History of transportation development in Alaska – roads and trails, airports, river transport, aviation, & more
John Ballaine was the entrepreneur primarily responsible for initiating construction of the Alaska Central Railway (ACR) across the Kenai Peninsula. He is also credited with founding the town on Seward, the southern terminus of...
Bert Bingle was a Presbyterian minister who came to Cordova in 1928 to serve the people along the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad, and then moved to Palmer in 1935 to start a church...
The dedication of the Alaska Highway on Nov. 20, 1942, received great publicity. However, stories often paid scant attention to the actual condition of the road when it first began accepting through traffic. The...
The Chilkat Pass corridor, crossing the Coast Mountains in Southeast Alaska, connects Lynn Canal with the Kluane Lake area of the Yukon Territory. The 1977 environmental impact statement for the Shakwak Project, a joint...
Buses have ferried Denali National Park and Preserve (originally Mt. McKinley National Park) visitors into the park for more than 80 years. The Fageol Safety Bus shown in the drawing (the most modern bus...
The engine in the drawing is Alaska Railroad No. 557, a Consolidation-type steam locomotive. Consolidation is the U.S. designation for the locomotive’s wheel-configuration – 2-8-0 – with 2 leading wheels, 8 drive wheels, and...
The painting is of McCallum’s or Yost’s Roadhouse, at Mile 203 of the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail. In 1905 a Mrs. McCallum began operating a roadhouse out of a small single-story log cabin on the east...
From the 1911 completion of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CR&NW) until the mid 1930s, Cordova’s economy was primarily dependent on the railway and the shipment of copper ore from the mines at...
Adventurer Clyde “Slim” Williams moved to Alaska in 1900. According to his biography, “Alaska Sourdough,” Slim lived in the Copper River Basin in the 1930s, and one fall, while buying supplies at Copper Center,...
It is hard to believe that the Iditarod Sled Dog Race is 50 years old. I remember the first Iditarod taking off from the streets of Anchorage. The following is reprinted (with permission) from...
