Dawson
Creek is Mile 0; the start of the Alaska Highway. You will see mile markers all along this
highway. The official end of this
highway is at Delta Junction in Alaska; Mile 1422. We will travel this highway as far as
Whitehorse in the Yukon; Mile 918.
On
March 9, 1942 the first troop trains of the United States Army Corps of
Engineers arrived in Dawson Creek to begin the construction of the 1,523 mile
Alaska Highway. Overnight Dawson Creek
turned from a small agricultural community of 500 into a population of
10,000. A traffic circle located at an intersection in the center of town marks the designated
Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. So
considering that the original plans for this highway was 1,523 miles, and the
official end of the highway is at 1,422 miles; that means this highway is still
not completed.
We
spent two nights in this town. There is nothing
exciting about Dawson Creek, except this is where the Alaska Highway was born
and most people vacationing in Alaska start at this point. So it was a bit crowded. We saw many cars returning from their visit
in Alaska and they were all caked with mud and dirt. You could not even tell the color of the
vehicles. Even though the Highway is
paved, parts of it is under construction and is currently gravel and dirt (we
found that out later). There are also
many roads in Alaska that are not paved.
Just
outside of Dawson Creek is an interesting and unusual bridge called Kiskatinaw
Bridge. It was built in 1942 for
military traffic between Dawson Creek and the Big Delta, Alaska. The bridge is one of many timber bridges
built in Canada, but it is the only one still in use. What makes it unusual is that it curves 9
degrees along its 534 foot length.
DAY 29 ~
BUCKINGHORSE RIVER (June 15) - Mile 175
It is
almost 400 miles to Toad River (our next destination), so we made an overnight stop at Buckinghorse
Provincial Park (same as our state parks).
We continue north in British Columbia on the Alaska Highway.
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