In 1942, a remarkable feat of engineering led to the construction of the Alaska Highway.
It took 11,000 U.S. troops just over eight months to complete the 1,300-mile stretch of highway, spanning from Dawson Creek to Delta Junction in Alaska.
Often overlooked is the perseverance of the all-Black regiments, who made up a third of the workforce and broke down barriers within the U.S. military.
“At that time, they thought African-Americans wouldn’t be well suited to northern cold climates, many of them coming from the south, and so there was kind of a rule that they broke to send them up here,” Heather Sjoblom, Curator and Manager of the Fort St. John North Peace Museum, told CJDC-TV,
The 95th Engineer General Service Regiment was responsible for an area spanning from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson. One of their tasks was building the Sikanni River Bridge, which they bet their paychecks they could complete in three days, despite the extreme cold and rugged terrain.
“Not only did they win the bet, but at that time Colonel Twitchell decided that segregation would end, and he would start having his white officers eat with the Black enlisted men,” explained Sjoblom.
This marked the first time in American Army history that such integration occurred.
Construction of the highway began in the winter of 1942, in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, during a time when the military was still segregated. Systemic discrimination carried into their work on the highway, historically known as the Alcan.
“If there were wood barracks, then they would end up in tents. Or if everyone was in tents, then the white regiments would get the better tents and they’d get the rattier tents and so on,” Sjoblom noted.
This discrimination extended to the equipment used to build the highway, with Black regiments receiving hand tools rather than machinery.
“They even got stuck doing stuff with picks and wheelbarrows that they were supposed to do with, you know, bulldozers,” said Sjoblom.
Once summer arrived, conditions did not improve, with trucks sinking in the melting permafrost and giant mosquitoes complicating even simple tasks.
“We have stories of men taking a spoon for food, and by the time the spoon got to their mouth, it was all covered in mosquitoes,” Sjoblom shared.
Despite these challenges, the Black regiments persevered, and their efforts were vital in the completion of the highway. Their legacy is preserved at the North Peace Museum in Fort St. John, which houses a collection of photographs and memorabilia that showcase the construction of the highway and how it shaped the Fort St. John we know today.
“As you build a road, then it’s easier for different supplies to come up. More people come here looking to develop resources, and so you see in the ‘50s and ‘60s the oil and gas industry starting to take off,” Sjoblom explained.
Though their names and memories may be mostly left unrecorded due to discriminatory military policy, the barriers they broke and the mark they carved on history remain undeniable.
The Alaska Highway, beginning with Mile 0 in Dawson Creek attracts around 300,000 tourists from around the world each year, according to a Northern Rockies Alaska Highway Visitor Study.