Edward,

I believe you have been misinformed or are thinking of the Alaska Highway constructed from Dawson Creek, BC to Delta Junction, Alaska during the Second World War.  

The Dempster Highway was started by the Canadian Federal Government in 1959, then abandoned in 1961 or 1962, due to costs, with less than 75 miles of road bed constructed.   The Canadian Government resurrected the project in 1968 following the proving of the reserves at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska as an exercise in asserting sovereignty over the bed of the Beaufort Sea off the Yukon’s coast.  

Initially sections of the road were winter only until the Royal Canadian Engineers completed the Eagle River Bridge.   The Dempster, as an all weather, 4-season road “officially” opened in 1979.

While the literature refers to it as a “gravel road”, much of that ‘gravel' is rather course and in many places shale (or was in the 1980s and 1990s when we travelled it) and hard on smaller vehicles (i.e. a split window bus and a motorcycle).

> On 13-Nov-2017, at 17:44, Edward V Barger <edvbarger@MAC.COM> wrote:
> 
> been up that away to Inuvik twice once in August and again in January 
> 
> It is really decent gravel road  well maintained and paid for by the US military as I was told 
> 
> part of the cold war 
> 
> ed
> 
> 
> Edward V Barger
> edvbarger@mac.com
> 310 922 6251
> 
> 
> 
>> On Nov 13, 2017, at 1:38 PM, OlRivrRat <OlRivrRat@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>> 
>>       This seems promising info from a Res' of Inuvik > Blargh_Bah  Inuvik, Ca >
>> 
>> "Depends where in NWT you are going. In Tuktoyaktuk, on the Arctic coast, there is no black fly season,
>> 
>> just lots of mosquitoes. Mosquito season usually ends early August."
>> 
>> 
>> On 13 Nov , 2017, at 11:25 AM, Alistair Bell wrote:
>> 
>>> Yes, it’s on my list of dream trips in the van. Mosquito netting on van to be in good shape :-)
>>> 
>>> Alistair
>>> 
>>>> On Nov 13, 2017, at 10:21 AM, OlRivrRat <OlRivrRat@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>     Day after tomorrow We'll be able to Drive Our Vanagons to Tuktoyaktuk ~
>>>> 
>>>> http://ith.dot.gov.nt.ca/