In 1977 oil began to flow south from the Arctic through the controversial Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). This study considers the TAPS proposal and controversy as an extension (even a culmination) of established processes, policies, and attitudes within Alaska history, American environmental history, and the history of conservation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This is the first detailed account of the 5,000 black troops who were reluctantly sent north by the United States Army during World War II to help build the Alaska Highway and install the companion Canol pipeline. Theirs were the first black regiments deployed outside the lower 48 states during the war. The enlisted men, most of them from the South, faced racial discrimination from white officers, were barred from entering any towns for fear they would procreate a "mongrel" race with local women, and endured winter conditions they had never experienced before. Despite this, they won praise for their dedication and their work. Congress in 2005 said that the wartime service of the four regiments covered here contributed to the eventual desegregation of the Armed Forces.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a fear of invasion swept North America—particularly the West Coast. Immediate steps needed to be taken to defend the Far Northwest. With Canada’s approval, Washington drew up plans for an Alaska Highway to connect Edmonton, Alberta, with Fairbanks, Alaska, and a pipeline to connect oil fields in the Northwest Territories with the Pacific Coast. Between 1942 and 1946, about 40,000 American military and civilian personnel invaded the Canadian Northwest. Where there had been few or no roads, a highway more than 1,500 miles long was built in less than a year. Navigation facilities were improved, and pipelines were laid from Fairbanks to the Pacific. Airfields were upgraded and new ones built, and a telephone network was constructed. The Northwest was totally unprepared for this friendly invasion. The Alaska Highway ran through semi-wilderness where many inhabitants pursued a nomadic lifestyle, and towns and settlements were overwhelmed by the American “army of occupation.” This lively history of an American civil and military engineering milestone draws on interviews with veterans and local residents and research in Canadian and U.S. archives. The participants’ stories provide humor and insights on the building of this transformational highway.
In the 1970s, the world's largest construction companies invaded Alaska in a wild rush to build the 800-mile $8 billion trans-Alaska pipeline. Workers by the tens of thousands headed north, hoping to make their fortunes working on the pipeline, in a stampede that dramatically affected Alaska. With the avalanche of big money and new arrivals came new problems: drugs, prostitution, gambling, and violent crime. Rapid economic and social changes ultimately touched the lives of virtually every Alaskan. Journalist Dermot Cole, dean of the Alaska press corps, recalls the best of the pipeline stories with humor, authenticity, and drama.
This collection of oral histories of life in Nabesna, interior Alaska, focusses on the biography of Walter Northway and provides accounts of Indian life over the past century. Includes a family tree and translations from Upper Tanana.
