Creating The Alcan Highway

The Alcan Highway, also known as the Alaska Highway, has long had a reputation among roads. It is famous for being one of the most remote and rugged major highways in North America. 

The Alaska Highway begins in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.  It runs 1387 miles (2232 km) through the British Columbian Canadian Rockies. It goes through Whitehorse, and Yukon Territories. Ending in Delta Junction, Alaska, outside of Fairbanks.

In early 1942, America was mobilizing after Japan had recently attacked Pearl Harbor. Japans was active off of the US West Coast. Threats to the Aleutian Islands were obvious. The was a need for an inland route to Alaska from the lower 48. A highway could transport supplies, men and equipment to Alaska.

In the 1920's a proposal were made for a highway. It would connect Central British Columbia with the Yukon Territory and Alaska. Cost and lack of serviced communities had prevented its construction. The plan was introduced several times without success. The war caused the highway to be approved.

Alaska Highway Proposed Route 1938

The United States was anxious to address the supply chain issues. They offered to build pay and provide labor to build the highway. America would use it during the war. After the war, Canada was then to take over. The segment of the highway that passed through Canada was to be Canadian. Operations and maintenance expenses belonging to Canada. The Canadians agreed. Construction began in March 9, 1942.

The route connected airports found along the Northwest Staging Route. This was a network of airstrips built at the same time as the highway. The air bases were to transport planes to the Soviet Union, our ally at the time. The Staging Route never was used to supply the Soviets. It did provide stations for equipment to be flown in. This was helpful when  building the highway.

Conditions were extreme. It was difficult for road building. There was Sub Arctic weather and heavy forests. Water was everywhere. Many lakes and rivers needed a bypass or forging. Large areas of permafrost created unique challenges. There was plenty of wildlife, especially bears. 

Building The Highway

Building was in a dangerous environment. The job was almost always menial labor using shovels and axes. There is an obvious example of Army racism tied to the highway. The Army sent three of its new formed "Negro Regiments" to weather the extreme conditions. The heavy lifting of the remote and challenging project done by them.

When construction began that winter in 1942, the ground was frozen hard. The troops made fast progress. They worked with hand tools and light bulldozers. Slowly the troops scratched a path through the wilderness. At river crossings, pontoon bridges served until more permanent structures were built.

The troops had no experience building on permafrost. Some of the early road failed. As warmer weather hit the road exposed now thawing frozen areas. The sunlight was actually melting the ground the highway was built on. The roadbed in places sank into a swampy murk.

Solving this problem, a technique was adopted. New felled trees were placed down across the roadbed. They made a sort of corrugated cover to the permafrost. Several layers would be added. The logs to sank into the swampy earth. More layers would settle into a surface solid enough to overlay with gravel.

The workers had no pipeline to supply fuel for the heavy equipment. Fuel was airlifted to the site in 55 gallon oil cans. Many empty cans littered the construction sites. The road was jokingly called the Oilcan Highway by some.

An amazing display of urgency, the highway was completed in only 9 months. It was almost 1400 miles of rough, yet passable roadway. Teams from both working from both ends of the highway project met at Soldiers Summit on October 28th. A November 21 radio program aired of the grand opening ceremony. It was not until 1943 that the Alaska Highway was usable for general vehicles.

Cpl. Refines Sims Jr., left, and Pvt. Alfred Jalufkamet from the US Army Corps of Engineers meeting in the middle after completing construction of the Alaska Highway

After the Allies won World War II, the Canadian Segment of highway returned to Canada in 1946.  It wasn't until 1960 that the US portions were paved. The Canadian government took longer. They determined that the area served by the highway was too remote. It would cost to much to pave the gravel highway. It was not until the late 1980s that Canada completed paving of their part of highway.

Annual construction projects continue to this day. The highway requires constant repaving. Damage from winter storms and frost heaving take their toll every year. Bridges wash out. Things get damaged. Realignments are constant. Improving on the original quick, and sometimes poorly chosen routes.

The highways reputation for rugged scenic beauty has made it a bucket list drive for many RVers. On the Alcan, the guidebook of choice is an annual called The MILEPOST®. The guide lists the current status of services and general highway conditions. Even in a digital era, this paper guidebook is a must for those making the trip.

Alcan Highway Construction Map

Videos

1.Building The Alaskan Highway - National Geographic (The Alcan) Documentary and Film 44:47
2.Alaskan Highway documentary Sherway Academy of Music 58:18
3.The ALASKA HIGHWAY - Yukon Travel Documentary Lucas T. Jahn 9:24
4.Road Religion: Yukon and the Alaska/Alcan Highway Documentary Linescrew1 39:51
5.THE ALASKA HIGHWAY (IN 4K!) & Solving Keep Your Daydream's Riddle TIM and FIN 12:41
6.10 TIPS for traveling the Alaska Canada Highway (Alcan) Wild Faith 14:49
7.RVING THE ALASKA HIGHWAY (EASIER THAN WE THOUGHT) Keep Your Daydream 22:33
8.The Alaska Highway // 8 Things to do on the Drive to Alaska Nomads with a Purpose: Adventure Travel Family 15:02
9.THE ALASKA HIGHWAY // Hasta Alaska // S04E13 Kombi Life 21:24
10.??"Secrets of the Alaska Highway" (or How to Take Your RV to Alaska and Live to Tell the Tale!) ?? Long Long Honeymoon 13:43

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 1/4 Mile/1 State/1097 Tracks/394 Videos/43 Posts

Highway 101: 25 Miles/2 Countries/1 State/702 Tracks/418 Videos/33 Posts

Interstate 95: 219 Miles/1 State/149 Tracks/201 Videos/20 Posts

Pan American Highway: 184 Miles/1 Nation/1 State/21 Videos/1 Post

Trans-Canadian Highway: 14 Miles/1 Province/1 District/35 Videos/1 Post

Lincoln Highway: 0 Miles/0 States/0 Counties/33 Videos/1 Post

Alcan Highway: 0 Miles/0 States/0 Counties/10 Videos/1 Post

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Crystal Pier and Eddie Vedder

Pacific Beach at the intersection of Garnet and Cass is where we left off on our last post from the remains of Highway 101 in San Diego. From here the old highway continues North on Cass. Before we continue our drive North lets takes in some Southern California tourism and local beach culture with a trip to stroll on the beach.



A few blocks further west of the intersection brings us to the water and the foot of the Crystal Pier.  From there to the right a boardwalk skirts the edge of Pacific Beach, Left, to the South of the pier the boardwalk runs along the edge of the sand and Mission Beach. If front of us Crystal Pier juts out into the rolling surf of the Pacific Ocean.  The pier itself is pretty noteworthy,

Crystal Pier
(Wikipedia)

In 1885 a railroad link was established between San Diego and the East Coast. Almost immediately, large numbers took the train West to start a new life in  Southern California. Early settlers at Pacific Beach found the beach side climate was perfect for growing lemons.It seemed that part of San Diego would be an agricultural center.

In  1889 a rail line was opened that extended from downtown San Diego to La Jolla with a station at Pacific Beach. Some farm acreage were carved into lots that became a neighborhood. The loss of farmland also meant a loss for a source of income for the community. Being San Diego, tourism was looked to as replacement revenue source,

Crystal Pier Hotel Entry Arch
(Flickr user Chris Lee/CC)

By the 1920's the are was developing enough to have its own school and over 500 residents. Earl Taylor, a local businessman, worked to develop the street grid that had been laid out and named in 1900. Alphabet streets ran North to South were named after early San Diego officials.streets. The East/West streets were named after precious minerals (hence Garnet, which we traveled down in our last post).

Earl Taylor  wanted the area to draw visitors and was interested in building some sort of amusement pier. Piers had been successfully operating in Los Angeles for years and Taylor thought it would be a good draw for  tourists to the area,

Meanwhile, up the coast at Santa Monica, near Los Angeles A successful pier called the Pickering's Pleasure Pier had burned down in 1924 leaving it's builder/operator Ernest Pickering facing rebuilding. Taylor reached out to Pickering for a partnership. In 1925 the San Diego Union ran an ad announcing the development of a pier in Pacific Beach.

On The Pier Looking At The Shore
(Flickr user Theron Trowbridge/CC)

By 1926 the pier was opened, It was a fabulous looking structure with a dance hall that sat above the water. The pavilion had a vaguely Aztec art deco theme.  Right away there were troubles.

The crowded dance pavilion was full of partiers celebrated the opening of the pier. Some of the guests noted that the building was swaying in the surf. It was assumed the structure was settling. The sawaying fixtures were wired in place to avoid seasickness in the pavilions customers.

The pier was NOT just settling. A contractor who was involved in supplying the pylons for the bridge was contracted to coat the supports with creosote.This would prevent damage to supports that could be caused by by a small sea creature called a marine borer. Marine borers love to eat wood and have traditionally been the scourge of wooden ships by literally eating away their hulls.

Is This A Pier Or A Hotel Parking Lot?
(Flickr user Herb Neufeld/CC)

The contractor reportedly used a less expensive alternative called creosol to coat the wooden pilings. It was a bad decision. Creosol does not have the same repellent effects to marine borers. The pier was being eaten by the sea. Within a year the first Crystal Pier collapsed.

The idea of a pier was proven though. By 1936 the pier had been rebuild. Instead of dance pavilion at its tip, it instead featured cottages that you could drive right up to!. The cottages were little houses with kitchens and patios. As the cottages reached their edge over the rolling surf a fishing pier extended further out over the ocean.

Today the cottages are still their and are a hard room to get and a popular tourist destination. The pier itself is open to the public and gets thousands of visitors daily to enjoy the view, take a stroll, or go fishing.

Fishing on Crystal Pier
(Flickr user Bill Morrow/CC)

Playlist Additions

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The 1990's were an important time in the San Diego alternative music scene. After grunge exploded on the music world from Seattle, many other cities that had also been cultivating local alternative rock scenes in the 1980's began to get noticed. Alternative bands from those other scenes began to chart as well, with both radio and MTV success.

San Diego had a small alternative music scene centered that around a rock club called the Casbah. Within a few years bands such as Blink-182, Stone Temple Pilots, Slightly Stoopid, Rocket from the Crypt, and Drive Like Jehu all emerged from the San Diego area and began achieving some success.

What many people don't know was that one of the most famous stars in the Seattle scene had a lot to do with the development of the scene in San Diego.

Eddie Vedder was born in the suburbs of Chicago in 1965. The product of a broken home, his parents divorced in infancy. His mother quickly remarried and Eddie lived in Chicago until he was 12 years old.

In the mid-70's the family moved from Chicago to the San Diego, where Vedder was given a guitar to help occupy him in a new environment where he did not have any friends yet. The move to San Diego began what must have been a traumatic period in young Vedder's life.

Late in his high school career his parents divorced. His mother moved back to Chicago, while Vedder decided to stay in San Diego with his father to complete high school. It wasn't long after his mother left that Vedder found out the truth that he was not the biological son of the man he knew as his father.

His real father he never got to meet, having died of multiple sclerosis before Eddie knew he existed. Eddie Vedder moved into his own apartment and supported himself working the night shift at an Encinitas drug store. It was too much and he dropped out of high school and moved to Chicago to rejoin his mother.

While in Chicago, he got his GED and attended some community college. In 1984 he and moved with his girlfriend back to San Diego. He worked at several odd jobs, including hotel security guard, to suuport himself while he began working towards a career as a musician. During this time Vedder played in casually several San Diego bands including Surf and Destroy and The Butts.

One of these bands he played with was a group called Indian Style. That band also featured drummer Brad Wilk who would go on to great success with the bands Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave.

Modest success came in 1988 when he joined the San Diego progressive funk band Bad Radio, a band who styled themselves along the lines of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band gained a record contract, and was drawing attention.

Bad Radio achieved some success but it was a short stint for Vedder. He left he band working in the late 1980's as an attendant at a gas station. Still hanging around the local music scene, Eddie Vedder was friends and played basketball with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons.

Jack Irons told Vedder about a band in Seattle band that was looking for a singer. The story was that the locally successful Seattle band Mother Love Bone, had recently lost their singer, Andrew Wood,  to overdose. Guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament were in need a replacement singer.

Irons gave Vedder a demo tape to see if he was interested in contacting them. Eddie Vedder listened to the tape before a day of surfing. (Could it have been in Pacific Beach? Possibly, accounts are unclear.)

Eddie Vedder tackled the surf as inspiration struck and he conceived of the lyrics to a three song suite he called Mamma-Son. The songs tell a story with many parallels to Vedder's own. In it, a young man finds out the truth about his paternity after his birth father is dead. From there he becomes a serial killer before being caught sentenced and executed. Vedder recorded his verses onto the instrumental demo and sent them tape North to Seattle.

Impressed with Vedders unique vocals they responded by asking him to come up to Seattle for an audition. At the time a new project was being conceived by Soundgarden  singer and  rhythm Guitarist Chris Cornell. Eddie Vedder was asked to join.

The band was a Seattle supergroup composed of  Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, and drummer Matt Cameron,  and Stone Goddard and Jeff Ament from  Mother Love Bone. The would be joined by newcomers Mike McCready on guitar and vocalist Eddie Vedder from San Diego. The band was named Temple of the Dog and was intended to be a tribute to deceased mother Love Bone singer, Andrew Wood. It was also a bit of a benefit for Goddard and Ament who were suddenly without work.

The self titled album broke just before the the Seattle music scene was to explode across America. Though it was well received, Soundgarden's obligations meant it could not be more than a side project for Goddard and Cameron.

It did achieve one of Cornell's original goals for the group. That would be keeping Goddart and Ament playing music in the Seattle scene. With revived inspiration, Goddart and Ament along with recruited drummer Dave Krusen formed the band Pearl Jam. The rest is history.

Released in 1991 just before  Nirvana's explosive breakthrough Nevermind, Pearl Jams debut Ten took off slowly but by late 1992 the album had peaked on the Billboard hot 200 at number 2. The sales of the album were driven by the success of three singes, Alive, Evenflow and Jeremy, all of which had successful videos on MTV.

• Alive   Ten  Pearl Jam 5:41
• Evenflow  Ten  Pearl Jam 4:53
• Jeremy  Ten  Pearl Jam 5:19

Ten's tracks Alive, Once, as well as the rarity b-side to the Jeremy single, Footstep, were the same songs Eddie Vedder wrote surfing that day in San Diego. It is where the biggest San Diego connections to Eddie Vedder end. His story would be Seattle's after this, including long time rock star fame and legendary legal  battles with Ticketmaster. But that is a story for another day

• Once  Ten  Pearl Jam 3:51
• Alive  Ten  Pearl Jam 5:41

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 1/4 Mile/1 State/1097 Tracks/394 Videos/43 Posts

Highway 101: 25 Miles/2 Countries/1 State/702 Tracks/418 Videos/33 Posts

Interstate 95: 200 Miles/1 State/121 Tracks/183 Videos/18 Posts

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Space Coast Stadium and Songs About Fireworks

Casey At The Bat At Space Coast Stadium
(Flickr user JB Kopp/CC)

Arriving at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida in our last post from Interstate 95, its time to take a look around.Space Coast Stadium is the Spring Training park for the Washington Nationals.

Viera, Florida. Before the town's construction in 1990, this area that Interstate 95 passed through was known as Cocoa Ranch. The owners decided to break up the ranch for development. Viera is a master planned community that adjacent to Melbourne, Florida. Viera seems to be about suburban as you can get with 58 individual neighborhoods.

Space Coast Stadium was built in 1994 to act as the Spring Training facilities for the then new Florida Marlins.

You may remember from my post about Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, the Marlins now have Spring Training in Jupiter. Why aren't they still in Viera?  In 2002 the Montreal Expos were sold. As part of the deal it was required that Marlins switch stadiums with the Expos putting the Marlins in Jupiter and the Expos in Viera.

Expos? Not the Nationals. Actually they are the same team having been reformed and renamed in 2004 as the Washington Nationals. Which catches us up to the current day, The park seats 8100 fans and takes its name, like the rest of the region, from the history of NASA on the Central Florida Coast. When Spring training is over the park becomes home to the minor league Brevard County Manatees as well as occasionally serving as home field for the Nationals of the Gulf Coast League.

Space Coast Stadium
(Flickr user Joseph Gruber/CC)

Playlist Additions

Songs About Fireworks

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Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans. As I suspected, Space Coast Park hosts a Fourth of July Fireworks Show. Lets go!

Our musical selections this week are all songs related to fireworks. In many ways, fireworks are like Americans: so fun, so dangerous, so loud, and so colorful!

Our set begins with a classical piece that hearkens back to Colonial Era England. In 1749, George Handel was contracted to compose a musical score to accompany a firework show that was being put on for King George II. The show was held on April 27, 1749 in London's Green Park. celebrating the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.

Interestingly, Music for Fireworks, whose overture we feature here was originally written to include violins.The producer of the fireworks show, Duke John Mantagu insisted that the strings be removed as the King had a preference for wind instruments and drums. Handel argued the point, but ultimately complied. Regardless, the piece entered the classical canon as one of Handel's most famous pieces, often paired with his other famous outdoor composition, Water Music, in recordings.

(Flickr user Paul Wilkinson/CC)

Indoor Fireworks by Elvis Costello shares a similar tempo to Handel's piece so it bridges the musical transition from classical to more modern music. The song itself is a classic bit of the Elvis Costello wordplay that makes him one of my favorite songwriters. Indoor Fireworks symbolize a burning out of a fiery relationship, that still enjoys a spark in the bedroom.

Going back to 1929, our next track is a song recorded only once by Louis Armstrong and his Hot 5. The rocord was made in Chicago and it is the the uptempo number Firecracker.

Louis  Armstrong gets followed up by an obscure track from an obscure album. Chet Bolin was a little known Philadelphia musician who recorded an album in the 1980's that went largely unnoticed. It was yeas later, in 2007, when community radio station WFMU ran a series called The 365 Project on their blog that showcased obscure audio track every day, Frequently these were thrift store LPs available for free download. Chet Bolin's album All American Masher was posted on October 11 and on it was the song Boom Boom, our next track.

(Flickr user Adam Carter/CC)

The Chet Bolin track gets followed by an even more obscure track. When mash ups were first happening, a collection called Divas Of Joy was posted online. Our next track is a mash up from that collection between Joy Division and Katy Perry called joy division vs katy perry-Means To A Firework. Good luck finding a copy of this one, as it looks like it has been pulled down from most hosting sites.

Our next cut is far more readily available. It is also one of the most famous blues songs of all time. John Lee Hooker's Boom Boom. It is followed by another song from England. This time it the song Rocket from a Bottle, from the XTC album Black Sea.

It would be an oversight to have a list of firework songs without including one of the most iconic songs to mention fireworks. The  title of this Starland Vocal Band hit also gave the world a new phrase for an midday sexual tryst, Afternoon Delight.

(Flickr user Toshihiro Oimatsu/CC)

A metal firecracker is a slang term for a musician's tour bus. Alt-Country favorite Lucinda Williams sings of a love affair that is now over but was consummated on the bus with her song Metal Firecracker.

Keep Sending Me Black Fireworks comes to us from the band Of Montreal, who are not of Montreal at all, but rather from Athens Georgia. The song is a psychedelic love song from the bonus disc on the band's 7th album, Sunlandic Twins It compares love to black fireworks, you can feel the energy, but you cannot see it.

(Flickr user Epic Fireworks/CC)

The next track randomly appeared on my music player. I am not sure where it came from, but I like it. Laura Cantrell gives us a torchy folk cover of the Elvis Costello song Indoor Fireworks that appears as a sort of reprise on the playlist.

Finally this week we have a song that was offered on the music blog Cover Lay Down. It is another folky female cover. This time it is the Ryan Adam song Firecracker being performed by Janelle Daddona.

• Overture From The Royal Fireworks - Strings&Trumpet (Handel) Classical Requests BMP Classical Grand Entrance 1:22
• Indoor Fireworks The Very Best Of Elvis Costello Elvis Costello 4:09
• Fireworks The Complete Hot Five & Hot Seven Recordings  Louis Armstrong 3:10
• LINK  Boom Boom All American Masher Chet Bolins 2:53
• joy division vs katy perry-Means To A Firework Divas Of Joy Oki 4:14
• Boom Boom Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues John Lee Hooker 2:32
• Rocket From A Bottle Black Sea XTC 3:31
• Afternoon Delight Have A Nice Decade- The '70s Pop Culture Box Starland Vocal Band 3:50
• Metal Firecracker Car Wheels On A Gravel Road Lucinda Williams 3:30
• Keep Sending Me Black Fireworks The Sunlandic Twins Of Montreal 3:28
• Indoor Fireworks  Laura Cantrell 4:19
• Firecracker Janelle Daddona 2:45

Watching the fireworks, I remember the that America was founded as a bunch of rebels and traitors, but we showed the world that a nation can survive by the rule of the common man.That is pretty cool and it IS something to be proud of. Have great 4th, everyone! Enjoy!

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 0 Miles/1 State/1091 Tracks/391 Videos/42 Posts

Highway 101: 25 Miles/2 Countries/1 State/696 Tracks/418 Videos/32 Posts

Interstate 95: 200 Miles/1 State/121 Tracks/183 Videos/18 Posts

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