Alaska Road Commission

The Alaska Interior was largely roadless up until about the 1870s, with only a network of trails established by the native people of Alaska, which Russian, and later American, traders and prospectors used as well. The Russians in Alaska stuck to coastal regions, and built almost no new trails or roads during their time of possession (1741 to 1867), and early mining, such as near Sitka was close to the coast. In the 1870s and 1880s, spurred by increased settlement and prospecting, some settlers began making arrangements with the natives, improving trails and in some cases imposing tolls, such as on the Dalton Trail. Prospectors and others wished for an easier overland route between a year-round port in southern Alaska and the Yukon River. The US Army began surveying and determined the best route would be north from Valdez. The Army started construction of a pack trail from Valdez to Eagle in 1898. By 1899 this project was also known as the Trans-Alaska Military Road. In the early 1900s congressional committees investigating transportation needs in Alaska, including a 1903 visit by a Senate committee on Territories, and the Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, generally referred to as the Alaska Road Commission (ARC), was organized May 15, 1905, by order of the secretary of war. == Structure and operations ==

The ARC had three members, as follows; The chairman or president of the board, in overall charge of operations, an engineer officer with fieldwork responsibility, and a secretary and disbursing officer who ran the office proper and paid for work executed. These boards tended to approve projects and give funding to the ARC to carry them out, and the head of the territorial boards were sometimes the superintendents of the relevant ARC district, and the chairman of the Territorial Board was often the chairman of the ARC. From its formation, the ARC also had subcontracted responsibility from the Department of Agriculture for road maintenance in the Tongass and Chugach national forests, but in 1922 this was transferred to the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Public Roads, which then took on construction of roads and trails in the forests. == Scope of work ==

The ARC got busy quickly, by 1907 the commission had flagged of winter trails on the Seward Peninsula, built of road, upgraded 200 miles of existing trails, and cleared of new trail. A significant project was construction of a spur trail from Gulkana on the Valdez-Eagle route to the new mining camp of Fairbanks. By 1922 these numbers had grown to of wagon road including of gravel surfaced roads, of winter sled roads, of permanent trail and of temporary flagged trail. By 1932 the ARC had built and maintained of roads, of tram road, of sled roads, of trails, of temporary flagged trails, 26 airfields, and 32 shelter cabins. Total expenditures were in excess of $18 million. The ARC did not favor use of these trails by trucks or automobiles, declaring in 1914 that it made "no pretense of having built roads adapted for automobile travel", nevertheless by 1922 90% of the summer traffic was with motorized vehicles. Typical initial construction standards were width for light traffic trails and for heavier traffic trails, usually just graded through the countryside. In permafrost areas corduroy road construction techniques were used. Small streams were bridged with culverts. Initially larger streams were forded or had ferries provided (such as the ferry across the Tanana at Rika's Landing), but as time and funds permitted, larger bridging projects were carried out, such as the bridge across the Tazlina River, and the bridge across the Tonsina River. == Following years ==

now in Denali National Park and Preserve In 1932 the Alaska Road Commission was transferred to the Department of the Interior. == Legacy ==

The ARC left a lasting mark on the development of Alaska. Many of Alaska's most important and historic highways are named for Road Commission officers instrumental in their construction, including • Richardson Highway, named for Brigadier General Wilds P. Richardson • Steese Highway, named for Colonel James G. Steese • Elliott Highway, named for Major Malcolm Elliott • Edgerton Highway, named for Major General Glen E. Edgerton • Taylor Highway, named for ARC President (1932–1948) Ike P. Taylor In addition signs of the work of the ARC can still be seen, for example some of the shelter cabins built by the ARC during the construction of the Denali Park Road are still in use as ranger patrol cabins by National Park Service rangers in Denali National Park and Preserve. ==Notable people==

ARC presidents • 1905-1917 Wilds P. Richardson • 1917-1920 William H. Waugh • 1920-1920 John C. Gotwals • 1920-1927 James G. Steese • 1927-1932 Malcolm Elliott • 1932-1948 Ike P. Taylor • 1948-1951 John R. Noyes • 1951-1956 Angelo F. Ghiglione == References ==