Alaska Highway

Km 980 - Watson Lake Signposts

The Yukon was a distant and, sometimes, lonely place for the thousands of American soldiers who were sent north to build the war-time road to Alaska. While convalescing after a vehicle accident in 1942, Carl Lindley - a 21 year-old soldier with Company D, 341st Engineers -wistfully erected a sign to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. This single sign has grown into a "forest" of more than 20,000 signs from cities and towns around the world. This international signpost collection is still growing, as visitors add over 2,000 signs each year.

Northwest Staging Route

The growth of air travel in the 1930s sparked an interest in creating a "Great Circle Route" to link the Canadian northwest with Alaska, Siberia, and China. In 1935, the Canadian Department of Transport sponsored Dan McLean and the famous bush pilot Punch Dickens to scout an air route to the far east. Based on their recommendations, the federal government authorized the construction of airfields between Edmonton, Alberta and Whitehorse, Yukon as the start of a route to the Orient. In 1940, work began on airfields at Grande Prairie, Alberta; Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, British Columbia; and Watson Lake and Whitehorse in Yukon.

Between these points, emergency airstrips were built as a safety measure. By September 1941, the route was open to aircraft flying visual flight rules. Three months later, the installation of radio beacons made all-weather flying possible.

When Russia entered the war in Europe in 1941, the air route took on a military function. Russia and the United States entered into a lend-lease agreement whereby American fighter planes were flown across northwestern Canada, to Fairbanks, Alaska. From there, Russian pilots flew the aircraft across Siberia to the front lines in the war against Nazi Germany.

Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, made the United States fearful that Alaska and the Aleutians were also potential targets. To expedite the movement of men and supplies through a protected inland route to the Alaskan coast, the airstrips along the Northwest Staging Route were upgraded to handle large bombers. Hangers, workshops, refuelling facilities, and lighting were added to the basic airfields and barracks were built to house airport staff. By July 1943, the Northwest Staging Route was complete and capable of handling military aircraft in all weather.

The construction of the Northwest Staging Route was a major factor in determining a route for the Alaska Highway. A road that linked up the airfields of the Northwest Staging Route would provide a secure supply route, out of range from Japanese attack. The airfields supported and protected highway construction, while the highway, in turn, supplied the system of airfields.

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