The good ole days of Alaska travel

King27 wrote:
Murray,
Was the Tok cutoff there in 1948?

Yes, there are many photos of it in the collection, some at easy-to-identify locations such as Mentasta Lake. Without checking, I'm quite sure that it was built at the same time as the Alaska Highway.

That's a long muddy road. I would have turned around. :(

Murray,
Was the Tok cutoff there in 1948?

I first drove out from Anchorage to Tennessee the last week of November 1962 and drove up to Delta Junction to get on the Alaskan Highway.

I don't remember it being available, or maybe I was advised to not use it. A 53 year old memory is not always accurate.

My cousin had some hair raising tales of that road in the 60's he worked as a drummer in a night club band in Whitehorse for two years. They traveled it in an Austin to Vancouver several times, the car had been totaled and rebuilt

mayo30 wrote:
How is the slide dated?Is it Kodak.What are the slide holder markings?35 mm?Quite remarkable!!

The slides are 35mm Kodachrome (except for 12 Anscochromes which the colour has faded/shifted on - as expected with E6 films), each captioned and dated by hand.

How is the slide dated?Is it Kodak.What are the slide holder markings?35 mm?Quite remarkable!!

Some of the vehicles on the road back then were as "interesting" as the roads! This fellow's wasn't particularly:



This was the Alaska Highway just north of Dawson Creek.

In the 70's my Dad bought a used 1959 International Harvester 4 wheel drive, 1 1/2 ton, dual rear wheel truck with a 10 ft custom chassis mounted camper. The camper was constructed of steel tube framing with the typical 50's styling interior and aluminum siding found on travel trailers of that era. The original owner had it built specifically for traveling from Southern California to Alaska for hunting and fishing trips.

My wife and I bought it from my Dad and that was our first RV. We had lots of great trips in it. We traded it in when we bought a new TT and truck in 1978. I have tried to find it many times over the years. It would be fun to have and restore...it probably got crushed and is part of some dam in China.

These are the roads it was setup to traverse.