Word: dempster
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Neither road is open yet to the casual motorist. Lawmakers are still debating the highways' economic and environmental impact. But the Dempster is slated for a formal ribbon-cutting in September, and, with some backstage horse trading, the Haul Road may not be too far behind. Then virtually anyone with a sturdy enough car, a firm hand on the wheel and a taste for the outdoors, arctic-style, can contemplate a splendidly eye-opening joyride to the far north...
Canada's Dempster Highway, named after a turn-of-the-century Mountie who made a heroic attempt to rescue a stranded patrol, was begun 22 years ago by the Canadian government to spur the economic development of the Yukon and Northwest Territories. The road starts at Dawson, hub of the Klondike's 1890s gold rush, laces through the deep green forested valleys of the North Klondike and climbs the rugged Ogilvie Mountains, where it peels off in to rolling alpine meadows and the tundra beyond. At the 253.7-mile mark, a simple sign announces...
...protect fragile permafrost from being rutted by tire tracks, much of the Dempster is built on an elevated roadbed that rises as high as 6 ft. above the terrain. Thus it becomes difficult, as well as illegal, to pull off the highway and pitch a tent for the night, except at the sanctioned sites...
...marked reluctance to pass under the raised stretches of the conduit and to cross the road itself. Migratory patterns also seem to have changed, and the herd may dwindle. In Canada, the size of a herd of more than 100,000 caribou may be reduced because of the Dempster Highway. Says Director Gordon Hartman of the Yukon game department: "We simply don't have enough information, and until we do, the road should not be open to unlimited travel...
...roaders see bonanzas at the ends of both highways. Despite the caution of Alaska state officials, the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce believes that the Haul Road could be bustling with so much traffic by 1985 that it will steer an extra $15 million a year into their city. The Dempster's boosters see one certain payoff. No longer will residents of Inuvik and the outlying Mackenzie Delta, where oil exploration is now being expanded, need to import most of their food, fuel, clothing, machinery and other supplies by expensive airfreight...