Guide to the Alaska Highway Alberta-British Columbia Division construction records
1942 March-September
Collection number: HMC-1463.
Creator: Brown, Levant.
United States. Public Roads Administration.
Title: Alaska Highway Alberta-British Columbia Division construction records.
Dates: 1942 March-September.
Volume of collection: 0.25 cubic feet.
Language of materials: Collection materials are entirely in English.
Collection summary: Records likely collected by a senior highway engineer from the construction of Section F of the Alaska Highway.
Historical note:
Construction of the Alaska Highway began in March 1942 shortly after the United States entered World War II. Although earlier lobbying attempts had been made in Congress for a road connecting Alaska to the contiguous United States, it was not until the bombing at Pearl Harbor that the United States pursued the project as a necessity of war. As such, the project proceeded quickly; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Public Roads Administration, and a host of contractors completed construction of the pioneer road in October 1942. Occasionally called the Alaska-Canada or Alcan Highway, the 1500-mile Alaska Highway stretches from Dawson Creek in Canada to Big Delta in Alaska.
Collection description:
This collection contains administrative records in support of the initial construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 including correspondence, notes, letters of memoranda, select employee and contractor lists, expense reports, and maps. The records mainly focus on the construction in Section F and the Dawson Creek to Cutbank River segment (mile 0 to mile 20.6 of the original highway route). The records appear to have been retained by Levant Brown, a senior highway engineer with the Public Works Administration. The title of the collection is taken from the folder in which the records arrived.
Arrangement: This collection is in the original order in which it arrived.
Digitized copies: This collection has not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.
Rights note: In general, federal government documents are not subject to copyright restrictions. The Archives does not hold copyright to this collection. If you believe you are the copyright holder to this collection, please contact the Archives.
Preferred citation: Alaska Highway Alberta-British Columbia Division construction records, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.
Works used in preparation of inventory:
“Alaska Highway 75th Anniversary,” Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities website. Last accessed May 21, 2024: https://dot.alaska.gov/nreg/akhwy75/akhwy75.shtml
“Contributions and Crossroads Alaska Highway Fact Sheet,” Federal Highway Administration website. Last accessed May 21, 2024: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/candc/factsheets/alaskahighway.pdf
Related materials: It is likely that duplicate copies of federal records from the Public Roads Administration are available in Record Group 30 at the National Archives. For more archival collections on the construction of the Alaska Highway, please see our “Alaska Highway construction collections” topic guide.
Acquisition note: Del Thorngren donated this collection to the Archives in 2012 after purchasing them at a garage sale.
Processing information: This collection was described by Becky Butler in 2024. Papers were removed from their original folder. Metal paper clips and staples were removed for preservation purposes.