The Trail of '42: A Pictorial History of the Alaska Highway

Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1989. 2nd Revised Printing. Soft Cover. Very Good. Black & white photograghs and maps. A history of the construction of the Alaska Highway (American and Canadian National Defense). A Brief View of the Contents: Early Highway Proposals; American and Canadian Defenses; Northwest Staging Route; Proposed Routes; Initial Construction; Keeping the Supplies Coming; White Pass & Yukon Railway; Bridges; Camp Life. "Anyone who travels the Alaska Highway today would be hard pressed to imagine the hardships associated with the building of the road."  "This well-illustrated book has gone through at least 25 printings, and according to a blurb on its cover, over 100,000 copies have been sold. It might be difficult to believe a book about a highway could sell so many copies, but "The Trail of '42" illuminates an under-reported story of World War II: the defense of the West Coast of North America. After the fall of France in 1940, the United States and Canada set up a Canadian-American Permanent Joint Board of Defense to oversee all defense policies for both countries, and this included the construction of the Alaska Highway. According to this author, the Japanese were "greatly disturbed over reported plans for building a military highway from the United States to Alaska through western Canada." They felt it was part of a plot to encircle Japan. Once Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, the North American west coast lay open to invasion, and there were no more questions about whether a road was needed to move supplies and soldiers through some of the most difficult terrain on the continent. Pack trains had to be used during the early construction phase, and photographs in this book show horses up to their hocks in the mud of the Canadian taiga. It was not an easy road to build. Construction workers posed for the camera with their eyes almost swollen shut from black fly and mosquito bites. One photograph depicts a Yukon camp where three inches of snow had fallen on May 4, 1942. There are numerous pictures of cars and construction equipment stuck in the mud, or frozen into rivers. A photograph of one of the worst of the aquatic disasters is labeled: "A 4-ton Diamond T truck loaded with beer for a July 4th party dropped off [its] barge." Although "The Trail of '42" is primarily a pictorial history, the supporting text is also very interesting. It ends with a few brief paragraphs on the post-construction fate of the highway after the United States Army turned it over to Canadian civilians and the Alaska Road Commission. I wish this book could have been longer, as it has quite a fascinating story to tell. It also would have been nice if the book's maps had been drawn a bit more clearly." -- review by E. A. Lovitt. Cover shows moderate wear with a curled lower front corner, permanently curved, and those first pages had their ends folded over. There are creases along the spine hinges and the front cover has two creases. The corners are bumped. Inside covers are tanned at their edges. There is a little smudging to the cover surface.