Philately & Postal Service in the North
An Explorer's Guide to the Alaska Highway ("Alcan")
The design of the 29-cent postage stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the completion of the Alaska Highway was released in December 1991, with the stamp issued for circulation on May 30, 1992, at Fairbanks, Alaska. Designed by Byron Birdsall, the stamps were printed in offset/intaglio process by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and issued in panes of fifty. A total of 146,610,000 stamps were issued.
"The U.S. Postal Service this year commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Alaska Highway, one of the great engineering collaborations of this century, with a new 29-cent postage stamp. The stamp, based on a 1942 Department of the Army photo, was designed by Byron Birdsall, the first Alaska artist ever to win such a distinction. In the planning stages since May 1930, the Alaskan Highway did not actually begin construction until March 1942. The 1500-mile highway was devised as a route for connecting army installations in Alaska with the United States during World War II. Despite the many hardships encountered by the 11,500 U.S. and Canadian troops and 7,500 civilians (natives, trappers, and prospectors alike), the pioneer road connecting Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and Delta Junction, Alaska, was completed only eight months later, on October 25.
"The scene depicted on the stamp is a vintage military vehicle traveling the new highway, with the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains looming in the background. Opened for public use by passenger vehicles in 1949, the main Alaska Highway today connects the ports of Valdez, Seward, and Haines with Alaska's principal interior cities and military installations, while a secondary system connects more remote farming, mining, and industrial areas to the main network."
© United States Postal Service 1991. Known first as the Alcan Highway, the Alaska Highway was completed in 1942. The 1500-mile road through Northwest Canada is the major and route to Alaska. Today the highway remains a symbol of cooperation between the U.S. and Canada.
