Oscar's Road Geek Souvenirs Collection -- page 4 (Dalton Highway)

The following souvenirs are for state route 11 (Dalton Highway), the only highway in North America to the Arctic coast (well, almost -- you have to get oil company permission to actually cross their lands for the last few miles to dip your toe in the Arctic), and the northernmost road in the continuous North American highway network. Unless otherwise noted, they are from my summer 1994 van tour of the Dalton Highway (my summer 2001 vacation in Alaska included a revisit to the Dalton, but only a few miles at the southern end.) I also took lots of photos of that highway, the best of which are in my Dalton Highway photo collection.

This is from my 2001 stop at the Arctic Circle Trading Post, at mile 49 Elliott Highway, about 25 miles east of the beginning of the Dalton Highway. This shop has lots of Dalton Highway souvenirs, even though it isn't on the highway itself (but for most highway travelers, it's right on the way there), and certainly works hard at promoting the highway. In the case of the shirt above, maybe just a little too much -- while the Dalton Highway is certainly a unique and interesting highway, worthy of most of the hype, "Last Great Highway on Earth" seems to me to overdo it a bit.

I also picked up this hat pin there.

I bought this one in my first visit, in 1994, to the Arctic Circle Trading Post, before reaching the Arctic Circle a few hours later.

Last place to get fuel before Deadhorse, 240 miles to the north. Coldfoot also claims unofficial records for lowest temperature in the U.S. (-82ºF in 1989), and also greatest temperature fluctuation in one year (from -82ºF in winter 1989, to +97ºF the following summer). The town supposedly was named for gold seekers who got "cold feet" one winter and fled to warmer climes.

At the end of the line, just after the highway technically ends at Deadhorse a few miles to the south.

This is the logo on the tote bag I got from the companies running the Prudhoe Bay oilfields. When I visited in 1994, the companies weren't charging admission for tour groups to cross the oil fields to the Arctic shoreline. However, we did have to watch a film, the gist of which was "we haven't spilled much oil up here; we haven't spilled much oil along the pipeline; the Exxon Valdez ... well, that was someone else's fault; and by the way, we're starting to run out of oil to pump down the pipeline, so can we please please pretty please drill for some more oil in the wildlife refuge next door?"

to page 3: High roads

to page 5: Alaska Highway

See also Introduction page, Page 1: Joe, Montana, Page 2: Nevada, Page 6: Other Alaska, Page 7: Hana Highway, Page 8: Other Hawaii, Page 9: Maritime Provinces, and Page 10: Miscellaneous