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No Place For a Woman
Stores and accommodation in Haines Junction. No date. (view more details)
The signpost forest at Watson Lake... (view more details)
In the years immediately following its completion special permits were required for those intrepid souls wishing to travel the Alaska Highway. One of the earliest of these adventurers was Gertrude Baskine, who documented her trip by truck convoy, mail car, jeep, and other means of transportation in her 1944 travelogue Hitch-hiking the Alaska Highway. Before she actually set out on her journey she was met with incredulous stares and dismissive comments whenever she told those she met of her objective:
"My dear, my dear, you need a guardian. I don’t know anybody who has been up all the length of the Highway…Be yourself"
"Believe me its no place for a woman". He gave me a sidelong glance. "And especially for a woman…"
Despite these attempts to dissuade her, Baskine persevered and was rewarded: in Edmonton she was photographed, documented, fingerprinted, and issued the much-coveted "Alaska Military Highway Permit". She then set out on her adventure – a journey filled with wry observations of the characters she meets along the highway, the peculiarities of Whitehorse and other communities, and the natural beauty of the Yukon.
Log skyscrapers in Whitehorse... (view more details)
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