS, without the use of modern technology. It would take nine years today.
It takes forever cuz they're all standing around holding up their shovels. Can't have those shovels falling over! 🙄😏
@@1456Sassy I blame unions
We did it in 1956 when I was a kid. It was all gravel road then. My Dad was Corp Of Eng. ( SCARWAF) My earliest memories are of the ALCAN. My story was even stranger. We had been stationed in N. Calf. building Beal AFB when Marysville and Yuba City were wiped out by the Christmas flood of the Feather River. SO they sent us to Elmandorf for Dad to work on the DEW line. We left N. Ca. and drove to our home in Atlanta, Ga. We then turned around and drove from Atlanta to Anchorage. On the ALCAN you stopped at every (few) gas station even if they were closed and you had to sleep in your car all night. SOmething the viewers might not notice. All the tractors and backhoe, etc. are worked with cable, not hydraulics back then.
Best part is parking for the night and not seeing one person or car all night. Makes you feel alone like the first settlers. Peace and quiet like nowhere else. And the feeling that if something goes wrong you are screwed. Liberty at its finest. Love it!!!!
I have been thinking for years that i need to slap that 6.6 gallon tank on my dualsport dirtbike and go explore alaska
@@jblob5764 do it before you cant do it. Worth it. Ill never go back to the lower 48
@@jblob5764 Like you, I thought about doing this trip for years (actually decades) and finally pulled the trigger. My wife & I rode bicycles up to Fairbanks to get married, back in the 80s and again in the early 90s. On that second trip, I gave serious consideration to getting a dual sport and doing it that way. Just bought the bike last Oct and am dreaming once again (if the COVID restrictions ever lift)! Do it before too many years pass. It's a wonderful experience even with the more modern roadway of today.
Driving this (now modern) highway has been on my bucket list for years! Hoping to get it accomplished sometime in the next few years.
@@johnwyoder dont put it off to long. Enjoy life .
My grandfather helped build the Alaskan Highway. The construction company he, his brother, and another gentleman owned were contracted.. I have a great photo album my grandfather put together.
Post them would love to see them
I just came across this video. My grandfather was a road contractor in Alberta Canada and helped build the highway as well. It was a joint effort between Canada and the US, and not just army but private contractors.
@@pvbarbell1904 As well as my grandfather and his two brothers from Drumheller, AB helped build it. That’s so cool.
My mothers first husband before he was killed owned his own construction outfit and worked on this road as well she used to have pictures of it all but there long gone now
That album is of great historical as well as sentimental and familial value, be sure to store the original in a secure place, like a bank vault along with any notes as to times, places and personalities pictured in the album. Make several copies of everything and see about even getting a condensed and/or edited version published. As the narrator said in the film, this was one of the great engineering and construction feats of the century and every effort should be made to preserve the record of it's completion and the people involved. Hats off to your grandfather for his bravery and hard work.
I worked in logging in the 70's in BC. Amazed me what a D8 could do in a day building road with a skilled operator.
It really is amazing. Industrial machines really changed the whole world.
My Grandfather was one of the men who worked on this road. My father tells me that my grandfather, left his wife and 4 children in Oklahoma to go work on this project for 2 years. Those were real men who knew how to get the job done, think about what America could be if we all had a similar mindset. Rest in Peace Pops.
Good points... thanks for sharing.
All I can add to this is my grandpas dad had worked on building Oklahoma first paved roads and highway . That’s all I can add. Very cool. Men were much stronger and definitely smarter back then
My parents met and married in Nome in 1946. She had traveled there by air to take a job teaching math. When she arrived they begged her to take the music opening. They had a young man just out the army who they wanted. That guy had a Masters in Mathematics. He’d proficiencied the whole of undergraduate education and was 23. He went on to author 35 math texts and was the Father of New Math. That was my dad. Mom outlived him by 49 years.
My grandfather on my mother’s side was always old to me. If you asked him what his father did, as an occupation, he would say, “My father was a gentleman.” That’s code for he was a slave owner.
@@martinphilip8998 What a great story. Thank you.
I live in a Alaska and have driven the Alcan just recently...it’s an awesome feeling to be driving such a remote highway...Pink Mountain, Muncho Lake, Kluane National Park are all gorgeous
Kluane's great. I love the mountain views from Haines Jct especially
1500 miles in 8 months is an extraordinary achievement!
Through a frozen wilderness no less!
In the Yukon we call it just "The highway". For without it, we can't continue to live up here. Amazing video find! Hats off for posting it.
I drive the road regularly and still marvel at the achievement the vast distance and wilderness is unbelievable
My husband and I drove it in 2003. What a adventure it was. Memories I will never forget.
Drove the alcan when I separated from military stationed in anchorage. Unbelievable drive, something I'm very lucky to have experienced
Excellent review of history.
There are many older paths cut by this effort that today sit just off main roads as the bridges they led to have been replaced... some more than once. The 21st century explorer needs to go to the Library of Congress (in person or on-line) and obtain original maps in order to do an overlay, so to speak, to then be able to locate and identify these locales.
I hope this story is never forgotten.
Yes , the Alaska Highway was been improved and realigned almost continously pretty much since the beginning .
There are other roads in Alaska and Yukon Territory that are substantially similar to late 1940's era Alcan .
@@filianablanxart8305 A$a%
That is true of many highways as they make them straighter for higher speed traffic. We have lots of little side loops leaving and returning to our highways, often named "Old Route 9 Rd" or the equivalent. It they are just grown over abandoned grades, it it my hobby to find them . I suspect the Alaska highway has been improved in several stages, so those aren't necessarily the original pioneer route, but it would be nice to meet them anyway. The original grade was carefully charted though, so I don't think we are likely to forget where they are entirely.
yellow ribbon highway
If I hadn’t been towing my 37 foot trailer, I’d of for sure gone down some of the roads marked old or original route.
A really proud testament to military Engineers and the construction teams that built the road and bridges
My gypsy friend hitch hiked the Al-Can in the 80's. He got picked up by a trucker who asked him where his rifle was, my friend didn't have one. The trucker pulled out a revolver and handed it to him, telling him it was better than nothing, and how foolish he was when Bears or Wolves could rip him to shreds. When my friend got out of the truck he was told to drop the gun off at some store in the town he was headed to and trucker would pick it up on his return trip. Thanks to that trucker's advice, he ended up buying a 30-30 lever action at that same store, and was glad to have it when something was circling his camp one night...
WE traveled that road in a panel truck from PA to VALDEZ in summer 1952 and returned the same way in the summer 1955. TOOK 2 weeks each way AND camping in a tent at nights.
I drove the full length of it in the summer of 1973. At that time it was still just two lane gravel road. No safety rails and still steep hills and deep valleys. I've heard it's been updated since then.
Always is, southern half isn’t bad but the northern half is still pre rough, although nothing compared to how it probably was since you came though 😂😂😂
I would have loved to have been one to work on this road, see untouched wilderness, and help make America stronger. I appreciate the exhausting and dangerous work these men did. God bless America 🇺🇸
I supervised realignment/construction of sections of the Alaska highway, we also pioneered 100 miles through mountains & muskeg. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience what is involved & the challenges that come along with hard work & purpose.
With the amount of lies commenters have been caught in here I don't believe that story at all. You can thank all the idiot, F'N wannabes all over YT for that.
86 bridges in 22 months!! Wow an engineering feat
This footage is amazing! Back when men were expected to be men, and work hard until the job was done. It's incredible what they were able to accomplish with the machines and tools they had at the time. I'm sure most of these men are gone now, but their legacy will live on.
It is amazing.
Hard working and glad to have a job.
The same type of men that could fight the Battle of the Bulge.
Imagine how it was building roads before there were chainsaws and bulldozers, trucks, etc. Roads still got cut.
@@1456Sassy "Back when men were *men*! they didn't need no tools or horses! They cut the logs with stone axes, because that was the hardest way, and that was the way they liked it! And they never drank anything but dirty water, none of this newfangled "filtered" nonsense!" The silly nostalgia that always appears in the comments on videos like this is astounding. You bring up a good point Sassy, and there were probably old timers watching this video in the 40s thinking "men aren't men anymore...they just ride around on tractors letting those do the work for them..."
There's no need to constantly be comparing X generation with Y generation and moaning about how things have changed. That's how the world turns, stop whining and complaining about things are different, it just makes you look like a big baby.
@@painfulsilence316 If you pay close attention...it is always men who are not "up to par" with "insert random bygone social phenomena" here. Can they just let these young men live peacefully...like their "elders" toiled and intended them too? What happened to "my kids will have a better future"? The cognitive dissonance is bewildering.
@@agentsmidt3209 Boomers, like the ones who make comments like this, never worked for anything they were gifted by society. Most of them never worked at all, and have little conceptual basis for the term. So they worship the mythical past while they disparage the struggling future, insecure about both their value and contribution, and unwilling to venture into the world like those before them or those after them. They’re both intellectually and socially terminally useless beings and the world is just waiting for their cancerous phase of existence to pass to attempt to clean up with their ignorant and destructive effluence.
Seems like they left a lot out of this. Even side from problems like the masses of mosquitos and blackflies in spring and animals, they don't talk about the surveying of the route, which is often the most difficult and complex part. They make it sound like they just sent a bunch of guys out and they started hacking a trail in the general direction they were trying to go. Somewhere had to go out and find the best route for the entire length first, with the fewest bridges and mildest grade, the fewest fills and cuts, and they have to stake the entire thing out and keep map it. Then the crews come and cut out the road they laid out.
I drove the Alaskan Highway in 92, the 50th anniversary. It was cool, there were parts on the old highway still open..
I have met people that actually drove the highway after the war, telling how they brought extra parts for the car, they would rely on gas in 55 gallon drums at points along the highway set up by the army. They would hunt and fish for there food along the way..
Today driving the Alskan Highway is a breeze, but it is a wonderful experience...
My grandfather worked for AE Jupp , they were roadbuilders out of Toronto . Jupp got a contract to supply skilled cat skinners , shovel operators , truck drivers , etc. Grandpa got a telegram from the boss , telling him to pack a bag and Meet him at Union Station in Toronto . All he said was you'll be gone for a while , they found out where they were headed at the train station. My Grandfather was the mechanic , he could fix and operate everything . He said that if something broke down and it was in the way it would be pushed off the road into the bush or muskeg , there are quite a few pieces of machinery buried deep under the old roadbed.
I drove it in 1979 and 2013 and there was a big difference in the road with many bridges replaced and the highway rerouted in many areas.
I've driven it several times. It's amazing that given the time pressure and distance they made very few mistakes in choosing the best route.
Great observation as even a minor change in weather can rearrange things altogether .
I'm working on The Alaska Hyway right now, rebuilding sections.
Anyone on here driving the ALCAN, please stop by and support The Double G at Muncho Lake B.C. Jack and his son Scotty make the best breakfast, homemade bread and the thickest, best bacon I have ever tasted. Legends.
Nov. 23 1989, my wife and I only made bout 90 miles that day. From Fort Nelson to Summit Lake/Summit lodge. Stayed there for 3 days contemplating on leaving our 24 ft. travel trailer there for the winter, we did and came back for it when the roads had thawed. Drove back in June 92. I don't believe the lodge/cafe is there now. I do remember Muncho Lake very well. A trip we will never forget
@@harryblackburn9556 The lodge and café is still there. Truckers are the primary support since the loss of tourism due to Covid. Its a family run buisness determined to survive.
@@mbjasondify That's good to hear, they were good folks, they didn't have kids when we went thru but don't know if it's the same couple or not. We stayed the night in 92 on the way back to the U.S. Good honest folks
Canadian bacon...?
We are from Valdez Alaska and my daddy worked on that hwy!! He even has black n white videos and showed just how deep that mud was that they had to trudge through by foot and by heavy equipment!!! They even had to tow some of that heavy equipment through that mud and spent a lot of time getting equipment unstuck!!! Amazing to see!!!
The Truck Got Stuck -Corb Lund
czcams.com/video/QCcWzLAcv4o/video.html
Drove a part of it a few days ago. From Whitehorse, did the Haines section and then to Kluane lake where the soldier's summit is. I thought the soldier's summit was the spot where they finished, but here in the docu the spot seems to be different. Great highway, obviously very different today but the landscape is impressive and it's incredible what they did almost a hundred years ago.
Well, it was 77 years ago. It could've changed over that time.
My Grandfather worked on the ALCAN road doing the improvements on the pioneer road.
He was a tough sob
My grandfather's cousin was the first helicopter pilot in the Yukon Territory. He flew engineers up and down the roadway all throughout the process either in the helicopter or float/ski plane.
I'm Prince Rupert-born, on island just below Alaskan Panhandle. US & Canada whipped a road thru (none there prior) very twisty and skinny. We kids called parts of it The Snake
We took the Al-Can from Haines through the Yukon into Tok and down to Anchorage in the late spring of 81. It was amazing!
When I was rather young I remember an original wooden culvert being replaced with a steel culvert. This was at the south side of fort St. John.
One special remaining landmark is the original Kistkatinaw bridge; a curved wooden bridge
My grandfather was the Canadian military officer who oversaw the construction of the Canadian portion of the Highway. I have a picture of my grandparents with their 4 young children, my dad being the oldest at 6, being the first to walk the first mile.
These old films are so beautiful..
Was really cool to see the Studebaker U.S. 6 trucks in this. They were instrumental in the AlCan hi-way, the Red Ball Express and in the Lend-Lease program.
When my grandfather was still alive he didn't often talk about the road that was built but the insane amount of garbage, equipment and pollutants left behind and still there today. Success is brutal.
Yup, they left stuck bulldozers, trucks, oil / gas drums and junk everywhere.
They didn't care about the environment, they had a war to win!
@@Drew-in-NoDak No, they had a war to participate in and help win..................
Imagine how cutting roads were before chainsaws, bulldozers and trucks! I knew a man who worked on a road here (hidden in the Ozark Mountains), carving it out on the side of a mountain by hand, back in the late teens and early 20's, before there were chain saws. . They used mules to skid the logs and loaded them on wagons to take to the saw mill. That road is still in use today, only 5 miles has been paved in the last few decades and it's still a treacherous road, steep and curvy.
this is surreal. i grew up in dawson creek, have driven the highway so many times. i know all about it, but have never seen this short film... the footage is really amazing in all honesty. especially knowing what life is like up here
Awesome video. This is what our kids should be watching in school and learning and not this sissy crap that they are forced to watch..
Yessir
Haha. I Could not of said it any better myself.
Only one gender on the ALCAN buddy
Yeah because building a highway has a lot of educational value. STFU boomer
@@Knox-ec9ur why u mad bruh?
My mother & aunt anchored an office on skids, moved w/woods cleared, for 'nearby' Hart Highway built mid-'40s Prince George north to Dawson Creek BC. Alaska project likely had a similar setup.
My Grandfather was a military engineer during this time.
He would have loved this film. 🍻
A book by the name Trail of `42 is a great pictorial of the build.
Notice not one person wearing skinny jeans! When men were men, and they didn't want a "me time" break!
Didn't have to go outside to be smoke..,wtf
Me time 🤣🤣🤣🤣 never heard that one. I hope you're joking.
@P T men don't wear skinny jeans.
Actually, what they built was a ‘pioneer road’. It was meant to be a temporary access road so they could begin on a more permanent road basically running parallel. The pioneer road was supposed to be 12’ wide. It was still a real engineering feat, but you could barely drive a truck on it, especially in summer. I’ve driven the highway maybe 75 times since the mid 70’s.
4:25 of the video says your comment lol
"In all, there were seven engineer regiments, or about 10,000 men. Their immediate job was to break through a pioneer road. A road without frills, but a road which could be used to supply the airfield and construct a permanent road later."
Yeah it pretty much explains exactly this in the video lmao
Do you know when/ if it was made into an all weather highway?
All of this in the early 40's, and Obozo's administration couldn't even build a web site.
No environmentalists,,men were there to work hard. They forgot mosquitoes that ate you alive in muskeg. Proud to live,work and drive it everyday fsj
Mem were men. Now we spend millions deciding what bathroom to use.
@@chuckmiller5763 men were men and woman knew it. I chased cats building powerline from rainbow lake ab to ft Nelson in 1990.know about cold,unstable muskeg and cold weather. Using propane torch,and having to turn torch on propane bottle to keep propane from freezing,is colder than -44
@@chuckmiller5763 unfortunately true.
@@chuckmiller5763 pretty sad state our society has deteriorated to.
@@carlatamanczyk3891 people these days are too whiney, too wimpy! I worked on a bridge in central Yukon. I did find an old US Army truck in the bush with two tree's growing through it ( it was off the hwy about a 1/4mile). Anyways, people are too wimpy these days!. Too sensitive.
I drove from N. Calif to Anchorage with a buddy back in 1980. I've often wondered what it's like now. We only had 3 flat tires, broken windshield, a sheared distributor outside Prince Rupert, lost a muffler and we drove the entire way in 7 days (16 hrs a day). Adventure of a lifetime for a couple of 20 yr olds !!!
My father and mother lived along the highway in the Early forties well my father drove bus carrying US soldiers north during the war. We have old photos of the buses stuck in the mud and being pushed up the icy hills by the soldiers that were being transported north. My mother and her infant son my older brother lived in a tar paper shack in a small settlement for the wives. Dad a entrepreneur from the start gave every paycheque to Mom and paid his way by smuggling bottles of whiskey to sell in the north, as it was strictly rationed during the war. With the money from the few bottles he sold he would play poker with the soldiers to increase his income. Dad was a great poker player with a razor sharp memory and gift for numbers. He had many stories of the hardships and adventures of driving the Alaska highway and the fun they also had. It all ended quickly when he had a collapsed lung and was evacuated, then called by the draft board for duty.
My dad worked on this In ww 2. He was a Sargent with a light pontoon bridge company. They lived in tents and he talked about it being 40 below. Said they could never shut off the equipment because it was so cold they couldn’t get it started again.
So true. I drove truck along the AlCan for a while and never shut it off during the really cold winter days.
Pretty standard procedure, even today. I hardly ever shut my Freightliner down between late December to late February
Likewise even today in parts of Canada , and places in US like Montana . Don't turn them off for more than briefly unless inside a heated garage , or plugged into an engine heater .
And sometimes they wake up and found their trucks sunk in the mud after running all night and melting the ice..
We still leave the equipment running up here at that temp. Gets colder than 40 below. Even plugged in the gear won't start.
I worked seismic in BC and northern Alberta well all over Alberta and the prairies Dawson creek tumblers ridge these are brave men to be the first in the wilderness there major toughness indescribable really
It is interesting when I visited Skagway to hike the trail, the historical focus was the gold rush, and no mention of it being a port of concern for the highway.
wow i seen pictures and heard story's from my grandpa about building this highway he was a heavy duty mechanic on the construction this was sure amazing for its time
That's a great video were men worked together and got a very important job done, for our country god bless all of them 👍🙏
No question why this was "The Greatest Generation".
Athefumen... accent on MEN.
Now this is the kind of stuff that should be taught in schools, projects like this is what built this country........
These guys are who i looked up to as a kid wanting to work hard for my family. Most guys now days couldnt handle this type of work personally owning a tree business guys can barley handle a day or two maybe a week and they cant do it they say!!
Fascinating!!
Thanks for sharing..America is a wonderful country.
There's an old wooden bridge, that has a curve built into it that crosses the kiskatinaw just north of dawson creek, it's not part of the main highway anymore but you can still go on it
I want to do something like this; just some honest work that is actually productive and useful for many people and generations
Go to Africa and help dig some wells
Drove this road many times every winter, it is quite spectacular.
Interesting documentary. I found the music a little distracting, but it is an amazing accomplishment to have constructed this highway in the middle of fighting a world war. I hope to drive it in the next year or two.
My great Uncle was with th Army Engineers and helped build the hwy. I too have an album full of pictures from there
I’ve driven it! Summer of 2019. Amazing views.
I hauled groceries out of Seattle for a broker out of Kenai for 6 years.Most fun I ever had.
Ah yes, the good ol' days
Hmmmm took them 20 months to build 1500 miles of hwy through mountains, bush, rivers, and don’t forget the -40 winters. Why does it take 12 months to pave and patch up 100 miles of hwy that’s already been built???
EPA
OSHA
DOT
And the enherent economics of Bid Specifications . ie Longer time period with fewer workers and equipment vs bigger crews with more equipment working multiple sites simultaneously . Also factors of limiting disruptions of current levels of highway users .
I-90 between Chicago and The Wisconsin border at Rockford.
when you find out let us know...it is an age old mystery!!
Traffic
Drove it last week !
Uncle was the group hunter, said it took 2 caribou or a moose a day to feed all. He talked about the bitter cold winter and how the summer was rough going.
Sadly these days are long gone. You won't see intergovernmental cooperation like this anymore.
President Trump wasn't even around and they had to bring the Russian into it. I wonder who was on their payroll back then.
F350JOHN this was war time prep
@@paydenhingley4225 everything the us does is war prep. They have only been at peace for 17 years of their existence.
Yes, a sort of handshake deal between respectful partners
Russia was a valued ally against the Axis powers. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend..."
Great video
A side note . In the late 1800s the Canadian government took a census of native people in western Canada . There was a band living in the area west of battleford . ( I think I recall they were Assiniboine) . When next the government came out 2 years later that band could not be found , and no one knew where they disappeared to . While the highway was being built they went through a area that had previously uncontacted people , but they were not uncontacted . They were the band who had disappeared. After the government had visited the band in the 1800s the spiritual leader had a dream that the white men were going to cause the death of many native people , and he convinced all the rest to move up to the interior of the Yukon . The next year small pox devastated all of the native people in the prairies
Now they're setting up casinos & devastating the cash flow of the population of the pale faces
Yeah asshole that's all the whitemann's fault?!?! IF it weren't for US the natives would still be trying to figure out there asshole from their elbows!!!!
I am amazed at what was accomplished with that old equipment. If you put a 25 or 30 year old operator on cable driven heavy equipment they would declare it impossible. If modern tree huggers had a say back then I doubt the highway would be built today with all of the studies that take years to complete.
Owl well
My Uncle Hawley Stearns helped build this road.
My Grandparents Drove from Michigan to Alaska in 1970.
Amazing.
I love living along the Alaska Highway. Lots of wilderness up here and you are able to get away from people.
Nowadays theyd spend 100 million doing an environmental assessment and then decide not to build it. Then the get taken over .
true.
My grandfathers grandfathers second uncles cousin worked on that highway
I got a 1938 international that was used to build that heighway. You can tell by how patched together it is that they where in a hurry lol.
I live at mile zero of Alaska
Dawson creek
I,VE BEEN OVER IT TWICE, 1955 & 1956 SO I CAN APPRECIATE WHAT IT MUST HAVE TAKEN TO BUILD IT. YES, IT WAS 1500 MILES OF GRAVEL THEN!
Fine documentary. It was interesting and informative.
Thanks awesome Canadians! 🇨🇦
Great work Americans 🇺🇸
I wish I knew who this voice over guy was. He was everywhere in the 40's. Legend
Mountains, northern lights, a tent with a heater, a .460 and no people. Heaven.
I'm glad that Biden didn't shutdown this project.
8 months!!!! Today you couldn't get 1 mike of road done in a year!!!!
Watching old videos like this make me think: "Man that's a lot of work, i'm sure glad I didn't have to do it!
Very cool but 11-12 hour shifts? I don't think today you could get workers that willing to work.
AmeriCAN'Ts
I swear the caption reader said "and this men did the pie in the ear thing"
Salute to All Alaska Hw. workers ! Everydays fight against cold- and mainly ..billion of mosquitos !!!
Love Classic America, best Generation.
Not a whole bunch of light in Alaska centian times of year .
Wait, they did all that work without an environmental impact survey? OMG!
You blaspheme!
how shameful of them!! lol in those days there was an administration in DC during war time believed in just DOING IT! they also built oil pipeline from TEXAS to East Coast in under 2yrs. due to need for oil for the war effort.
good old days when us men where men
I still am
Imagine if the EPA was involved.
they would still be only one half done
Imagine the beauty of the pristine land
Maybe tough, but it beat being a combat infantryman.
Hugely valid point. I'm sure lives were lost, but loved ones were pretty damn sure they'd be seeing you again.