[2]The importance of the Sterling Highway was described in the Anchorage Daily Times article on its dedication in 1950:It is the great achievement in the penetration of barriers that have kept Alaska’s development confined to shoreline establishments dependent upon marine transportation.

In another year it will link the communities with Anchorage by way of the Turnagain Arm road, and all the cities of the continental United States by the way of the Alaska Highway.

It opens up the great potential tourist and sportsmen developments by making the fishing, lakes and streams readily accessible by automobile.

Alaska families will be able to live year round on their homesteads or fishing sites now that the Sterling Highway and its side roads enable their children to commute to school, give them access to medical aid and make it possible to move supplies as needed.The Sterling Highway opened to traffic during the winter of 1950, when temperatures below freezing made it possible to travel over the unfinished surface.

It leads mainly west from Tern Lake to Soldotna, paralleling the Kenai River, at which point it turns south to follow the eastern shore of Cook Inlet.