The official start of the James W. Dalton Hwy., also known as Alaska State Highway 11, and perhaps the most dangerous highway in the United States, is at the T intersection where the Alaska State Highway 2 heads west to Manley Hot Springs northwest of Fairbanks.
The start of the Dalton Highway is marked with a simple sign this is the James W. Dalton Hwy. That sign is covered with stickers from travelers who have journeyed to the Dalton Highway looking for adventure or riches or just bragging rights.
Most tourists travel this road on a guided sightseeing tour, however others travel this road by motorcycle or even bicycle! On our guided tour, we met a bicyclist who was nearing the end of his journey from the southernmost point of the United States in Key West to the northernmost point of the United States at Prudhoe Bay! I'm happy to say that Ian arrived at Prudhoe Bay safely about five days after we ran into him on the Dalton Highway, and is now (Sep 2022) safely home with his family.
About a mile or so north of the official start of the Dalton Highway, the US Bureau of Land Management has created much safer place to pull off the highway, have a photo, and read a little about the fascinating history of this important highway, which is only been open to the general public since 1994.
From Historic Roads of Alaska: Driving the History of the Last Frontier: (
visit link)
"The oil companies needed a route to access their facilities at Deadhorse on the North Slope and to perform maintenance on the pipeline. So the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company built the first version of the Dalton Highway, known simply as the haul road, starting with the stretch from Livengood to the Yukon River in 1969. This road was focused entirely on the private oil industry needs, although Alyeska agreed to build it to state secondary-road design requirements.
However, the plan to quickly build the pipeline ran into obstacles. First, Native land claims needed to be settled, through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. Not long after, a group of environmental organizations sued the federal government over the pipeline’s permits – including the right-of-way for building the haul road along the pipeline route – and over the environmental review process. In 1973 the courts sided with the environmental groups, leading Congress to pass the Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act to resolve the permitting issues. These delays meant that it was not until 1974 that Alyeska began construction on the pipeline and the majority of the haul road. The road was needed first, and over five months in the summer of 1974, 390 miles of road were built.
For the next three years, the haul road was the scene of nearly constant travel and activity up and down its route. Alyeska and its contractors spared nearly no expense building the pipeline, since every day that the oil remained in the north was a day’s sale on the markets lost. That rush meant jobs were plentiful and pay was very good, including for the truckers who moved most of the material to the many pipeline construction camps north of Fairbanks. It wasn’t uncommon for Teamsters to earn between $7,000 and $10,000 per month [$35,000 to $50,000 in 2017]. Because of the difficult road conditions and likelihood of bad weather, the Teamster contract guaranteed eighteen-hour days, which could translate to a trucker earning $80,000 [$395,000] in a year, working nine or ten months.
That good money could come at a cost. Like the Hickel Highway, driving the haul road in its first years was no easy task. Although it was built to higher standards than its predecessor, it still had many dangerous spots, especially going over the Brooks Range. As well, many truckers were from outside Alaska, and didn’t have the experience driving in its unique conditions. As one Alaskan trucker said, “You'd be surprised at the older drivers that have been around a long time, driving everywhere in the country, come up here and thought there's nothing to this. The next thing you know, they are in the ditch, upside down or maybe dead.” Nor were things easy for local drivers. That same trucker described hauling the eighty-foot pipes that made up the pipeline: “It was a good way for a truck driver with a good record to blow his reputation in one trip. [The trailer] had a mind of its own…. It turned on its own.”
Alyeska finished the pipeline in 1977, and on June 20th oil started flowing from Deadhorse to Valdez. The company still needed the haul road for maintenance and transportation, but it no longer needed to control it. In 1979, the company turned over what Alyeska’s president called a “gift to the state.” Two years later, the state opened the newly named James W. Dalton Highway to public traffic up to Disaster Creek at MP 211. The whole road opened to the public in 1994, drawing a new flock of travelers to the North Slope."