I've been reading about the history of the construction of the Alaska Highway. Many of the people I grew up with knew someone who worked on the construction. Maybe you do too.
Thousands of men living together had to overcome, improvise and adapt to the harshest climates and wilderness in North America.
- How would you like to eat 3 meals a day out of a can for 9 months?
- How would you like to wash your army issue, green wool underwear in ice-cold water and hang them on a line to freeze-dry?
- How would you like to sleep in a tent on a cot without a mattress night after night?
- How would you like to be eaten alive by mosquitoes and flies for months on end?
Not much of a recruitment poster is it? But that is exactly what the thousands of troops and civilians signed up for when they came to Dawson Creek to lend their skills and strength to the enormous task punching a road through some of the north's most rugged landscapes in extreme temperatures.
When you come to Dawson Creek, make sure you take an afternoon to visit the Alaska Highway House Interpretive Center and learn about the history of this project that brought so many thousands together in very adverse conditions.
When you come to Dawson Creek, make sure you take an afternoon to visit the Alaska Highway House Interpretive Center and learn about the history of this project that brought so many thousands together in very adverse conditions.
See for
yourself what that green wool underwear looks like and imagine wearing it, check out the actual Willy Jeep on display and imagine bouncing around in it for 18 hours a day over corduroy roads... take a close look at the cans of 'food' and imagine eating it... check out the pictures of what being eaten alive by mosquitoes or incapacitated by frost bite actually looks like...Then... say a big thank you to anyone you know who worked on the Alaska Highway. I know I do...
