Alaska Road Commission

The Russians in Alaska stuck to coastal regions,[2] 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.

[4] Prospectors and others wished for an easier overland route between a year-round port in southern Alaska and the Yukon River.

In the early 1900s congressional committees investigating transportation needs in Alaska, including a 1903 visit by a Senate committee on Territories,[2] recommended that the War Department construct a trail system and upgrade the newly built Valdez-Eagle trail to a wagon road.

[3][4] Congress approved legislation establishing a commission to oversee these and other improvements on January 27, 1905,[6] 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.

[7] There was also a special tax imposed on residents of unincorporated areas of 2 days labor at road building, or 8 USD cash to fund construction.

A significant project was construction of a spur trail from Gulkana on the Valdez-Eagle route to the new mining camp of Fairbanks.

By 1940, a pirate ferry (complete with skull and crossbones flag) was operating at Big Delta, Alaska, at the Tanana River crossing, with incidents such as seizing the local Deputy Marshal resulting.

The government was unable to enforce the law, with at least one grand jury in Fairbanks refusing to return indictments, finding the tax discriminatory.

With the advent of statehood in 1959 the State of Alaska assumed road building and maintenance responsibility, but contracted to the ARC for the work.

Many of Alaska's most important and historic highways are named for Road Commission officers instrumental in their construction,[1] including 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.