Alaska Highway Construction

I do not know about the Alaska highway but after the recent finish of the UK to France tunnel the equipment was abandoned underground.

Indeed; the technique of abandoning equipment is well-established. The Apollo moon missions are other good examples.

I think these days it's called fly tipping.

Oh, yes. There is an interesting precursor to abandoning equipment in Alaska. The Gold Rush pioneers had to make a value judgement about loading a horse to 100%, so that it could return intact to the starting town empty and ready to take a second load, thereby wasting time, or to overload the horse, which might drop dead from exhaustion upon arrival, which was quicker and might mean the pioneer had gained more than the value of a replacement horse in the time that the second load would take to arrive.

Dead horses recycle much quicker in the Alaskan environment than inanimate mechanical equipment...

"Dead horses recycle much quicker in the Alaskan environment than inanimate mechanical equipment..."

Yes, McWhinney horseburgers and Colonel Sanders deep fried Horseballs come to mind :)

I recall seeing a PBS (public broadcasting system) special about a salt mine in a Southern US state. It is huge with multiple levels and had been mined for over 100 years. All the heavy equipment ever used was still in the underground caverns -- abandoned as it wore out.

How can you leave equipment in a tunnel?

"Can"? The equipment that bored the Channel Tunnels "were"!

When the boring machines approached each other, one was turned to one side and abandoned, the other completed the tunnel, was disassembled and removed so as to complete an open bore. Times two, because there are actually 2 rail tunnels under the Channel, in parallel, with a smaller "service tunnel" in between them.

One of the boring machines (an unfortunate label...) was on display at the Channel Tunnel Visitor Centre for many years.

Two of the machines were named "Sharon" and "Tracey". Now there's a story...

I can only say that when I lived in Whitehorse in the early 1950's as a child I remember playing in old vehicles that were abandoned in the area. I doubt they dug a hole and buried the equipment - it would have to be a big hole - even if they did, locals would probably dig them up and retrieve them

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I thought that the value of the equipment and the ease of loading everything on flatbeds for transport, once the road had been completed, would have made it cost worthy to return the equipment. But perhaps the instability of the road structure may have made the effort more than it was worth.

Dan

The rumor that came to me as only a rumor but kinda explains the diversity of answers - The Alaskan contractor took his profits, wrote off the equipment as a total loss, and left the equipment "on thin ice" such that during warmer weather one may conclude some of the equipment lost altitude. The abandoned equipment probably served good purpose for local consumption. The cost to auction worn equipment exceeded the anticipated value of return and certainly the cost to transport.

Of equal interest is Congressional approval for the Alaskan Pipeline construction, operation, maintenance, and fuel delivery to point of use. Anyone want to divulge the facts on the pipeline?

This make sense to me!!

One point that hasn't been mentioned is that for something like the channel tunnel boring machine, it may have reached the end of its economic life by the time it finishes the job. If the cost of retrieving & refurbishing the machine is greater than the cost of a new one, it makes sense to abandon it. You also have to consider the cost of storing & maintaining such a massive machine whilst waiting for its next job which may be several years away.

Quite. The Alaskans had the same sort of problem.

Fiction!

The equipment was kept onsite until after the war. The Alcan road needed constant work for the entire time.

Enigma

During WW II my father was a surveyor on the Alcan Highway for the US Army Corp of Engineers. He told stories of heavy equipment sinking into the bogs created when the spring thaws came. He said the road was pushed through marshy areas which were really unsuitable for a permanent road but the war effort demanded haste. Years later I drove from Los Angeles to Fairbanks during the winter. The road was remarkably smooth and the scenery was beautiful. The Canadians we met along the way were delightful. Many had worked on the project, proud they were able to build a road thru the wilderness in spite of the winter's Artic ice storms and the summer's hot, humid, mosquito infested 24 hour days.

Ah, but you have missed the two boondoggles of all time, re "abandoned equipment".

Review the millions of tons of construction equipment, planes, tanks etc that were abandoned in the Pacific area during WW II and then VietNam.

A friend was involved in construction work in Manila, and later, when they dredged Manila Harbor, they "parked" all the heavy construction equipment in a large chain-link fenced area. The Filipino "squaters" then made their homes in the "abandoned" equipment. When the construction crew came to get their heavy equipment, they had to go before a Philippine court to get the "squaters" out of their "private property". The Filipino judge ruled that since the "squaters" had lived there, in the equipment, for some time, the equipment now belonged to the "squaters". Sometimes you're the bird, and sometimes you're the statue.

this rumor that you heard is infact true.i lived along the alaska highway wor many years and explored many army dumps during my time there.i became somewhat obsessed with the history concerning abandoned vehicles and their locations.i used to always see an old fellow named ed german on the bench at the mall and asked him about it. he told me that he had never released the info to anyone before but that an entire military convoy was buried two vehicles wide and thirty long in a carved out hill along the old alaska highway.i hung on to the info for a few years before i met a fellow that was more obsessed than i about it.i told him the location and he chartered a helicopter and actually found the site.he has since purchased property near the site and moved up there.mr german had said that the convoy was mostly vehicles loaded with supplies and graders.

there were many other stories of other sites where the army buried everything from airplanes to agent orange.there are still a few tanks (not buried) in the area.army convoys left unburied in the muskeg.etc

near smith river the army buried convoys and even airplanes (called million dollar valley)

there was a large equipment burial near fireside too

canol valley equipment was never buried

jerome house of paddle prairie remembers the army digging a giant hole near paddle prairie and burying everything but the cats used to cover the hole.after the hole was filled the cats were fuelled up and put into gear and aimed away from the site and let go.mr house said that there were several cats still in the forest around paddle prairie.one had made it forty miles before running out of fuel against a large tree.

still sits there with a rotted out pair of army gloves on the seat.

muncho lake was another spot that equipment was left.supposedly buried in a large cave found nearby.never found any leads on it though

one of the most interesting stories was from jimmy anderson(midnight anderson bush pilot)he claims that there are two japanese zero(mitsubishi)fighter planes in the bush about 35 miles from the alaska hwy.machine guns still mounted on them.(never got a chance to hike in there either.)

i found countless sites scattered all over the north where the army left their mark and i never found them all.

i did however find a 1942 harley davidson light cavalry,a 1942 jeep with power take off and machine gun mount,and a 1940 brengun carrier from pearl harbour which i still have today.

there are also many sites that are not along the alaska highway.coastal islands,coastline sites and inland sites. like the ones near my present location that were pow camps for japanese and german prisoners.(many army vehicles buried there)

i've since moved away from the north and now focus on collecting wooden and wire spoke vehicles from the forest near kamloops,b.c.

not sure if i was able to help u answer your question but feel free to email me at mrroy69@hotmail.com for further info

ROB ROY

I spent a few years working along the Alaska Highway in particular at Smith River. The Million Dollar valley was one valley east of Smith River and was so named when three USAAF B26 bombers, lost and low on fuel, were forced to crash land there on Jan 5 1942. There was certainly nothing buried there, nor was there any way to get anything in there to bury. The only place where large amounts of trucks and airplanes would be buried without leaving a very noticable scar would have been under the Smith River runway. It was certainly big enough for that. But then it would have had to been buried prior to 1941. Why would anyone land an airplane and then go to the extreme effort of burying it, rather than just fly it away.

Bren gun carriers were used by the Canadian army not the US. It would be interesting to hear the story of how and why one moved from Canada to Pearl Harbor then back to Canada and up the Alaska highway.

I too lived and worked along the Alcan hwy (in the oil business) and understood that some of the original construction equipment was easily buried in the muskeg during the summer thaw. Bulldozers could not be just abandoned in case the enemy parachuted in and used the dozers to clear landing strips. The hwy of course had been purposely built very windy as straight sections would provide opportunity for enemy aircraft landing. Given that some parts of the original hwy were impassable during summer, the effort and cost to haul this equipment out was not worth it at the time.

I spoke with some locals who identified one of the successful local construction/trucking companies that was started with some of this equipment after the war – someone remembered where some dozers were buried and retrieved them to start their company. I cannot recall the name of the company but it was pretty successful and probably still is.

Yes, up here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada i know of a man who recovered a 1940's Kenworth 6x6 from a hole somewhere along the great alaskan highway.

chad

I would guess that it might be more fact than fiction. The equipment may have been far less the effort. and cost of repair. After all it was unsed and reused all those months in a most rugged environment.

i live in northern british columbia and have heard storys of this and have even seen some of the dump sites

the tv program "WINGS OVER CANADA" done a couple of programs that showed some of the equipment left behind not only by the goverment but by different mining companys

I was there near the Peace River part of the Alcan the summer of 43 but I was to little to remember it, my father being the Superintendent of Construction for the Reece/Olson Construction Company. I do know that he did return with a Ford truck with #212 painted on the side doors.

My brother may remember if any of my fathers construction equipment (Ose construction from Wood Lake, Mn.) returned from that Alcan adventure and I will call and ask him. My mother took many photographs and films of the summer of 43 on the Alcan and we still have them.

I have always claimed that I was the youngest man on the job, even though I was only three years old at the time. Well, I did have a sandbox with a pre-Tonka Toy dump truck. Ha ha...