Internet reunites Alaskan Highway builders after 60 years

Ken Johnston
Editor

In a song by Canadian artist Tom Cochrane he said “Life is a Highway.”
For two men, now in their 80s, the Alaskan Highway definitely had an impact on their lives.
Vern Norlund of Rainy River and Austin Hadland of Baldonnel, British Columbia were reunited last year after almost 60 years had passed since they had last met.
The pair of men met while working on the Alaskan Highway in the 1940s. Both were bull-dozer operators and ended up bunking across from each other.
With 16,000 civilians and 16,000 U.S. troops working on the project, the odds of these two like-minded fellas meeting and becoming very good friends were like finding a needle in a hay stack. Both said last week that so many of the men “used cuss words” all the time. “We did not and I think that is why we were drawn together,” explained Vern.
Vern said that a call went out all across Canada for men to come and work on the highway. “They wanted to hurry up and get it done as the Japanese were on the Aleutian Islands,” said Vern.
He went up in the fall of 1942 and started his stint there at a place called Taylor Flatts, B.C.
Austin was living right there as his parents had moved their family there to homestead and in fact to this day he lives on Mile 41 of the Alaskan Hwy, where he is a retired farmer. He did not sign up to work on it until the following summer. That is when Vern’s camp moved up to mile 98 and he met Austin.
However, after working on the project until its completion they went their separate ways and lost contact. Vern returned to Ontario and moved around before finally settling in Rainy River where he is now retired.
Austin said that he had thought of his good friend he had met way back when a number of times and about three years ago mentioned it to his grandson. His grandson did a search on the internet for Vern and came up with three Norlund families with phone numbers.
Austin chose to call a G.V. Norlund, hoping that it might be a son or grandson of Vern’s. He called the number and explained to the fella on the other end who he was looking for and to his surprise the reply was, “That’s me!”
Both were excited and have for the past three years corresponded and shared photos of their life building the highway. But it was not until last week when they finally saw each other some 60 years later.
Both can remember their experiences vividly and they spent a good deal of time reliving them. On the construction side of things Vern and Austin said it was a very dangerous job. “Many men lost their lives there,” said Vern.
“On the way up there they gave me a truck with no brakes,” said Vern. He and his brother were riding in it and Vern said his sibling was sure they were going to die. “I used gears to brake for a while and then on the down hill side of Pink Mountain the clutch went out.” Norlund said all they had was a little bit of emergency brake. He used that to slow up on corners. Miraculously he and his brother rolled to a stop not long after.
Austin also remembered a time where he thought he was a goner. “We were working on the other side of the river from our camp. We were crossing on a bridge and the ice. Early in the morning the ice went out and the bridge was washed out.” Not knowing how they were going to get home the military had a boat on shore there with a small kicker motor on it. They said they would ferry them across 20 at a time. They got pushed off and then discovered the motor would not run. Then they discovered they had no oars.
They drifted a few miles down stream and Austin worried that the ice and logs floating in the fast moving water would capsize them and they would drown.
A small local person’s boat was sent out. They caught up with the larger boat and attempted to tow it. However it was too small. They managed to get it to shore of an island. It then ferried them back to camp a few at a time. Austin said they got on the big boat at 9:30 a.m. and he did not get back to camp until 3 p.m. He did not get much sleep as he had to go back to work in a few hours. They worked two 11 hours shifts per day as the sun was up all night long there.
Both said they enjoyed climbing mountains in there off time and were thankful they both made it out alive.
They also both recollected three days of rain in July of 1943. All the bridges washed out and their meat supply all but the bologna washed away. They had no fresh meat for three months. “The cook would joke, ‘It is time to shave the bologna.’ It was tart tasting, said Vern.
The bugs were also really bad there and they both said that they wished they had some bug dope but did not .
Austin has been to several anniversary celebrations of the Alaskan Highway, but Vern has not been back there. “I would like to go, but I am turning 87 this year so I don’t know if I will make it,” said Vern.