Alaska Pictures 1950, 1955-1957

Pictures by Bill and Pat Christensen Site Maintained by Marcie

Bill Christensen 12/3/1915-02/11/2005
I will miss you, Dad. It was a great ride.
It has been three years now since Bill passed away. I still miss him and wish I had written down all the stories he told about his adventures working on the White Alice Project and DEW line.

Willard "Bill" Christensen worked on the planning of the Dew Line Extension and the implementation of the White Alice Project. He first came to Alaska in 1950 to work on the project. He then returned in 1955. This time he stayed.

Bill's wife, Viola "Pat" followed. She stayed behind in North Platte Nebraska to sell the house, finish up on business, and pack their life into the station wagon. She then set off by car with me, Marcie-soon to be six and my two year old brother Roger. She settled in Anchorage and waited for word from Bill.

Bill worked in the field and as it was top secret at the time, his family never knew where he was or for how long. Sometimes absences were as long as six weeks.

These pictures are from slides that were taken by them in that period. They left Alaska on October 11, 1957, Roger's 5th birthday for the long drive to Nebraska.

Please forgive some of the quality. These slides were stored over a water heater near a furnace during the 60's and 70's. Some have a fine crackle to the finish, others look like they were misted with something and others are just dirty. I did the best I could to scan them after I found out how much it would cost to get them restored.

Please click on a topic below to view pictures. I am still disorganized. I am putting the pictures on by category and hope to organize them later. Please come back to check on my progress.

New pictures posted 4/14/05. These were taken with a crank-up 8mm movie camera. I had them digitalized so that they could be viewed without trying to run them through a projector.

Anchorage Alaska Atlasta House Alaska Bethel Alaska
Boswell Rock Alaska Cordova Alaska
Curry Alaska Delta Alaska
Denali-known as Mt. Mckinley in the 1950's Eklutna Alaska
Fairbanks Alaska Fur Rendezvous
Gakona Alaska Galena Alaska
Haycock Alaska Hinchenbrook Alaska
Homer Alaska Iliamna Alaska
Kenai Alaska Kivalina Alaska
Knik Arm Alaska Kodiak Islands Alaska
McGrath Alaska-tower collapse Middleton Island Alaska
Mt. Sanford Alaska Nelchina Alaska
Ninilchick Alaska Nome Alaska
Pedro Dome Alaska Portage Glacier Alaska
Ranges in Alaska Romanzof Alaska
Seward Alaska Sheep Mountain Alaska
Sitknak Alaska Small Lake Alaska
St. Augustine Island Alaska Steven Village Alaska
Tanana Alaska Tok Junction Alaska
Unalakleet Alaska Wasilla Alaska
Yukon Alaska Unidentified Locations Alaska
People in Alaska

White Alice Project

I am sorry that I had to take down my guestbook. I would empty it everyday and the next morning it would be full of garvage. The following emails are the ones I can thank for depriving me of being able to meet people with similar interests. I have met many wonderful people through the years, but that is over now.

spamik2@yahoo.com
spamik3@yahoo.com
spamik4@yahoo.com
spamik7@yahoo.com
spamik8@yahoo.com
spamik9@yahoo.com
spamik11@yahoo.com
spamik15@yahoo.com

The slides will be going to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art to be added to their archives. There they will be better cared for and hopefully some will be cleaned, printed and used for displays.
Last update Jan 30, 2003.

Links to other sites on the Web
Dale Powell's Awesome White Alice Site
Roger Collinson's White Alice Stories and Pictures
A Really GREAT Site on Middleton, Dew Line and 720th AC&W Squadron

Totally Unrelated Site-Pat and Bill's Grandson performing at Neil's in Memphis