“Dean of the Alcan Highway” was the nickname given to Albert Herda of Minot after he became the first trucker to haul commercial freight from the Upper Midwest to Alaska over the Alaska-Canadian Highway in 1947.
The Alaska, or Alcan, Highway had been built in only 8 months in 1942 and 1943, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in order to counter a possible Japanese overland invasion in World War II. Spanning 1,450 miles from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska, across 5 mountain ranges, it became an all-weather, gravel-surfaced roadway, opened to non-military traffic just after the war ended.
Albert Herda, a trucker from Minot, saw profitable prospects in transporting “eggs, butter, milk, fruits, vegetables,” and other goods to Fairbanks because of “higher Alaskan prices.” But it meant navigating America’s “longest, toughest truck haul.”
The rugged wilderness along the highway challenged drivers with treacherous ice and snow in winter and with aggravating dust, mud, and buzzing mosquitoes, in summer.
Nay-sayers warned Herda that it would be impossible to establish a truck line from Minot to Alaska in 1946, but Herda drove a car to Fairbanks to check out the route. Deeming it feasible, he arranged financing, and joined in a partnership with Rueben Sinclair, a Glasgow, Montana, produce wholesaler. Herda departed from Minot on November 10th, 1946, with three trucks loaded with one hundred thousand dollars worth of meat, flour, and produce. Another snowplow-equipped-truck joined the caravan in Montana, loaded with 1,600 gallons of fuel, replacement parts, and emergency supplies.
Each truck had a charcoal heater to keep its cargo from freezing. To survive the coldest temperatures, Herda used a blowtorch, which was kept sitting upright inside the cab.
On January 3rd, Herda’s truck caravan reached Fairbanks, two weeks late, due to a 64-hour delay pulling one truck out after it broke through the ice into the Smoky River.
Albert Herda made a second trip in a quick 9 days in the fall of 1947, hauling Washington State apples and peaches.
With these successes, he established the Herda Alaska Truck Line, carrying goods from North Dakota and Minnesota to Fairbanks through 1963.
On this date in 1970, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that Albert Herda had died of a heart attack, at age 54. He left behind his wife, Ida, and 5 children.
Albert Herda’s legacy was conquering America’s longest, loneliest, coldest, and most-dangerous truck route – the Alaska Highway.
Dakota Datebook written by Dr. Steve Hoffbeck, MSU Moorhead History Department.
Sources: “Albert Herda Dies,” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, August 3, 1970, p. 3. “Herda” obituary, Minneapolis Tribune, July 28, 1970, p. 22.
“Dakota Men Head Alaska Truck Caravan,” Great Falls [MT] Tribune, December 2, 1946, p. 4; “Alaska Truck Convoy Onward Again,” Great Falls Tribune, December 21, 1946, p. 4; “Convoy Drive Says Alaska Offers Trade Opportunities,” Great Falls Tribune, January 17,1947, p. 8; “Reaches Alaska,” Montana Standard [Butte, MT], January 3, 1947, p. 9.
“Twin Cities to Alaska,” Minneapolis Star, August 4, 1953, p. 36; “Truck Line Offers Minnesota to Fairbanks Freight Service,” Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, September 15, 1953, p. 2.
“Canada Will Have Job Keeping Up Alcan Road,” Winnipeg Tribune, October 6, 1943, p. 7.
Leonard A. Stevens, “Longest, Toughest Truck Haul,” Collier’s, March 1, 1952, p. 20, 21, 32.
C.W. Gilchrist, March 5, 2013, “Alaska Highway,” https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alaska-highway/, accessed on July 2, 2018.
Joan Carlsten, “Dean of the Alcan Highway,” unpublished manuscript, Minot State University, Minot, ND, from Albert Herda Family Scrapbook.
