My Mom came to the Peace River Country as a young woman in 1939 with her family. They were political refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. She found work at the original Dawson Creek hospital where the nuns taught her to speak English.
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the leaders in Washington decided they needed to have a supply route to Alaska. They wanted it done in less than one year. They needed men and equipment and lots of both.
Mom remembered the arrival of the US troops and Canadian civilians along with all the equipment that came to build the Alaska Highway in 1942. She said the quiet agricultural town burst at the seams overnight. There were soldiers and equipment and noise and mud everywhere.
My Dad was one of the civilians who came here as a young man to operate heavy equipment on the 
construction of the highway. They met at a dance hall on a Friday night.
There are great original photographs of the period at the Alaska Highway House downtown by the Mile "O" Post and also at the Dawson Creek Art Gallery.
The Sudetan Hall at Pioneer Village also houses a great collection of original photos of the Czechoslovakia pre and post WWII as well as the building of a new community in a new land.
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