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By
Norman Wood
In the fall of 1940, while on assignment in Crater Lake Park, I received a telegram from the Portland office that I had been selected as a member of a group from District One (old Region 8) for a 60-90 day assignment to locate and design a trans-isthmian highway across the Isthmus of Panama (Panama Canal).
By
Norman Wood
The objective of the Inter-American Highway was to link the United Sates to Mexico City and the capitol cities of the Central-America republics and Panama by paved highway. The program was initiated in 1932 and finally accomplished in 1967, when the final construction north of Panama City was completed. Mexico constructed and pad for their some 1,600 miles between Laredo, Texas, and the Guatemala border. The some 1,600 miles between Guatemala north border and Panama City was accomplished with United State and cooperating republics' funds.
By
Norman Wood
By
George B. Forrest
By
Karl S. Chamberlain
The following pages cover a few of the memories of Karl S. Chamberlain. They cover principally the Direct Construction operations of the Bureau of Public Roads in the early stages of the program. My own association with the Bureau started early in 1923, in what was formerly old District No. 12 with headquarters at Ogden, Utah. The district covered the States of Utah, and Idaho with some areas in Wyoming and Arizona. The office was in a rented portion of a business building.
By
Rene Wright
I was one of the lucky ones to come into the Bureau of Public Roads in its early stages. The Bureau had begun as the Office of Public Roads and Public Engineering in the Department of Agriculture and its principle activity was helping farmers build windmills, design drainage, etc. In about 1919 an Act of Congress was passed expanding the Bureau, primarily to help fill the employment rolls and create jobs for soldiers returning form World War I.
By
Clifford Polk
By
William B. "Pete" Peters
I started with the Bureau in 1919. one of the first projects I worked on was locating and constructing a road from Riverton, Wyoming, to Jackson Lake in the Grand Tetons just south of Yellowstone National Park. I was working as a transitman on a section across one of the passes, at an elevation of over 9,000 feet. It was a hot summer and I recall one incident that shows just how hot it was.
by
Wendell C. Struble
I began working for the Bureau in the summer of 1919 in Missoula, Montana. At that time the Missoula District Office was responsible for Federal road construction in the States of Montana and Idaho. That first summer I was on three location surveys: the Skalkaho in Montana; the Lolo Pass in Montana and Idaho; and the Coram-Spotted Bear in Montana. These three surveys totaled about 100 miles and all three were pack horse trips.