Alaska Highway House Interpretive Center

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.

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...

Alaska Highway House Interpretive Center

Visiting a Cemetery on Halloween

We stopped into the historic cemetery in Tomslake, 20 minutes south of Dawson Creek on the day before Halloween.

This beautiful place is more than just a cemetery. It contains the cultural identity of the small Sudeten German Community whose members immigrated here in 1939 to escape persecution and death in Hitler's Germany.

A museum has been built to house the many artifacts donated by the community to tell the story of the journey to a new life of freedom in a new land.

The original Roman Catholic Church is now part of the museum. We stood on a stool and peeked in the windows. Nothing fancy, just hand built pews and some old pictures on the wall. Plastic flowers in a vase on the alter.

There is an impressive commemorative stone and bronze monument to the immigrants and their new home in Canada. It is quite emotional to read what the community went through for freedom. They came on huge transport ships and each ship and the date it sailed from Liverpool is listed along with the list of family members on the roster.

The cemetery itself is beautifully maintained with a simple rural backdrop. Entering through the iron gates was like entering a history book. The names on the granite headstones are mostly German and date back to the early 40's. I was struck by the short lives of many of the people laying to rest there.

Peaceful.

Visiting a Cemetery on Halloween

Alaska Highway History: Surviving (or not) the Cold

My Dad came to Dawson Creek to work on the Alaska Highway as a civilian in 1942. He operated heavy equipment along side the American soldiers.

In what was one of the earliest and coldest autumns ever recorded, Dad said the equipment took a real beating that year. The temperatures froze lubricants, seized transmissions and snapped axels. Equipment had to be kept running 24 hours a day, shutting them off was out of the question.

Wrecked and abandoned vehicles were a common sight on the sides of the road as it grew in miles. The combination of the brutal cold weather conditions and the scarcity of spare parts meant many were left to rust where they broke down.

A lot of the creeks that had to be crossed were swift water and resisted freezing even in the harsh cold. Often rushing through the interior of the smaller vehicles, cold water drenched men and steel alike. The underside of any vehicles that crossed became immediately ice coated and had to be kept moving or else the ice would lock the wheels within seconds of standing still.

The cold temperatures not only froze the equipment, it brutalized the men too. Dad said one of his friends froze to death alone when his bulldozer broke down and no help was available. Many of the men who worked the road experienced frostbite that year.

When you travel the highway you will see the rusting relics of the abandoned equipment. A fitting tribute to the effort it took to build the Alaska Highway.

Alaska Highway History: Surviving (or not) the Cold

Dawson Creek, WWII and the Alaska Highway

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.

Dawson Creek, WWII and the Alaska Highway

The Cost of Building a Hotel in 1951: The Windsor.

60 years ago, you could build a 54 room hotel for the same amount as a modest single family dwelling today.

The Windsor Hotel was a Dawson Creek landmark for 54 years. Built in 1951 at a cost of $250,000.00 the hotel had 54 rooms, a modern dining room, 2 beer parlors (one for "Men Only" and the other for "Ladies and Escorts"), a 250 seat banquet room, and room rental rates that were $2.50 a single, to $6.00 a double occupancy per night.

They added a hard liquor lounge later as it was illegal in BC during the time of the original plan.

Sadly, this grand Dawson Creek landmark endured years of hard times, delinquent property taxes and disrepair. The hotel was taken over by the City of Dawson Creek and when they were unable to find a buyer, it was demolished in 2005.

The whole town watched the demolitions and remembered the grand old hotel's better days.

Today a grassy lot sits on the corner where once stood the grand old Windsor Hotel, waiting for it's next occupant.

The Cost of Building a Hotel in 1951: The Windsor.

Alaska Highway History: The Collapse of the Peace River Bridge

The big blue bridge you drive to cross the Peace River in Taylor, BC when you travel the Alaska Highway is not the original, it's actually the replacement.

My Dad operated heavy equipment during the building of the Alaska Highway in 1942, long before I was born.

I remember driving north with him and when we crossed over the long Peace River Bridge he told me that the original had collapsed in 1957. Dad said a landslide caused it.

The original wooden suspension type Peace Bridge was built in 1942 as an essential piece of the Alaska Highway and was considered one of Canada's great bridges at the time of it's opening. It was the longest on the whole highway.

Everything appeared to be fine until fifteen years later in 1957, when a truck driver noticed some unusual settlement in the road. The army (responsible) immediately closed the bridge. Over the course of the next day, the bridge structures continued to shift and just after noon on October 16, 1957, the bridge collapsed into the Peace River.

They determined that the bridge failed due to a landslide in the shale bedrock that it was built on. Shale is simply mud that has hardened over millions of years... from the time when dinosaurs walked the earth.

The problem with shale is that once it's exposed again to water, it will eventually turns back to mud.

It's believed that the bridge foundation likely began to deteriorate soon after it was constructed and continued until the time of the collapse.

A portable Bailey bridge was erected for immediate use while the Train Bridge was planked for traffic until the new bridge was built and completed in 1960.

Now, when you cross the big blue bridge, you will notice a strange feel and sound. Don't worry, it's the steel deck. It's a unique sensation and no matter how many times you drive across it, you will notice it. We all do.

Alaska Highway History: The Collapse of the Peace River Bridge

Help Wanted 1942: There's Plenty of Work on the Alaska Highway

I read the following Help Wanted Ad in an old recruitment notice for the building of the Alaska Highway.

"Men hired for this job will be required to work and live under the most extreme conditions imaginable. Temperatures will range from 90 degrees above zero to 70 degrees below zero. Men will have to fight swamps, rivers, ice and cold. Mosquitoes, flies and gnats will not only be annoying but will cause bodily harm. If you are not prepared to work under these and similar conditions, do not apply."

I wonder how excited the men who considered the ad were about the prospect of getting the work.

I went to the Alaska Highway House in Dawson Creek and looked at the artifacts and original photos of daily life on the highway construction project. Some of the words that immediately came to mind were: brutal, harsh and unimaginable.

Even with today's equipment, the project would be awesome. But the crude equipment, the challenges of the untamed wilderness, and the harsh climate made the realities and scope of the project unbelievable.

The recruitment poster said a lot, but for the rest of the story, make sure you check out the Alaska Highway House Interpretive Center when you come to Dawson Creek. See for yourself what the day to day life was like for the builders of the highway.

Help Wanted 1942: There's Plenty of Work on the Alaska Highway

The "Surveyor" Keeps Watch on the Alaska Highway

We have a remarkable statue sitting atop a tower in the middle of the traffic circle in the center of Dawson Creek. You can't miss it.

Known as "The Surveyor" he was created by one of our local artists, Karl Mattson. Karl used old rusty scraps of metal he found laying around the region to create this monument to the building of the Alaska Highway. His clothes and transit are iron replicas of those from the 1940's.

Powerful and haunting, "The Surveyor" stands outside in all elements, pointing north showing everyone the way to Alaska just as his real life counterpart did all those years ago.

Dawson Creek is proud of the artistry behind our landmarks. You'll see for yourself when you get here.

The "Surveyor" Keeps Watch on the Alaska Highway

The Mile O Post: One Of The Most Photographed Landmarks In Canada

Anyone who lives here in Dawson Creek is used to driving carefully through the downtown core so as not to run over the frequent tourists jaywalking into the middle of the intersection to have their photo taken on our world famous Mile O Post.

Its quite common to see local residents offering to take the photo so that everyone gets in the picture. I wonder how many photos of our post exist. I know I've taken my fair share for all of our out of town guests.

The Mile O Post is one of the most recognizable and frequently photographed landmarks in Canada. It symbolizes the beginning of the Alaska Highway and lists the distances to major destinations along the highway in miles.

• Fort St. John 48
• Fort Nelson 300
• Whitehorse 918
  
• Delta Junction 1398
• Fairbanks 1523

The original post sat a couple of blocks away at the traffic circle, but apparently someone ran into it in 1946, so it was replaced and moved to the center of town especially for visitors to our community.

Make sure you touch a piece of history when you come to Dawson Creek and have your picture taken at the Mile O Post.

Don't hesitate to ask one of us to take the photo for you, we're always glad to do it.

The Mile O Post: One Of The Most Photographed Landmarks In Canada

Our Quirky & Colorful Past

I love history. I just learned the great story about how Dawson Creek came to be in its present location. Quirky indeed!

Back in 1930, Northern Alberta Railway (N.A.R.) decided to extend the railway beyond Alberta and into British Columbia.

They originally wanted to build the rail end and depot in Pouce Coupe, a small town about 6 miles south of present day Dawson Creek but couldn't come to an agreement over price of the land with its owner.

Tired of the money dispute, the railway decided to pass on the Pouce Coupe land and go another 6 miles north within 2 miles of the village of Dawson Creek. They bought a prize oat field from a local farmer.

The pioneers were thrilled to have the railway, but knew they needed to be closer than 2 miles, so what did they do? They simply moved the whole town. The put all the buildings on skids and moved them by horse and by caterpillar to the rail end. The whole kit and caboodle!

The original town site slowly melted back into the forest and only hints of it remain today. Present day Dawson Creek has grown around the center point of the rail-head.

Our beautiful Visitors Center and museum is located in the original (1931) structure of the railway station and stationmasters residence.

Make sure you stop in and visit when you come to Dawson Creek. Parking is free and plentiful in the N.A.R. Park and the welcome mat is always out for you.

Our Quirky & Colorful Past