Recreational Resources of the Alaska Highway and Other Roads in Alaska

Cover

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Summary

The Allure of Alaska

Means of Access to Alaska

Major Roads of Alaska

Provisions for Recreational Use

A Plan for Recreational Facilities

Putting the Plan into Effect

Recreational Resources of the Alaska Highway and Other Roads in Alaska

THE TRAGIC WASTE OF WAR is deplored by most civilized peoples. Even to those whose professional careers are dedicated to the waging of war, its toll in property values, industrial plants, natural resources, and human lives is staggering. Instances are few when the instrumentalities of war can be made to serve a useful purpose in time of peace. The failure to take full advantage of such limited opportunities offered is as wasteful as the willful destruction of natural resources.

Figure 1—The Alaskan scene.

The construction of the Alaska Highway was the result of the military need for an overland route to Alaska and the necessity to service a chain of air fields that had been established along the route. Its value to the normal development of the great Territory to which it provides an additional means of access had long been stressed. Its construction had been urged by many of those most conversant with Alaska's potentialities.

After peace has been restored, this highway will serve as an artery for the flow of civilian travel between the States and Alaska. Some of this travel will be for business reasons; by far the larger share will be of travelers upon vacations bent. It is probable that many of those who will go to see will be influenced to remain or to return and become permanent residents of the great northern land.

The Alaskan portions of the Highway lie almost entirely in virgin country. They pass through lands still in public ownership. The same is largely true of other roads within the Territory which are joined by the Alaska Highway to form the nucleus of a coordinated system.

It is essential and timely that plans be laid for the protection of the scenic, scientific, and historical features of lands immediately adjacent to this system of highways, and for their proper utilization for recreational purposes. With such objectives in mind the National Park Service has prepared this report, RECREATIONAL RESOURCES OF THE ALASKA HIGHWAY AND OTHER ROADS IN ALASKA. It covers one phase of the larger program of helping Alaska to use wisely the resources that have now been made more easily available.

HAROLD L. ICKES, Secretary of the Interior.

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Last Modified: Mon, Sep 6 2004 10:00:00 pm PDT
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/alaska/foreword.htm