Alaska Road Commission

ARC workers on the Valdez-Eagle trail, ca. 1913
Carlson's mail truck. 1919.
Tractor hauling wagons on Yukon Highway near Goldstream. 1928
Wilds P. Richardson, first president of the ARC (1905–1917)
Roads, trails, telegraph lines and railways of Alaska, circa 1920

The Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, more commonly known as the Alaska Road Commission or ARC, was created in 1905 as a board of the U.S. War Department. It was responsible for the construction and improvement of many important Alaska highways, such as the Richardson Highway, Steese Highway, Elliot Highway and Edgerton Highway, among others.[1]

The commission was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1932, and was absorbed by the Bureau of Public Roads, a division of the Commerce Department in 1956. Today, responsibility for road development and maintenance in Alaska lies with the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities.

  1. ^ "Alaska Road Commission Photograph Collection, ca. 1909-1959". Alaska State Library. Archived from the original on 2008-07-18. Retrieved 2009-08-29.