In the northwestern parts of North America there is highway that stretches for 1,300 miles (2,200 kilometers) between Dawson Creek, British Columbia in Canada, and Delta Junction, Alaska, where other highways will take you to either to Fairbanks or Anchorage.
If you’ve ever taken this highway before, you know how breathtakingly beautiful the scenery and backdrop is for this highway. There are pristine forests and lakes, which have hardly been touched by the hand of man. This is part of the untouched and vast wilderness to be found in the northern parts of North America. There is also the wildlife, which many times nestles right up to the roadway – this includes buffalo, elk, moose, bears, and foxes. The whole time, you have the Rocky Mountains as your backdrop.
But, this long, lonely, beautiful highway that we take for granted, as a link between Alaska and the rest of the United States did not always exist. In fact, for decades it was just a dream, and it took the outbreak of a world war to finally get the ball rolling on the construction of this highway.
As far back as the 1920’s, public leaders made suggestions concerning building a highway connecting the contiguous United States with Alaska, meaning building a route through Canada. In the 1930’s desires became stronger, with an agency set up with Americans and Canadians to see about the potential benefits to both countries, but without the needed Canadian support as they saw very little benefit.
Eventually, in the late 1930’s, with the Japanese imperial threat looming in the background, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt approached the Canadian prime minister, explaining that it would be towards our military advantage to have a way to move equipment and personnel to and from Alaska, but still Canada didn’t like that idea.
It wasn’t until after Pearl Harbor got attacked in late 1941 by the Japanese, springboarding the United States and Canada into the Pacific Theater of World War 2, that Canada finally got behind the plan. In early 1942, Congressional approval brought the beginning of construction on the Alaska Highway, and with about 10,000 people working on the project, it was completed by late 1942.
Since its completion, the Alaska Highway has seen many improvements. The entirety of the highway is paved today; it was mostly gravel in the beginning. Many winding and meandering parts of the road have been improved and straightened out, helping to shorten the highway’s length by over 200 miles – these improvements continue to this day.
So, if you ever get a chance, take advantage of this highway and its almost endless natural beauty.
