ALASKA EXPECTS RECORD TOURIST INFLUX

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27988, 7 June 1956, Page 16

ALASKA EXPECTS RECORD TOURIST INFLUX

(From a ' Reuter Correspondent)

FAIRBANKS, (Alaska)

A record influx of motorists, arriving by the Alaska Highway, is expected here this summer. Fairbanks is the northern terminus of the Alaska Highway, one of the world’s most unusual roads, which winds across 1520 miles of the flatlands and mountains of Canada and Alaska between Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and Fairbanks to provide the only land link between the United States and its northern Territory.

The Highway,, which was hurriedly built during the early days of World War II as a vital defence project, has been used every year since the war by increasing numbers of northbound tourists and other- travellers. Literally thousands of private motorcars, coaches and lorries have noXv made the trip over the Alaska Highway, travelling through country which, before the war, knew only the footsteps of the roaming trapper or prospector. This large and varied .traffic was far from the minds of the builders of the Highway. Alaskans had campaigned for years for a road or railway to link their Territory with the continental United States. But it took World War II and a threatened Japanese invasion of Alaska to make the road a reality.

Construction of the road to Alaska, which in its early days was nicknamed the Alcan; was an epic of military engineering. Numerous critics attacked the proposed highway almost as soon as work was started in March, 1942. Many Alaskans and representatives of United States West coast areas attacked the choice of the inland route against the long-favoured coastal route. Other critics pointed to the swampy, muskey country which part of the road had to traverse —and predicted road-building equipment would' bog down and the road would never be 'completed. Military authorities answered the first critics by pointing out that the inland route was chosen purposely to keep the road as far as possible from any enemy air attacks and to link up the string of military airfields in northern Canada which were being used by the aircraft ferry service from the United States to Soviet Russia.

Army construction workers answered the second school of critics with an astounding record of speedy roadbuilding. When work started from both ends of the proposed highway in March, 1942. the job was expected to take two years of hard work. But on September 23 of that same year the two crews met at Contact Creek and by December the first Army lorries were rolling north. , In 1946, the Canadian portion of the highway was relinquished by the military and the trickle of civilian travel soon turned into a flood. Since then, almost every year has seen t a large increase in tourist and commercial use of the road.

These first travellers found a highway unbelievably primitive. The original highway, before reconstruction by civilian contra- 'ors was narrow and rough and had many temporary log bridges. Facilities were few and far between. Travellers were warned

to carry a full stock of for emergency repairs to their vehicles and to be prepared to camp out. Since those early days, however, many business enterprises have sprung up along the highway to cater for the travelling public. Inns, petrol stations and garages are now scattered along the entire 1520 miles. While prices are high, reflecting transport costs,, travellers can now be assured of comfortable if not luxurious lodgings. The road itself, while still unpaved, is - now a wide, smoothly gravelled thoroughfare and is undergoing constant improvement to eliminate bad hills and winding stretches. Indeed, the most difficult going now is not on the Alaska Highway itsett, but on the approach roads. Mr Wallace, who now maintains offices at Anchorage, in Alaska. Dawson Creek, and Cathedral City,, in California, has made some 55 trips over the entire length of the Alaska Highway and probably knows it as intimately as anyone. He is enthusiastic about its value frdm a holiday point of view and also about its future as industry continues to follow the road into the undeveloped areas of northern Canada and Alaska.

Although the highway is now kept open to travel throughout the year, Mr Wallace recommends the period from May 30 to October 1 as the most pleasant for the holiday-maker. “The highway will- be dusty and the mosquitos bad in certain areas, but no worse than often encountered on trips through the western United States,” ne says. “For the outdoor man, the camera enthusiast, the family who plan to camp out at some beautiful lake or stream, these are the months in which to travel.” 1

While the expense of travelling over the Alaska Highway is greater than that of a comparable trip in the United States or Canada, it is not excessively so. Mr Wallace estimates that the basic cost for an 8-day trip starting from Great Falls, Montana, or Seattle. Washington, for two adults would average 200 dollars (something over £7O). This would include 75 dollars (something over £25) for the 24 meals, 50 dollars (about £2O) for eight night’s lodging and 75 dollars for petrol and oil. If traffic over the highway continues to increase at its present rate, the motorist of the future will make the trip over a broad, paved highway. Already experimental stretches of asphalt surfacing have been laid at both White-horse and Dawson Creek and residents in the area are exerting strong political pressure for a further paving programme. *•->

Mr Wallace predicts that such a programme of paving would see tourisi travel over the Alaska Highway increase tremendously from the present figures of 35,000 to 40,000 persons s year.

He stresses, however, that that would be at the expense of one of the highway’s distinctive features: “One of the highway’s chief attractions would vanish with pdving—namely the charm of the wilderness with the long stretches of almost traffic-free driving, the excellent roadside fishing, and all of the things that are a. part of a wild and unsettled region.” z