Alaska or Bust

Alaska Highway Mile '0' Post

We have arrived at Dawson Creek, British Columbia, mile '0' of the Alaskan Highway. The town milks the reputation—and why not if you only have two months of tourism to base your economy on. To be fair, though, everyone there was very helpful and most museums and information is gratis or given for a donation.

The Visitor Center is located at the center of all four highways going in and out of town. It is also Alaska Highway museum, wildlife museum, railroad museum, art gallery, and photograph central where you can get photos beside the Alaska Highway sign or the mile zero sign or the metal man pointing to the highway statue. As one worker commented, working in the visitor center made him “busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.” Not sure what this means, but it sounded busy.

From the museums and brochures I learned some interesting history of the town such as:

The town wasn’t always at this location; it moved five times. It came to this location when the Northern Alberta Railway purchased land and came through here. People put their houses on rolling logs and hauled them here with horses. Interestingly, people like us and hundreds of other Alaska-going folks still haul their wheeled homes to or through Dawson Creek.

Dawson Creek Art Gallery, Visitor Center, Railroad Museum...etc.When the railroad came to the area, a bunch of grain elevators were built in the area. One of these remains and is used at the art gallery where residents sell their art and crafts to tourists.

The town was named after a disabled botanist, geologist, paleontologist, surveyor, anthropologist, and photographer George Mercer Dawson. Father of Canadian Anthropology, this talented man explored British Columbia and the Yukon, photographing and documenting information about the First Nations people of the area.

Vicky at Dawson Creek Mile '0' Sign

After Pearl Harbor was attacked in Hawaii, the U.S. believed the Japanese would attack Alaska and move down into mainland U.S. Determined to get military supplies to Alaska before the Japanese got theirs to us, the army sent tens of thousands of troops to Dawson Creek to build a 1500 mile highway in less than a year. The initial highway was finished 8 months later.

Adolfo at beginning of Alaska Highway

Tomorrow we will start up the highway. We’re told it is in good condition with only a few construction projects. Let’s hope so.