Reprinted from the Alaska Highway News
Friday marks 70 years since Canada took over responsibility for the B.C. and Yukon sections of the Alaska Highway from the U.S. Military.
The Fort St. John North Peace Museum will be celebrating the occasion Friday night with a presentation on the transfer of the highway between the two countries on April 1, 1946.
The presentation begins at 7 p.m. and includes a historical look back on the eight-month effort to build the highway during the throes of the Second World War, a re-enactment of the transfer between the two countries, and a look at the "challenges faced by the Canadians who took it over" before the highway was opened to civilian traffic.
The first U.S. troops arrived in Dawson Creek on March 2, 1942, with others being dispatched north to Fort Nelson, Whitehorse and points in Alaska to build the highway in sections.
The highway was officially opened on Nov. 20, 1942, and the Royal Canadian Engineers were tasked with maintaining and improving the road beginning April 1, 1946, shortly after the war ended.
For more information, contact the museum at 250-787-0430 or editor@ahnfsj.ca
See more at: Alaska Highway News
For a full accounting of the history and organisation of the RCE’s Northwest Highway System *NWHS), see Chapter XIII of The History of the Canadian Military Engineers, Volume III.