While traveling throughout the far northwest we came across some incredible fellow travelers. Many of them were from Germany. As Americans we tend to see western history through “ethnocentric” eyes. We think only Bostonians, Chicagoians, and New Yorkers settled the west, discovered the gold, civilized the untamable. This was not the reality. Sure Jack London, Zane Grey, Max Brand, and Louis L’Amour told us how great American expansion was but just how many were really Americans?

Thank you Pullman Building Supply for the wonderful basket of goodies! It was a pleasure shooting photos of our trip for you.

Yup, this is the highway, it’s called the Dempster and is the most northern highway in North America and the only one to cross the Arctic Circle. (The Dalton crosses it in Alaska but that road has a lot of pavement and ends up in an oil town that is pretty horrible to visit). The Dempster follows the old dog sled paths used by trappers and miners. It’s 457 miles one way to it’s end in Inuvik, NWT with only one service station/hotel about halfway at Eagle Plains, YT. Truckers own this road and will kill you if you don’t pay attention. Ask my windshield. Round trip, which you have to do if you want to go home, is close to a 1000 miles on dirt, rock, gravel. and the worst mud you’ve ever driven in, we called it moose snot which seemed appropriate, all the while dodging 18-wheelers. It is an adventure I highly recommend.

The Gwich’in people of Fort McPherson are very welcoming of strangers and go out of their way to make them welcome. The population is 792, with 715 people identified as aboriginal, 650 as North American Indian, 30 as Métis, and 30 as Inuit or Inuvialuit. The St.Matthew’s Anglican Church, Diocese of The Arctic.

Almost every place has these little certificates for driving that far north, drinking a toe, sticking a toe in the arctic, etc… It’s sort of fun collecting them all. They also have “passports” for the historical routes that you can get stamped. It’s really challenging collecting all the stamps because some are in very hard to reach locations. Here are some of our little certificates for driving to the Arctic.