Caution: Caribou Migration in Progress. It was a road sign I had never seen before, so I was on high alert. I counted six white-tailed does, one buck, and a bull moose in the span of thirty minutes. When I came upon a black bear with two cubs casually walking up my side of the road, they were so wide-eyed and innocent that I had to remind myself that cuddling them would not be the cozy experience I imagined. The watched-for caribou remained elusive.
Any disappointment was soon forgotten, however, as I crossed into British Columbia on Highway 2. I was heading for Dawson Creek and Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. This was historic.
Before the Second World War, the Canadian Northwest had been decidedly isolated and largely unknown. Its few residents survived on subsistence hunting and trapping. But in 1942, the Canadian government gave the U.S. Army access to the land and resources in the shared interest of defense against Japan. Labouring under the urgency that followed the bombing of Pearl Harbour, and with little understanding of environmental issues or the challenges of construction on top of permafrost, the occupying army began the monumental task of building a road that would connect airfields all
