Disrespect along the Alaska Highway

I wish I was nearby the monument the OP first listed. With a Mr. Clean Magic eraser and a can of spray paint I would have it as good as new. Getting something like that writing off as soon as possible is the best way to keep additional from being added. If a person can't take care of the problem, then call a government agency to see if they can help.

Several years ago I was staying at the Hi Country RV park in Whitehorse, for a few days. I was so impressed with the way the men's shower/rest room was maintained, I made it a point to talk to one of the owners, Mrs King, I believe was her hame. Told her how much I appreciated the cleanness and especially the fresh flowers that were setting around in there. She said she grew the flowers herself and they had found that the better they kept the restrooms, the less mess they found. Almost zero graffiti to deal with compared to when they first purchased the campground. Later when my wife and I owned a gift shop in western Colorado, we tried to adopt the same philosophy with our public restroom and it really works. Keep the place spotless, keep fresh flowers out, plenty of supplies available to the users and they will help take care of the place.

Disney World has sure figured out the same idea for the way they keep Fort Wilderness Campground. No flowers by they keep the place spotless most of the time, multiple trash pickups a day, comfort stations cleaned multiple times a day, checked hourly by management, roads vacuumed every morning, etc.

I too have seen some real messes in Alaska, usually close to towns but not always. Some of the biggest messes have been caused by the US Government, mainly the military and their civilian contractors. There are so many remote, secret type bases/stations, scattered throughout the state, mostly dating back to the cold war days with the Soviets. To close them, they loaded the personal on a plane and were gone, leaving most everything behind, soon to become a real mess as folks from nearby communities would come to salvage what they wanted. Wild animals wandered through, windows broken, doors torn off, just a real mess. In most cases way beyond the size/ability for private citizens to clean up.

In the Galena area, about 300 miles west of Fairbanks where I lived for several years, there was a military installation (s) and several outlying smaller facilities, mainly radar dome station. Galena was originally build as part of the WWII Lend Lease Act with the Soviet where we would lend them military aircraft, etc. The Alaska Hwy was part of this scheme and one of the reasons it was built. At first the US pilots, many of them women, delivered the fighter aircraft to Ladd Field in Fairbanks but due to so many of the Soviet pilots taking over there to fly back to Siberia and crashing. It was decided for the US to deliver the planes on 300 miles west to the refueling station at Galena and on to Nome. This worked better for the Soviet pilots as it make two less landing for them to have to make successfully. But the surrounding area, around Galena from the days of the Soviet pilots, is scattered with the remains of wrecked WWII fighter aircraft. I have prowled around through many of them. Finally was able to get a map of known wrecks from the Air Force so we didn't have to keep reporting when we found them. Some still had the machine guns on board and personal gear (govt issued) but no human remains as I am sure the wild animals removed them long ago.

Most of the fuel for these planes was sent in on summer barges in 55 gal metal drums. Galena was an area that floods frequently (it sits on the banks of the Yukon River) so prior to them building a dike around the base, like New Orleans does, the drums got washed down river. We would find numerous old drums back in the willows at times, some still full of 30 year old gasoline or diesel. Never tried to use any of it.

Not a lot different than the ranch country of southern Oklahoma where I grew up and everyone had their own dump. Ours was an old dry creek bend which the previous property owners had used and the owners before them and so forth. We used burn barrels for trash and when they got full, they were emptied over the edge. Probably considered littering these days as we are all supposed to throw our trash together into one big pile and call it a landfill and that makes it OK I guess.

Anyway I hope some local will go clean up the monument and make it look good again. Someone go do it and post a photo and we will give you lots of "at a boys" or "at a girl" pats of the back.

free radical wrote:
Unfortunately,There are people everywhere that have no respect for anything,was looking for info on Yukon and found this

https://youtu.be/bZD2DTnNo7c

I remember a time when every remote town had a dump like that. People would go at night and jacklight rats. Take the kids on weekends to watch the bears having a snack.

Unfortunately,There are people everywhere that have no respect for anything,was looking for info on Yukon and found this

https://youtu.be/bZD2DTnNo7c

That's very funny, Gary.

It's always an interesting thing..watching how people post and what they say different times. 'Explorenorth'..some time go there was thread running on here about people visiting Quebec and some language issues and you ventured your opinion which was.."The French language is an interesting and important part of the culture and history of my country. It's an expensive nuisance in mine - but I seldom hear it in the Yukon or anywhere else, and I won't be going to Quebec." That was disresptful as well.

I had thought then, that I should say something, but chose not to. Now..I don't feel quite so bound.


Gary Haupt

While I agree that the writing in marker is the wrong way and wrong place to voice that concern, I do not see it as disrespectful to the soldier nor would I class it as Vandalism...both are overreaching if not outright overblown.

The sentiment is genuine and of a respectful nature and the person who did it was probably well intentioned, but juvenile in it's execution.

It's unfortunate but I would have just cleaned it off and notified the museum of what I had done and why.

Sometimes a case is better made subtly than with hyperbole.

The plaque looked very different when I shot this photo in 2002:

Antique stores call that patina. Removing it devalues the piece. I don't know what anyone saw wrong with it. If you stopped to look at it, its appearance dates if from the time period and makes it all look more authentic.

Back in the day when the highway was still all gravel there were very few travelers and most of those really respected it and their fellow travelers. (Strangers were just friends you hadn't met yet.) But as the conditions on the highway improved it allowed more and more riff-raff from the cities to venture out into the wild and bring their "culture" with them.

A very similar thing happened to the Territory of Alaska after it became a State. Sad to see the mess the Cheechalkers have made of God's Country in both Canada and Alaska.

In theory, yes, but who exactly might spend the time and money to repair that vandalism out in the middle of nowhere when it gets warm enough to paint again in 6 months?

Perhaps the same museum that did the restoration in 2009 should they be informed about it. Other than a potential safety issue, seems like a good boy scout/eagle scout project.