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Bud Krier papers

Guide to the Bud Krier papers
1943-1944, 1975

Collection number: HMC-0709.
Creator: Krier, Bud.
Title: Bud Krier papers.
Dates: 1943-1944, 1975.
Volume of collection: 0.1 cubic feet and 57 mb.
Language of materials: Materials in this collection are in English.
Collection summary: Photographs and papers of a construction worker on the telephone line along the Alaska Highway in 1943.

Biographical note:
Bud Krier was from St. Paul, Minnesota. From March to October of 1943, he was a construction worker for the Oman-Smith Company of Nashville, Tennessee, a subcontractor of the Miller Construction Company, Inc. of Vincennes, Indiana. These companies constructed a telephone line along the Alaska Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Fairbanks, Alaska. Miller Construction Company worked from Fairbanks south, and the Oman-Smith Company worked from Dawson Creek north. Many of the workers were from Tennessee, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Collection description:
The collection consists of the papers of Bud Krier relating to the construction of the telephone line along the Alaska Highway in 1943. The collection contains copies of magazine and newspaper articles: “We Wired the Wilderness,” with story and photographs by Jerry Hill from Alaska Magazine April 1975 and six St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper articles from March 1944 by Alton Smalley, war correspondent, about the Army Military Railway Service battalion which operated the Alaska Railroad during World War II. The collection also contains a copy of Krier’s photograph album concerning his work on the telephone line along with 166 black and white prints from the original album and 3 color and 22 black and white photo post cards of Alaska, Yukon Territory, and Winnipeg, Manitoba; and an Oman-Smith Company Alaska Highway Telephone Line canteen coupon. Subjects of the photographs, dated from May to October of 1943, include: Krier and fellow construction workers, soldiers, the Alaska Highway and right-of-way, construction camps, tents, trucks, heavy equipment, railroads, railroad cars, bridges, rivers, lakes, mountains and other scenery. The photo post cards include three sent from Krier to his wife Lucile in St. Paul, Minnesota, in March 1943. The remaining cards include: seven Dedman cards from Skagway, Alaska, with scenes of Skagway, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway, and the S. S. Princess Louise; four cards of people and animals at Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory; three cards of scenes along the Alaska Highway, released through the permission of the Wartime Information Board; and eight miscellaneous cards of scenes of Carcross and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Skagway, Alaska, the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway, and the Alaska Highway.

Arrangement: The collection is arranged by record type. Photographs are arranged by size.

Alternative formats: A Xerox copy of the original album has been digitized and is available in PDF form.

Digitized copies: The other contents of the collection have not been digitized. For information about obtaining digital copies, please contact Archives and Special Collections.

Rights note: Archives does not hold copyright to materials in this collection.

Preferred citation: Bud Krier papers, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.

Acquisition note: This collection was purchased from eBay in 2004.

Processing information: This collection was described, album disassembled for preservation purposes, and photographs rearranged into size order by Jeffrey Sinnott in 2004. The collection description was converted to current standard by Veronica Denison in 2014. The copy of the album was digitized and placed online, the collection rehoused, and the collection description updated by Arlene Schmuland in 2021.

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