I worked surveying for the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay Road, living in the following camps: Five Mile, Prospect Creek, Coldfoot, Dietrich, and Galbraith Lake.
In the summer, our four-man crews would be dropped off with a sack lunch and be picked up 12 hours later. As the days got shorter, we were dropped off shortly after first light and picked up shortly before dusk. I remember being dropped off on days in November when it was 20-30 below zero and it didn’t warm up above 10 degrees below. I had an Eddie Bauer parka, bunny boots, down-filled mittens, etc.
I’m 74 and can still picture those times as if they were yesterday. The beauty, the vastness, the aloneness, the vulnerability (my crew was chased by two bull moose in one day). Our helicopter pilots were ex-military and one, George Ryan, was rumored to have been taught to fly by a man whose helicopter license was No. 2.
My father was Nate Bauer, the man charged by the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (later Alyeska) with the construction of the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay Road. He would be thrilled to hear there is a celebration in Anchorage planned for late April 2024 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the commencement of construction of the Haul Road. I wish the planners of this event all the best and hope the 50th anniversary of the completion of the Haul Road (Sept. 29, 2024) will also be recognized.
— Nate Bauer Jr.
College Station, Texas
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