On November 20, 1942, on a remote vista in Yukon Territory, several hundred men braved the bitter cold to mark the end of an ordeal that few people thought possible: the completion of the Alaska Highway.
Stretching 1,500 miles through the sub-arctic wilderness, the Alaskan Highway was built to defend American from threats in the Pacific and stands today as one of the boldest homeland security initiatives ever undertaken.
The Milepost
http://www.themilepost.com/
The Milepost is one of the first travel guidebooks about the Alaska Highway. First published in 1949, it's now online -- and it presents information about the highway's history, its development into a tourist attraction, and the many sights and landmarks along its path.
Aleutian World War II National Historic Area
http://www.nps.gov/aleu/
The National Park Service presents this page on the history of World War II in the Aleutian Islands, including details of the Japanese attack and occupation.
Alaska Studies: Teacher's Toolbox
http://www.kpbsd.k12.ak.us/akhistory/aktools.htm#akhist
This page, compiled by the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, includes a wide range of links to sites featuring Alaska history.
The Arctic Circle
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/
Sponsored by the University of Connecticut, the website acts as a forum on the environment, native peoples, history and culture of the Arctic Circle with resources such as photographs and academic texts.
The Harriman Expedition Retraced
http://www.pbs.org/harriman/
Explore the companion website for a PBS film about the 2001 expedition that retraced the famous Harriman expedition of 1899, with information on the film as well as personal accounts of the scientific and cultural findings of both of the expeditions.
The State of Alaska
http://www.state.ak.us
Visit the Alaska state government's official website.
SLED: Statewide Library Electronic Doorway
http://sled.alaska.edu/
A virtual database for Alaska's state libraries, this site includes Alaskan community, library and government information as well as links to outside resources.
The United States Army Center of Military History
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/
This U.S. Army Web site presents information and primary documents on the history of the American military dating back to the late 1700s. Pieces from the Army Art Collection, photographs and historical military documents are just some of the resources available in the online library.
American Experience: Hoover Dam
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/flims/hoover/
The Hoover Dam transformed the West in many of the same ways that the Alaska Highway transformed Alaska. This AMERICAN EXPERIENCE companion site presents facts on U.S. dams and background information on one of the largest construction projects of the 1930s.
American Experience: Golden Gate Bridge
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldengate/
Fans of construction history will be interested in this PBS website, a companion to the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE program on the Golden Gate Bridge. Explore San Francisco Bay before and after the bridge, pick your favorite suspension bridge, and learn about the math bridge engineers use.
Baskine, Gertrude. Hitch-hiking the Alaska Highway. Toronto: Macmillan, 1944.
Binkin, Martin, Eitelberg, Mark J., Schexnider, Alvin J, and Smith, Marvin M. Blacks and the Military. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1982.
Brebner, Phyllis Lee. The Alaska Highway: a Personal & Historical Account of the Building of the Alaska Highway. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 1985.
Christy, Jim. Rough Road to the North: Travels Along the Alaska Highway. Toronto: Doubleday Canada; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980.
Coates, Kenneth. North to Alaska. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1992.
Coates, Kenneth, and W. R. Morrison. The Alaska Highway in World War II: the U.S. Army of Occupation in Canada's Northwest. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
Cohen, Stan. Alcan and Canol: A Pictorial History of Two Great World War II Construction Projects. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1992.
----. The Trail of '42: A Pictorial History of the Alaska Highway. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1979.
Griggs, William E. The World War II Black Regiment That Built the Alaska Military Highway: A Photogarphic History. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2002.
Gruber, Ruth. I Went to the Soviet Arctic. Preface by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York: Viking Press, 1944.
Haigh, Jane. The Alaska Highway: A Historic Photographic Journey. Whitehorse, Yukon: Wolf Creek Books, Inc., 2001.
Lanks, Herbert Charles. Highway to Alaska. New York, London: D. Appleton-Century Co., Inc., 1944.
Readicker-Henderson, Ed and Lynn. Adventure Guide to the Alaska Highway. 3rd edition. Edison, New Jersey: Hunter Publishing, Inc., 2001.
Remley, David A. Crooked Road: The Story of the Alaska Highway. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976.
Russell, Chester. Tales of a Catskinner. Self-published, 1999.
Twitchell, Heath. Northwest Epic: The Building of the Alaska Highway. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.
Wonders, William C. Alaska Highway Explorer: Place Names Along the Adventure Road. Victoria, B.C.: Horsdal & Schubart Publishers, 1994.
A marvel of engineering, architecture, and vision, the story of the Beaux Arts structure on 42nd street that forever changed midtown Manhattan.
The internationally famous carnival of delights in New York was the birthplace of the hot dog and the roller coaster.
"The Wizard of Menlo Park," Inventor Thomas Edison, built the first practical light bulb and revolutionized the world.
The unusual life of David Vetter, who lived permanently inside a germ-free environment due to severe combined immunodeficiency.
At the height of segregation, an unlikely alliance between a black medical genius and a white surgeon led to a pioneering medical breakthrough.
Politics, culture, race relations, and technology in a year of change.
Engineered by William Barclay Parsons, the 21-mile, four-track route of the New York City Subway was the largest public works project in history.
George Eastman introduced the Kodak and Brownie camera systems and transformed photography into something anybody could do.
