In today’s throw-away-world not much is permanent. Any publication that does survive needs a lot of useful information between the pages. Such is the Milepost Magazine, the bible for travellers in the great Pacific Northwest. The magazine is a must…
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If anyone knew the Alaska Highway better than Jimmy Quong, I would like to meet him. For most his adult life, this unassuming gentleman worked on and for the highway.
A Vancouver native, Jim Quong started working on the Alaska…
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The bitter memory of World War II was fading by 1947. North Americans were optimistic. TIME magazine carried a special feature on a new land of adventure and promise. The far north was on everyone's mind.
The magazine reported that…
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For many, it's the most spectacular feature of the Yukon river. It is a canyon carved by thousands of centuries of swift-moving water. At one time, it was considered the most dangerous obstacle on the way to the Klondike…
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April 3rd, 1946. It was plus 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0° Celsius on today’s thermometers. The afternoon sun shone brightly, and nearly 300 Whitehorse residents were there to witness history in the making. On the gravel road between the Two…
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When the Canadian military took over the operation of the Northwest Highway System in 1946, a new era began in Whitehorse. The town became the headquarters for a substantial military presence in the Yukon. As many as two thousand Army…
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When the American Army built the Alaska Highway temporary camps were set up at about 100 mile intervalls. These quickly built accommodations were not meant to survive for very long. After the war ended and the rest of the…
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Over the past one hundred years, McCrae has played many roles. It began in 1899 as a flagstop station on the White Pass railway. It was named for Colin McCrae, one of the company directors. The wagon road between Read more
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Most Canadians didn’t know what was going on. It wasn’t exactly a top-secret military project, but the Americans were playing it pretty close to the vest. Hardly anyone in the Yukon knew about this massive construction project.
On June 4th,…
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Today, the Alaska Highway is considered the main street of the Yukon and Alaska. Easy to drive and quick to get there. It wasn't always so. Back in the early 40s, there was no highway. In the late 40s you…
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The first overland, motorized mail service into the Yukon was delivered by the American military. Like almost everything else during World War II, the Americans ran the show in the Northwest. So it's not surprising that they ran the mail.
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Danville, Illinois is a town of about 33,000 people located 120 miles south of Chicago. It is the birthplace of actors Dick Van Dyke, Gene Hackman and famed Hollywood dancer Donald O’Connor. But for the Yukon, Danville is important not…
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When the men and women of the American army, along with civilian contractors, were building the Alaska Highway, there wasn't much time for entertainment. There wasn't much entertainment to be found, but in the spring of 1943 there was an…
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It began in August of 1942, this little known, yet vital link in the Northwest Service Command's operations. A little more than a year later, overland telephone service was available from the southern United states and Canada all the way…
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"Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. Temperatures of sixty below zero and dropping ...and the people... where are the people?"
So asked an African American soldier who worked as part of the military construction team during the…
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The morning of May 14th, 1942 was windy but warm as the hastily built pontoon boat left the southern shore of Charlie Lake. The 17 U.S. soldiers on board were members of the 341st Engineer regiment of the American army.…
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