Roads

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Before the gold rush, little had changed in overland transportation in Alaska for thousands of years. The Russians and the first Americans built almost no new trails or roads. Most early Russian and American settlements were on the ocean where roads were not needed. Interior settlements relied on water transportation in summer and sled transportation in winter to move their cargoes of furs and supplies. Early explorers, traders, and prospectors followed centuries-old Native trail networks. But the population boom and new towns of the Gold Rush, created a need for improved transportation networks.

At the height of the Gold Rush in 1898, the U.S. Army sent explorers to Alaska to look for potential overland routes from ice-free ports to the Yukon River. The Army sent parties to investigate the Susitna, Matanuska, and Copper River valleys. The best route appeared to be north from Valdez, through the Copper River valley. The following year, the Army started to build the first long road in Alaska. Called the Trans-Alaska Military Road, it connected Valdez, on the Pacific coast, with Eagle, on the Yukon River.

A few years later, a Senate committee studied Alaska's transportation situation. The committee recommended that the War Department build a system of trails in Alaska and upgrade the Valdez-Eagle trail to a wagon road. To pay for the work, Congress authorized the use of 70 percent of the business license fees collected in Alaska. Men living outside of towns gave two days of labor or eight dollars cash toward road-building each year. Congress also created the Alaska Road Commission (ARC) to oversee the construction and maintenance of roads and trails. After Alaska became a territory in 1912, the Territorial Legislature replaced the 1904 road tax law with a four-dollar tax on every taxpayer. Between 1920 and 1933 the budget for the ARC was about $500,000 annually; about 40% was from territorial taxes, and 60% from Congress.

Alaska Road and Trails in 1918

Between 1905 and 1932, the ARC built 1,231 miles of roads, 74 miles of tram road, 1,495 miles of sled roads, 4,732 miles of trails, and 32 winter shelter cabins. The total cost was over $18 million, nearly $12 million of which had come from the War Department. Of this mileage, the ARC considered the 419 miles of the Valdez to Fairbanks road its most important accomplishment. It was named the Richardson Highway after the first head of the ARC, Wilds P. Richardson.

In 1913, the ARC sent an army truck on an experimental journey over the Richardson Highway. Between July 28 and August 19, the truck completed a 922-mile round trip, including a side trip to Chitina, averaging about 50 miles per day. This was about double the mileage that could be covered in one day by a horse-drawn wagon or sled. By 1919, automobiles and trucks made up about 90 percent of the traffic moving over Alaskan wagon roads.

By 1936, the Alaska Road Commission was beginning to abandon some roads due to a decline in mining activity and increased air service, making some trail routes obsolete. In that year, some 79 airplanes were in service in Alaska, carrying nearly 17,000 passengers, over two million pounds of freight, and over 275,000 pounds of mail.

"Fairbanks or Bust" on the Richardson Hgwy

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