And there were other fields in alaska between the year can between yukon border. They decided to build a military highway from rail and at British Columbia to fairbanks, alaska. To link up and supply these airfields and to provide emergency access to alaska for troops immaterial. Troops and material. This highway would extend 1500ly 5000 miles, miles. About the distance from washington to denver. Dawsons creek saw the arrival of the first Army Engineers group in march, 1942. In all there were seven engineer regiments, or about 10,000 men. Their immediate job was to break through a pioneer road. A road without thrills, but a road which could be said used to supply the airfield and construct a permanent road later. All spring and summer the troops hacked and gouged their way through the wilderness. There were colored as well as white troops. Both do their fair share. They cut around mountainsides and across valleys. They built bridges over mountains and fullfledged rivers. Finally on the 20th of november, 1942, eight months after the first troops plunged into the northern bush, the pioneer road from Dawsons Creek to fairbanks was officially opened. They rode through. Fairbanks, founded 40 years ago as a goldmining camp, was already in modern Middle America city in the heart of the alaskan wilderness. Of course, the highway was still largely a winter road, usable in some sections only on the ground was frozen. Its bridges were temporary and many would be washed out by the ice and floods in the spring. Even during the winter, bridges over active streams were sometimes covered by ice and logs had to be laid across them and cemented in place by water to keep the trucks from breaking through. And there were other hazards. Active springs filled amounts of ice chad to befall had to be thought constantly. Thawed constantly. When ice mushroomed over the road it had to be cleared. Even at 40 below. Or a truck might stall in a ditch where ice was falling. And while the driver went for help, it would be frozen fast. It was too steep, especially when they became icy. Announcer recently, American History tv was at the american historical situations annual meeting in denver, colorado. Spoke with professors come authors and graduate students about the research. This interview is about 20 minutes. Gentleman is that jennifer mittelstadt. We did you mean by your book title . Jennifer i am trained by a scholar of