Haines Highway
The Haines Highway is a major road in North America , on a length of 244 km Haines in " Panhandle " Alaska with Haines Junction in the Canadian territory of Yukon connects while British Columbia crosses. It follows 180 km, 72 km of which through Alaska, the old Dalton Trail from the port in Haines inland to Klukshu in Yukon and then continues to Haines Junction, where it joins the Alaska Highway .
The road in the Yukon was named Yukon Highway 4 until 1978, when it was renamed Highway 3 . In British Columbia it has no official number, in Alaska it is called Alaska Route 7 .
history
The route along which today's highway runs was a trade route used by the Tlingit Indians, which later became the Dalton Trail . Some prospectors used the trail during the Klondike gold rush in the late 19th century. In the following years the southern part of the trail was used for further mining activities.
The British Columbia Provincial Government upgraded the trail in 1909 when copper mining began in Copper Butte and Mt. Glave .
The highway was created in 1943 as an alternative connection from the Pacific to the Alaska Highway alongside the White Pass and Yukon Railway by the United States Army . The construction cost was $ 13 million. In the following decades, the condition of the highway deteriorated significantly due to lack of maintenance. The route has been open all year round since 1963.
The poor condition of the road led to a program sponsored by the US Congress, in the course of which the Haines Highway and the Alaska Highway from Haines Junction to the Canadian-American border were rehabilitated and expanded from 1976 to the 1980s.
course
The Haines Highway begins in the south at the port of Haines, a pier on the Alaska Marine Highway , first crosses the Chilkat Peninsula and then runs along the Chilkat River to the confluence of the Klehini River , whose valley it follows to the state line after 66 km. In British Columbia, it crosses the Chilkat Pass after 102 km and reaches the border with the Yukon Territory after 145 km. Via Klukshu, a community that is only used seasonally by fishermen, the highway continues through uninhabited areas to Haines Junction.
