English
2890 ft (2 reels)
16mm
Colour
Silent
"Footage of Canada and Alaska shot by Floyd Henry Wells, a retired salesman and a member of the Wally Byam Caravan Club of Airstream trailers" Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Museum.
Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Museum
"Caravan of Airstream trailers travel the Alaskan Highway (opened in 1942) and footage includes unknown location showing a parking lot with many Airstreams about to begin the journey (river with falls and Canadian flag); Dawson Creek, point of origin of the Alaskan Highway (Airstreams driving around the “0” mile marker for the Alaskan Highway and washed out highway); Sikanni Chief River; Steamboat Mountain summit and Muskwa Valley (travelers retrieving buckets of water from stream to pour into trailer); Summit Lake; Erosion Pillars; Esso gas pump with gas at 65 Canadian dollars; Contact Creek (meeting of the two legs of the Alaskan Highway); Yukon Territory including Carcross (two men with fresh caught fish, Duchess train engine, Caribou Hotel, White pass Yukon Route buggy, ferry), Whitehorse (old river steamers, hydroelectric dam with sluice gates open, Miles Canyon and Indian Cemetery with William Frasier headstone), Old Log Church, Sam McGee’s cabin; Yukon Historical Society Museum; Old Log Tramway/Indian Cache, Champagne Early Day Trading Post, 1,000 mile Alaskan Highway marker, and Our Lady of the Way; Tok, first stop in Alaska, (hospitality center, art for sale, pit barbecue and picnic, husky “compound,” and Santa Claus House); Fairbanks (trying on fur parkas, Cripple Creek Hotel, Malemute Saloon, Crystal Palace and Discovery Gold Mine); Eagle Summit; Miller House (road house and post office); Arctic Circle Hot Springs (general stores with skins tacked on outside wall, gold mine, cabbages, indoor swimming pool); Circle City (spawning salmon in stream); Mount McKinley National Park; Matanuska Glacier; Palmer (vegetable garden and road side produce stand); 1964 Alaska Earthquake (purchased b&w footage of the massive destruction of the earthquake including Seward, Kodiak and Valdez); Chugach National Forest Recreation area (Portage Glacier); Homer (woman holding King Crab, Russian Orthodox Church and Alaskan coast line from tour boat); Horsetail Falls (Alaska Marine Highway boat, the Malaspina); Skagway (Golden North Hotel and White Pass and Yukon Route train travel into the mountains); Juneau; Mendenhall Glacier; Matanuska; Sitka National Monument (totem poles, Alaska Pioneer Home, former Russian orphanage, and St. Michael’s Cathedral); Petersburg (aqua plane taking off, Petersburg Experimental Fur Station, salmon ladder, and boy fishing); Wrangell (petroglyphs, Chief Shakes Community House, three frogs totem pole, and other totem pole); and Ketchikan (Frontier Bar, Totem Park Road, Ketchikan Pulp Company, and Totem Bight Historical Site). Throughout the footage, scenic views of countryside and views of towns were filmed both from car and stationary positions. Also numerous shots of the caravan and individual trailers along the way (seen are trailer numbers 7307, 7252, 10615, 11953, 5206 and 1505)," Human Studies Film Archives, Smithsonian Museum.
Amateur Cinema