1949 Yukon Nuggets

Milepost Magazine

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 read and a companion along the various highways including, of course, the Alaska Highway which has quite a history. So does the Milepost Magazine, named for those black and white posts that used to be seen every mile along the 1534 miles of dusty road between Dawson Creek and Fairbanks.

In 1948 when the highway opened to commercial travel, gas stations and lodges were few and far between. It sometimes took days, not hours, to drive from place to place. So a travel guide was a useful instrument. Thus, the Milepost was first published in 1949 by Bill Wallace as a 72-page booklet filled with facts and figures about the rugged Alaska Highway. And the Milepost meant something. Anyone who travelled in the years before metric in Canada will remember the fun of knowing exactly where you were, all the time. As tourism grew, so did the Milepost.

In 1962, Wallace sold the book to the owner of Alaska Magazine. The Milepost, like the highway, grew and modernized. By 1975 the book featured 498 pages. Morris Communications bought the magazine in 1997 and the following year moved its headquarters to Anchorage to share offices with Alaska Magazine. Today, the Milepost Magazine is a travel guide and general interest trip planner for Alaska, the Yukon and Northern British Columbia. And early editions are collectors’ items since they are like a diary of people, places and events - year by year - along the world-famous Alaska Highway.

 

A CKRW Yukon Nugget by Les McLaughlin.