Richardson Highway. 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.

History

Early Years and Exploration
Indigenous trade routes existed in the region going from Prince William Sound to the north of the Alaska Range into the  Alaskan Interior starting at least 5000 years ago. The majority of the trade was facilitated by the Ahtna, but also included the Eyak and Sugpiaq to the south, and the Tanana Athabaskans to the north. The route of the Richardson Highway primarily follows part of this old trade network. Prospectors heard rumors of this ancient trade route and it encouraged them to explore the Interior to try to find a route to the gold fields in the Klondike area.

In 1885,  Lieutenant Henry Allen's party crossed the eastern Alaska Range from the mouth of the Copper River to the Tanana River via Suslota Pass, the first non-natives to do so. In his report, he noted that it would be possible to build a road between Prince William Sound to the Yukon River. Shortly after his expedition, gold discoveries in the late 1880s to mid 1890s north of the Alaska Range, such as in the  Fortymile Mining District, at  Birch Creek near Circle, and in the western Yukon, put pressure on the US Congress to explore Alaska.  In March of 1898, the  US Department of War funded three expeditions to explore Southcentral Alaska.  Edwin Glenn led the expedition ordered to explore from Prince William Sound to Cook Inlet for routes between the  Susitna and Copper rivers then northward to the Tanana River. Attached to the expedition was geologist  Walter Mendenhall from the USGS. They would eventually cross Isabel Pass, who were also the first recorded non-natives through that route, but fell short 15-20 miles from the Tanana River. This pass received very little attention at the time.

Valdez-Eagle Trail
Concurrently,  Captain William Abercrombie was ordered to explore from  Valdez northward to the Copper River and tributaries of the Tanana River. By 1899, the Army ordered Captain Abercrombie to build a military road from Valdez to  Copper Center then onto Eagle. Before winter of 1899, they had completed a 93 mile trail suitable for packhorses through Keystone Canyon and past Thompson Pass to the Tonsina River. By 1901, the pack trail was completed, and provided an "all-American" route to the Klondike gold fields. The total distance of the road was about 409 miles (660 km). After the rush ended, the Army kept the trail open in order to connect its posts for communication at Fort Liscum, in Valdez, and Fort Egbert, in Eagle. One way message times were generally around 6 months from the Yukon to Washington, D.C. By 1904, the completion of the WAMCATS allowed near instantaneous communication from Fort Egbert to the US Capitol using an all American telegraph system.

Valdez-Fairbanks Trail
The Fairbanks Gold Rush in July of 1902 drew attention away from the Klondike region, drawing prospectors to Fairbanks. These new travelers would follow the established Valdez-Eagle Trail until the Gakona River, and then utilize Ahtna trading trails through Isabel Pass to the Tanana Valley and finally unto Fairbanks. Most traffic using this route was during the winter with pack trains or sled dogs, since animals would tear up moss if it wasn't frozen, hampering travel. Travel to the area during the summer was via riverboats. The new traffic also enticed many to build roadhouses along the route, although many faced difficulty keeping them profitable.

Along with the previous gold discoveries, the Fairbanks Gold Rush prompted the US Congress to send a senatorial party in 1903 to Alaska to hear testimony. At Eagle,  Lieutenant William Mitchell told the party his estimated $2 million cost of building a road between Eagle to the Tanana River crossing, near Tok, then onto the Chena River confluence with the Tanana River. He suggested a route from Copper Center to the Tanana River crossing would be more cost effective. The senatorial party also met with  Judge James Wickersham and Fairbanks resident Abraham Spring, both pushing for government led roadbuilding, opining that the miners could build feeder roads if a central road was built.

Road Building and Modernity
In early 1904, Congress passed legislation to build roads throughout Alaska. After surveys by the  Army Corps of Engineers during the summer of that year,  President Theodore Roosevelt appointed  Major Wilds Richardson as the head of the Alaska Road Commission to supervise the construction of a wagon road from Valdez to Fairbanks starting in 1905. Richardson suggested dividing the trail into 3 sections, the first from Valdez to Copper Center along Abercrombie's route, the second from the mouth of the Delta River to Fairbanks, and the third connecting the two from Copper Center to Isabel Pass. By 1909,  eggs, cranberries, cattle, and other groceries were shipped up the trail in the winter to Fairbanks. Although Richardson contended with low funds and difficult construction, the road was finished in 1910.

During the construction, the government hired failed gold prospectors as well as regular construction workers. The income from this work allowed many of the prospectors to leave Alaska.

Although automobiles and motorcycles were shipped to Fairbanks and Valdez sometime after 1908, it is unknown when the first motorized vehicle was used on the highway. BY 1909, cars were used at either end of the highway. Attempts were made in 1909 to use a motorcycle to cross the entirety of the highway, but storms and mechanical issues proved too much. On July 29th, 1913, Bobby Sheldon and two prospectors, John Ronan and John Ferguson, began the trip from Fairbanks at approximately 10:30pm in a modified Model T. They arrived at Valdez four days later, at around 11pm on August 2nd, after taking a detour to Chitina. A second vehicle made by the White Motor Company from the Alaska Road Commission with representatives manufacturer left the day before Bobby Sheldon's party, and arrived in Fairbanks on August 6th.

The rise of motorized travel led the road to be upgraded to automobile standards in the 1920s. To finance continued maintenance and road construction, the Alaska Road Commission instituted tolls for commercial vehicles in 1933 of up to $175 per trip, which were collected at the Tanana River ferry crossing at Big Delta. When the tolls were further increased in 1941 to boost business for the Alaska Railroad, disgruntled truckers nicknamed "gypsies" started a rogue ferry service in order to evade the toll.

The Alaska and Glenn highways, built during World War II, connected the rest of the continent and Anchorage to the Richardson Highway at Delta Junction and Glennallen respectively, allowing motor access to the new military bases built in the Territory just prior to the war: Fort Richardson in Anchorage, and Fort Wainwright adjacent to Fairbanks. The bridge at Big Delta, the last remaining gap, was built as part of the Alaska Highway project.

The southern end was only open during summers until 1950, when a freight company foreman who lived near the treacherous Thompson Pass plowed the snow himself for an entire season to prove the route could be used year-round. The highway was paved in 1957.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, built in 1973-1977, mostly parallels the highway from Fairbanks to Valdez.

Roadhouses
Due to the rugged nature of the early highway, roadhouses were built every 15-20 miles. These ranged from a tents on platforms to properly built cabins with separated rooms. Most were heated by woodstoves and sourced water from nearby lakes or streams. Food ranged from bleak to scrumptious, depending on nearby game availability and gardens at each outpost. Hay and water for horses were also provided. Around 30 roadhouses existed, but this would change each year as they route of the highway changed and business would open and close.

Recent and future improvements

  During the 1990s, the highway was upgraded from Fairbanks to the main gate at Eielson AFB, making this stretch a 4-lane divided road. Intersections with other roads, however, are still almost entirely at-grade.
  Under SAFETEA-LU, Alaska Route 2 from the Canadian border to Fairbanks, comprising parts of the Richardson and Alaska Highways, has been declared a High Priority Corridor (Corridor 67).  What this means for the distant future is not yet certain; although SAFETEA-LU does explicitly provide federal funds for upgrading the road to 4 lanes and divided, from Salcha to Delta Junction.

Interstate Highway System

Richardson Highway is part of the unsigned part of the Interstate Highway System east of Fairbanks. The entire length of Interstate A-2 follows Route 2 from the George Parks Highway (Interstate A-4) junction in Fairbanks to Tok, east of which Route 2 carries Interstate A-1 off the Tok Cut-Off Highway to the international border. Only a short piece of the Richardson Highway in Fairbanks is built to freeway standards.

Major intersections

Gallery

References

External links

Evolution of the Richardson Highway - ExploreNorth
A journey down the Richardson Highway ; archive  from archive.org

Chugach Census Area, Alaska
Copper River Census Area, Alaska
Interstate Highways in Alaska
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska
State highways in Alaska
Transportation in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
Transportation in Unorganized Borough, Alaska