On October 29, 1942, Secretary Stimson announced that the highway was open and that trucks were rolling along its length. It was a little premature. In truth, there was much that remained to be done. This was, after all, only the pioneer trail. But the road link between Alaska and the lower forty-eight—no matter how tenuous in places—had been made. On November 20, with, as historian Heath Twichell, Jr., wrote, “brass hats and brass bands at fifteen below,” Canadian and American representatives braved the cold at Soldier’s Summit 162 miles west of Whitehorse above the shores of Kluane Lake and
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