Alaska Highway trailblazer recalls incident at Mile 160

By Karla MarshSpecial to the AHN

In 1942, young Alex Wagner got a job blazing trail for a new military highway to Alaska. The road was to be built through largely unmapped territory, creating a demand for men to guide the highway builders into a vast northern wilderness.

Alex Wagner is second from left in this photo (plaid shirt).

With 10 years experience in the Peace Country and having worked at an isolated trading post on the Halfway River, Alex Wagner qualified as one of those men.

There were two employers of trailblazers for the Alaska Highway in 1942, the American Army and the Public Roads Administration. It was for the PRA that Alex went to work.

The PRA, who were American civilians, had the task of upgrading and improving the “pioneer road” after initial construction by the American Army.

Sometimes they completely relocated sections of the road and it was for this reason that they needed trailblazers and pack horses at their disposal.

The PRA required men to bid on the trailblazing jobs at so much per horse. Alex remembers signing on at two dollars per day per horse, with the PRA supplying the food.

With his string of eight horses, Alex, PRA personnel and other local men with horses set out from a PRA camp between Fort St. John and Charlie Lake.

The horses carried food, tents, tools and all manner of supplies needed for a crew of men to work in the timber.

Blazing about eight or 10 miles per day, the party had made it to about Mile 160 when it appeared that something had gone wrong. The ration crew that brought food supplies up the line every Saturday didn’t arrive.

Thinking that a delay of some sort might have kept the ration crew, they waited until Monday. When Monday arrived and still there were no fresh supplies, the PRA boss became concerned.

Alex was instructed to ride back to the last camp to see what had happened.

When Alex arrived at the camp, he found it deserted.

The next day, he rode the 20 or so miles back to the second to last camp and found it deserted too.

By this time everyone was getting hungry and they had no choice but to leave their work and go 20 or so miles east to another construction site.

There they were told that they should have returned 10 days ago. Orders for the party to turn around had been given but somehow they had never reached them in the field.