In a Feb. 12 report for the Fairbanks, Alaska, Daily News-Miner, Jeff Richardson tells the story of a commemorative plaque dedicated to the truckers of the Dalton Highway, or the “>haul road,” as it’s known to most residents, connecting Fairbanks with the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. The commemoration now graces the site of the Fairbanks Hilltop Truck Stop, listing the names of various and sundry of the truckers who’ve run the road and have now passed on for various reasons.
Monica Bus is the force behind the memorial. Richardson writes, “>Bus has a special reason to feel close to the men who drive the 414-mile-long haul road. She worked at Coldfoot, the Brooks Range truck stop, in the mid-1980s and drove a pilot car on the Dalton for a decade. Most importantly, her husband, Matt, was a longtime trucker on the remote, narrow road. He died suddenly two summers ago after being stung by a wasp.”
The legend on the memorial (a second plaque was made without names so that the memorial could be ongoing) reads, “Grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I was beside you there.” Bus told Richardson that that pretty much summed up her effort.
For the rest of the story, read on here. Or follow this link for Overdrive Editorial Director Max Heine’s brilliant piece on a ridealong he did with a haul-road trucker for Truckers News a few years ago. The picture here is from his trip.
