Photo Album Documenting the Construction of the Alaska-Canadian Highway around Whitehorse, Yukon, Including Many Showing Its Impact on the Local Environment.
Canada and the United States: c. 1942–1943. Photo album measuring 11 x 14 inches containing approximately 400 original photos with an additional 24 commercially produced photos. Photos attached with corner mounts. Original photos mainly measure 3 ½ x 4 ½ inches and smaller. Album pages delicate with wear, especially to edges; photos generally excellent with some wear to corners. Overall very good to excellent. Item #Cat317
Between March and October of 1942, the Alaska-Canadian or ALCAN Highway was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers, running from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, through Whitehorse, Yukon, to Delta Junction, Alaska. The US had long seen a need for such a highway for defense purposes, and Canada finally agreed to its construction in February of 1942, shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack, on the conditions that the US would both pay for it and turn the Canadian portion over to Canada after the conflict. Over 10,000 men worked to construct it, including about 3,000 African Americans in segregated regiments. Though officially completed in October 1942, work on the highway continued and it did not open to the public until 1948 due to issues with grading, surfacing, and other safety measures.
Offered here is an album of photographs by an unknown photographer involved in the highway’s construction. Signage in the photos places them around Whitehorse, Yukon, a bit more than halfway from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction. Besides the imposing Yukon landscape, shots show men and their vehicles: military trucks, earthmovers, tractors, trains, ships, seaplanes, and tanks. Vehicles like tractors and construction plows are often fitted with tank treads; they pull wagons down steep hills and over creeks, and are often pictured driving via rivers—perhaps this was easier than going overland on the soft, delicate tundra. A man who is pictured in one of the photographs appears to be African American, possibly part of one of the segregated regiments; the insignia on his jacket matches that on others’, so he is likely part of the construction efforts.
In many shots the materials and vehicles look more abandoned than in use, and some appear to show junkyards. During its construction the ALCAN came to be known as the “oil can highway” for the quantity of discarded oil cans that the construction left behind; oil cans are omnipresent in these photos, but they also suggest that more than just oil cans were left as debris. Two shots show an unidentified structure fire and what appears to be a head-on collision of two trucks, one carrying numerous oil cans. Several show massive areas of erosion, including one that has taken out a large portion of a paved road. One shows a bear standing by the rubble and trash left on the side of the road (captioned on the verso “This Bear Weighs about 1400 lb. + he is a dandy”). These photos record the environmental impact of the highway’s construction.
Some shots document the men’s recreation: fishing, lunching in a field, posing with what looks to be a wolf that was killed, feeding a squirrel, and even playing with bear cubs. Several are of puppies and dogsled teams. Others show wildlife in more natural habitats: bears from afar, bighorn sheep in a rocky field, and a moose splashing in a river. Small towns, tent cities, and quonset huts—including the TITA (This Is The Army) movie theater—dot the formidable landscape of pines and snowy peaks.
Of interest to historians of highway infrastructure, especially in harsh circumpolar climates, and its environmental impacts.
Price: $1,250.00