An Explorer's Guide to the Alaska Highway

    At Km 1212.2 of the Alaska Highway, south of Teslin, Yukon, is a memorial to Corporal Max Richardson of Company "F", 340th Engineers, U.S. Army, who died near here on October 17, 1942. I've been unable to discover the cause of his death.

    The book "Lower Post or Freeze: 340th Engineer Regiment on the Alaska Military Highway, 1942-1943" is now one of the rarest of books about the Alaska Highway. Published in 1944 for members of the regiment, it was dedicated to Max Richardson and 3 other members of the unit who died during their Alaska Highway service - Staff Sergeant William H. Whitfield, Private Ben J. Livingstone, and Private Frank H. Semmels, Jr.

    In 2009, Bonar Cooley of Teslin donated his time to repair, clean, and paint the cenotaph, while the Teslin Historical and Museum Society paid for the materials needed.

The full text of the plaque reads:

In Memory
of
Max Richardson
391663467
Corporal   Co F   340th Engineers
Army of the United States
Born Oct 10th 1918
Died Oct 17th 1942
Faith is the Victory

    Click on each photo to greatly enlarge it.

The view up the highway towards Teslin

The plaque in 2015

The plaque in 2001

The memorial in 2001

In 2015, the memorial was vandalized by somebody who thought that the plaque was too hard to read.