Carcross during World War II

During World War II, Carcross played an important role in construction of the Alaska Highway because its connection between the White Pass rail and water transportation systems gave the U.S. Army access to the Yukon interior. By early 1942, residents were already aware of the war as many young men had joined the armed forces and families followed news from Europe, but that spring the conflict came much closer when 1200 Black troops of the 93rd Engineers arrived by train. More than 10,000 soldiers would pass through town, and Carcross became a distribution centre for road construction east to Teslin and northwest to Whitehorse. That fall, Bechtel-Price-Callahan, contractor for the Canol pipeline, established a supply camp near the railway station. It was a busy period, with as many as 25 trains a day moving through town, army trucks carrying supplies to outlying road camps, and military planes using the small airport. Local people found abundant work: Johnnie Johns, a well-known big game outfitter, leased and sold horses to advance parties for both Alaska Highway construction and the Canol Project, while Johnnie and Peter Johns guided army surveyors through the country they knew well. Other aboriginal people worked in many jobs, from cutting logs for telephone poles to chauffeuring a general along the barely completed highway. The town's services were modernized as civilian contractors provided many buildings with electricity and year-round piped water, and communications improved when the gold rush era telegraph line along the railway was replaced by an eight-wire telephone and telegraph service. The wartime influx also brought tragedy, as many Tagish and Tlingit people were infected with diseases introduced by the soldiers, and despite the efforts of army doctors and devoted nursing by family members, many Indians died from measles, chicken pox, and dysentery. The soldiers and contractors left as quickly as they had arrived, but the network of roads they left behind permanently altered the character of the community.

Yukon · Canada