Tok is a census-designated place (CDP) in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 1,243 at the 2020 census, slightly down from 1,258 in 2010.
Glennallen is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Copper River Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population of the CDP was 439, down from 483 in 2010. It is the most populated community in the census area.
Valdez is a city in the Chugach Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to the 2020 US Census, the population of the city is 3,985, up from 3,976 in 2010. It is the third most populated city in Alaska's Unorganized Borough.
The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska across Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. When it was completed in 1942, it was about 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) long, but in 2012, it was only 2,232 km (1,387 mi). This is due to the realignments of the highway over the years, which has rerouted and straightened many sections. The highway opened to the public in 1948. Once legendary for being a rough, challenging drive, the highway is now paved over its entire length. Its component highways are British Columbia Highway 97, Yukon Highway 1, and Alaska Route 2.
The Richardson Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 368 miles (562 km) and connecting Valdez to Fairbanks. It is marked as Alaska Route 4 from Valdez to Delta Junction and as Alaska Route 2 from there to Fairbanks. It also connects segments of Alaska Route 1 between the Glenn Highway and the Tok Cut-Off. The Richardson Highway was the first major road built in Alaska.
The Edgerton Highway is a minor highway in the U.S. state of Alaska that extends 33 miles (53 km) from the Richardson Highway near Copper Center to the town of Chitina. The McCarthy Road, within the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, is a 58-mile (93 km) extension from Chitina to McCarthy.
The Steese Highway is a highway in the Interior region of the U.S. state of Alaska that extends 161 miles (259 km) from Fairbanks to Circle, a town on the Yukon River about 50 miles (80 km) south of the Arctic Circle. The highway was completed in 1927 and is named for U.S. Army General James G. Steese, a former president of the Alaska Road Commission. It is paved for about the first 81 miles (130 km) and around the town of Central it turns to dirt and gravel. Much of it is narrow and winding.
Alaska Route 1 (AK-1) is a state highway in the southern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It runs from Homer northeast and east to Tok by way of Anchorage. It is one of two routes in Alaska to contain significant portions of freeway: the Seward Highway in south Anchorage and the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and Palmer.
Alaska Route 2 is a state highway in the central and east-central portions of the U.S. state of Alaska. It runs from Manley Hot Springs to the Canada–United States border, passing through Fairbanks and Delta Junction. Alaska Route 2 includes the entire length of the Alaska Highway in the state, the remainder of the highway being in the Yukon Territory and British Columbia, Canada.
The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (DOT&PF) is a department within the government of Alaska. Its headquarters are in Alaska's capital city, Juneau. The mission of Alaska DOT&PF is to "Keep Alaska Moving through service and infrastructure."The Alaska Department of Transportation was established on July 1, 1977, by Alaska Highway Commissioner Walter Parker during the administration of Governor Jay Hammond. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities merged the former departments of Highways and Public Works.
The Johansen Expressway is a 4.2-mile-long (6.8 km) expressway in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. The Johansen Expressway serves as a northern bypass to the city, and is notable for being the only highway in Alaska to have exit numbers.
The Sourdough Lodge was built in Alaska between 1903 and 1905 of logs. It was one of a number of roadhouses built along the Valdez Trail. The roadhouses were about 15 miles (24 km) apart and offered shelter for travelers and road construction crews. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978 as it was the oldest continuously-operating roadhouse in Alaska.
Wilds Preston Richardson was an officer of the United States Army notable for being an explorer and geographer of Alaska in the early decades of the 20th century. During World War I, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and, because of his cold weather experience, sent to lead the Polar Bear Expedition, part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. Richardson retired after the war and died in Washington, D.C., in 1929.
Isabel Pass is a 40 mile long gap in the eastern section of the Alaska Range which serves as a corridor for the Richardson Highway about 11 miles from Paxson. It is named after the wife of E. T. Barnette, who helped found Fairbanks. The pass separates four regions, the Tanana Valley to the north, the Delta Mountains to the east, Copper River Basin to the south, and the Hayes Range to the west.
Prospect Mountain is a mountain located in the town of Lake George in Warren County, New York. New York State Route 917A, an unsigned reference route also known as Prospect Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway, is a toll road maintained by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and is the highway by which one reaches the summit at 5.88 miles (9.46 km), where a view for one hundred miles (160 km) can be seen.
Thompson Pass is a 2,600 foot-high gap in the Chugach Mountains northeast of Valdez, Alaska. It is the snowiest weather station in Alaska, recording 500 inches or 13 metres of snow per year on average. In the winter of 1952–1953, 974.1 inches or 25 metres of snow fell—the most ever recorded in one season at one location in Alaska. It is not the most snow ever recorded in one season at one location anywhere in the fifty states as that record belongs to Mount Baker Ski Resort at 1,140 inches or 29 metres in 1998–99. The pass also holds the Alaska record for the most snow in a single day: 62 inches or 1.6 metres fell on December 29, 1955.
Rika's Landing Roadhouse, also known as Rika's Landing Site or the McCarty Roadhouse, is a roadhouse located at a historically important crossing of the Tanana River, in the Southeast Fairbanks Area, Alaska, United States. It is off mile 274.5 of the Richardson Highway in Big Delta.
The Valdez-Trail is an historic early trail in southern Alaska. It is a section of unpaved roadway, eight to ten feet in width, that extends roughly northward from milepost 106.5 of the Richardson Highway, between Copper Center and Glennallen. It is a rare surviving segment of the original Valdez Trail, the first major road built in Alaska, which extends 700 miles (1,100 km) from Valdez into the Alaskan interior. This segment was constructed in 1900 by the Alaska Road Commission, and is now within Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
Robert Edwards Sheldon Jr. was an American automobile enthusiast, businessman, government official and politician. As a boy, Sheldon accompanied his father to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush and remained there the rest of his life. He built the first automobile in Alaska, was the first to drive an automobile from Fairbanks to Valdez, and championed the construction of roads in Alaska as the state road commissioner. Sheldon served in two sessions of the Alaska Territorial Legislature and two terms in the Alaska State Legislature. He was variously a power company engineer, the postmaster for Fairbanks, the general manager for the Mt. McKinley Tourist & Transportation Company, and the executive director of the Unemployment Compensation Commission of Alaska.
