The dedication of the Alaska Highway on Nov. 20, 1942, received great publicity. However, stories often paid scant attention to the actual condition of the road when it first began accepting through traffic. The...
During and right after World War II there was a rapid influx of people into the Fairbanks area as the U.S. military expanded its presence. With the increased demands on the Alaska Railroad during...
The engine in the drawing is Alaska Railroad No. 557, a Consolidation-type steam locomotive. Consolidation is the U.S. designation for the locomotive’s wheel-configuration – 2-8-0 – with 2 leading wheels, 8 drive wheels, and...
Immediately preceding and during World War II the Civilian Aeronautics Authority (CAA was the predecessor to the FAA) built and upgraded airports across the United States as part of a national defense program. Theresa...
A portion of the Alaska Military Telephone Line along the Alaska Highway near the Canadian border The Alaska Highway, built in 1942, was not the only World War II-era construction project linking Alaska with...
The Tamarac Inn, a small motel that was built in the early 1950s, is currently undergoing renovation. The building was actually pieced together from surplussed military housing units from Ladd Field that weren’t needed...
Here is a 1940s era Quick-Way truck-mounted crane sitting on a Brockway chassis. It is located along the Parks Highway near Ester. According to an article on the ConstructionEquipment.Com website, in 1922, a prototype truck-mounted...
When I wrote my post about construction of the Alaska Highway I mentioned the “Northern Staging Route,” the series of airfields through which military aircraft were ferried from the U.S. to the Soviet...
