American Experience | Building the Alaska Highway | Maps

Maps: The Last Frontier

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Economy
1 Unalaska	In the 18th-century, Unalaska became the first permanent Russian settlement in North America, and the center for a bustling, lucrative sea-otter fur trade. In the late 1930s, the U.S. government established a major military settlement there.

2 Dillingham	The world's largest run of red salmon, along with other Pacific salmon species, leave Bristol Bay for the lakes and rivers near Dillingham to spawn each year, making the area a commercial and sportfishing paradise. Around the turn of the 20th century, nearly a dozen salmon canneries opened in the Dillingham area.

3 Skagway	In the 1890s the small town of Skagway experienced a huge boom as the Klondike gold rush brought tens of thousands of fortune seekers to the area. The town was the start of the "Dead Horse Trail" into the Yukon -- and a base for saloons, hotels, and dance halls.

4 Whitehorse	After the development of the White Pass Railroad, Whitehorse in Canada's Yukon Territory became an important link between Skagway and the Yukon. Gold miners used the settlement as a way station and shipping center.

5 Cordova	Cordova's first fish cannery opened in 1889. Commercial fish processing is still the backbone of the town's economy today. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill devastated area wildlife, but after fifteen years some fish species have recovered.

6 Prudhoe Bay	The 1968 discovery of oil deposits at Prudhoe Bay started a modern-day rush to the top of the world. In the mid-1970s, as many as 28,000 workers built the Trans-Alaska Pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. Yields have been diminishing since 1988, but oil and gas revenues still account for the majority of Alaska's wealth.

7 Seward	The port town of Seward provides a popular jumping-off point to Kenai Fjords National Park, a paradise of glaciers and marine wildlife. Dozens of cruise ships make Seward a port of call, contributing significantly to the local economy.

8 Gulkana	With few roads and a vast interior, Alaska relies on planes more than most states. Commercial and bush pilots ferry tourists and commuters to and from 600 public airports and 3000+ airstrips. The Gulkana airport's notes for pilots include warnings of moose, bear, and caribou around the airport, clouds of migratory birds in spring, and the need for visual inspection before landing due to dangerous weather, winds, snow or other variables.

9 Fort Greely	The U.S. military established this post in World War II, and used it for testing various biological and chemical weapons during the Cold War. Slated for closing in 1995, Fort Greely found a new lease on life as a missile testing facility for the "Star Wars" National Missile Defense system -- returning Alaska to the front lines of homeland security for the first time since the Alaska Highway was built.
Environment	back to top
10 Glacier Bay National Park	This national park is home to ten tidewater glaciers and many species of wildlife, including humpback whales. The park's fast-retreating glaciers were spilling out into the strait when British explorer George Vancouver visited in 1794, but by 1879 environmentalist John Muir noted that the ice's 48-mile retreat had created Glacier Bay.

11 Denali National Park and Preserve	The centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve is North America's largest mountain peak, 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, which rises over 18,000 breathtaking feet from its base elevation. President Woodrow Wilson established the area as Mount McKinley National Park in 1917.

12 Pribilof Islands	Each summer, millions of fur seals migrate to the rocky shores of these islands to breed and raise offspring. Millions of migratory seabirds, including common murres, tufted puffins, and crested auklets, also arrive in summer to nest on the jagged cliffs.

13 Fort St. John	Unused to the region's terrain and climate, and rushing to build, the engineers working on the Alaska Highway made a fatal error at Charlie Lake, near Fort St. John in British Columbia. A makeshift raft transporting equipment across the lake succumbed to a sudden storm and overturned, drowning twelve of the men aboard.

14 Kodiak Island	Alaska's largest island gives its name to the celebrated Kodiak bear, a subspecies of brown or grizzly bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi). Kodiak bears are the world's largest land-based carnivores. Males typically weigh 800 pounds or more and may stand 10 feet tall on their hind legs. The bears of Kodiak enjoy salmon feasts during the fish's summer spawning season.

15 Shishmaref	Warmer, rising oceans have caused permafrost to melt recently at sites including the village of Shishmaref near the Arctic Circle. The changing climate has destroyed coastal homes and undermined the town water system, forcing Shishmaref's residents to consider evacuating the area.
Natives	back to top
16 Ketchikan	Tlingit natives first settled in rainy Ketchikan during salmon runs. They created totem poles with elaborately carved animals and symbols. Ketchikan's Totem Heritage Center displays more than 30 restored 19th-century totem poles.

17 Cold Bay	Alaska natives in the Aleutian Islands developed a tradition of crafting fine baskets with materials like ryegrass or eelgrass from areas including Izembek Lagoon.

18 Fort Nelson	The area around Fort Nelson in British Columbia was home to the Beaver and Sikanni Indian tribes. During the highway's construction, native guides were asked to help the builders plan routes through the forest.

19 Kotzebue	The Inupiaq people of this northwestern Alaska outpost rely on hunting and fishing, drying supplies of whale blubber and skin after their springtime whale hunts. The local tribal government has worked to better understand and manage the region's ecosystem, bringing together hunters and biologists to tag and study the bearded seals of Kotzebue Sound.

20 Toksook Bay	In January 1996, a thousand people gathered in Toksook to celebrate the opening of a unique exhibition of Yup'ik masks, historic objects that had been kept for decades in museum storerooms. The exhibit, called Agayuliyararput: Our Way of Making Prayer, toured the United States and introduced thousands to these lost artifacts.

21 Barrow	The northernmost settlement in the U.S. is home to Alaska's largest Inupiat community. Barrow, where dog-sledding is possible year-round and where the midnight sun doesn't set for almost three months in summertime, features the Inupiat Heritage Center and, each June, a local celebration of whaling called the Nalukataq Festival.

22 Klo-Kut Archaeological Site	The Alaskan interior is rich with prehistorical and historical settlement sites -- many unexplored. The Klo-Kut site near the Yukon-Charley National Preserve has shown archaeologists the longest continuous record of Athabaskan native life -- 1,500 years of history. Mountain-based communities of caribou hunters and salmon fishers, the northern Athabaskan people were overrun by fortune seekers during the Klondike gold rush.
Population	back to top
23 Sitka	In 1870, the U.S. Army conducted a census in the former Russian colonial capital of Sitka. The population count was 391 Russians and Creoles, 49 Americans (not counting military personnel), and an estimated 1,200 Native Alaskans. The total population of the territory numbered no more than 33,000.

24 Dawson Creek	During the Second World War, the population of Dawson Creek, the starting point for the Alaska Highway, increased from 500 to 20,000 people.

25 Juneau	Alaska had about 224,000 residents when it became a state in 1959, with Juneau as its capital. Today, half of that city's working people are employed by the federal, state, or local government.

26 Kupreanof	Over 40% of the 626,932 Alaskans counted in the 2000 census live in the Anchorage area. But the state's smallest incorporated place is quiet Kupreanof, an island with 23 residents that incorporated in 1975 to prevent annexation by the nearby town of Petersburg.
Settlements	back to top
27 McCarthy	This town was built by the Kennicott Copper Corporation to house the workers of the very profitable metal mine. The mines operated 24 hours a day from 1911 until 1938, producing more than half a million tons of copper.

28 Nome	Twenty Anchorage dog sled drivers successfully completed a celebrated mission in February of 1925, delivering a diphtheria serum to Nome after a number of children were exposed to the disease.

29 Tok	Tok started as an Alaska Road Commission camp. Its original name was Tokyo Camp, but people shortened it to Tok. So much money was spent on building up and maintaining the settlement that the highway builders referred to it as "Million Dollar Camp."

30 Delta Junction	The Alaska Highway met the existing Richardson Highway at Delta Junction, a road construction camp formerly known as Buffalo Center. In the 1920s, American bison had been introduced to the area.

31 Valdez	In the 1970s, after Valdez was chosen as the southern end of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the small settlement became a booming oil town. Today, massive oil tanks dominate the landscape along with the stunning glaciers and mountains of Prince William Sound.
Transportation	back to top
32 Copper Center	Alaska's mountainous terrain made road-building close to impossible, and early transportation throughout the territory relied heavily on water routes. Alaska's first highway was the Richardson Highway, from Valdez to Fairbanks, constructed in the 1920s. It passes near the old mining town of Copper Center.

33 Nenana	Nenana was chosen as the construction base for the northern extension of Alaska's railroad system in 1916. The first American president to visit Alaska, Warren Harding, hammered in a golden spike at the railroad's opening ceremony.

34 Anchorage	In 1915, Anchorage became the starting point for an Alaskan railroad. The town's inhabitants profited from the booming transportation business, and as the population grew, Anchorage became a travel hub.

35 Watson Lake	Watson Lake, British Columbia was home to an airfield used for defense and to aid construction on the Northwest Staging Route.

36 Northway	A World War II-era airport at this location, one of the chain in the Northwest Staging Route, led to the growth of the settlement of Northway.

37 Peace River	Peace River boasted the longest bridge on the Alaska Highway. It spanned 2,130 feet and cost a total of four million dollars to erect.

38 Atigun Pass	The rough, gravel-paved Dalton Highway "haul road" extends over 400 miles north from the Elliot Highway near Fairbanks to the oil services town of Deadhorse in Alaska's North Slope. Atigun Pass, at the continental divide, is Alaska's highest pass (elevation 4739 feet).

39 Pelican	The state-run Alaska Marine Highway ferry offers connections to far-flung coastal areas, including a 37-hour ride linking Alaska to the lower 48 at Bellingham, Washington. One infrequent stop is quiet Pelican in Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage. Pelican's buildings are erected on pilings near a ten-foot-wide boardwalk that extends along the coast for more than a mile.

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