Digital Bob Archive

The first actual construction work on a road from Taku Inlet in the general direction of Atlin was not done by the Alaska Road Commission or any other federal agency, but by the Territorial Road Commission, a creation of the Alaska Legislature. That was back in 1917, and today many people are surprised when they learn that there was any such construction, or even that there was a territorial road-building agency that early.

Nathan H. Coombs of Nome was the father of the territorial road agency; his House Bill 14 was signed into law on April 28, 1915. It provided for four road districts, one in each judicial division and each with a Road Commissioner. The Legislature selected the first Commissioners; thereafter they were elected in the General Elections.

Although that first law was amended many times, it essentially remained in effect until repealed in 1941. Under the original law, the Commissioners were compensated by receiving 5 per cent of all money expended through their offices. The law appropriated for building and maintaining roads, trails and bridges 75 per cent of all money paid to Alaska from receipts of the Chugach and Tongass National Forest. The money so received was divided equally among the four road divisions. At the outset this amounted to around $50,000 a year for each division.

As he had been doing since 1898, Percy Pond, Juneau photographer, continued to promote a transportation link with the Canadian mining town of Atlin. In June, 1917, he got Ed Hurlbutt, the Territorial Road Commissioner for the First Division, and Captain J.C. Mehaffey, U.S. Army, on the staff of the Alaska Road Commission, to accompany him to the mouth of the Taku to make another road reconnaissance.

This time, however, Pond's efforts bore some fruit, and early in August work actually began on the road, under the supervision of Hurlbutt with Frank Metcalfe as his assistant. In a report to Governor Thomas A. Riggs, Hurlbutt wrote that the road would encourage homesteaders, including those already in the Taku Valley, and would assist prospectors. He added that it might induce the Canadians to extend the road from Atlin toward the Taku.

A 60-foot right-of-way was laid out from Bullard's Landing and across his homestead. Much of it was over grass flats but some clearing of spruce and cottonwoods was necessary. The road itself had a width of 20 feet. The construction camp was reported to include a big log cabin for a kitchen and diningroom, with frame buildings and tents for sleeping quarters and a log stable under construction.

Total expenditures on the road in 1917 were $13,342.46, including $11,212.79 in labor and camp expense. Those expenses were distributed over about six miles of the road, three miles of which were practically complete by the end of the season. It also included some 700 feet of heavy rock removal. With that kind of start, proponents of the road to Atlin looked forward to even greater progress in 1918.

They were doomed to disappointment.