The Army Engineering Corp turned over the Alaska Highway project to civilian contractors in November. Even as war raged on the Aleutian Islands, the Utah Construction Company signed a $10 million contract with the Public Roads Administration to build a highway segment beginning at the Alaska-Canada border and extending about 150 miles east. The wilderness included forests, lakes, marshes, and rivers, with temperatures ranging from 90 degrees on long midsummer days to 70 degrees below zero during winter. "We could now see great clouds of dust rising from the truck convoys moving supplies up the road to White River Camp or busily hauling earth from gravel pits back to the highway," wrote war correspondent Herbert C. Lanks, after viewing the project from a small plane. Note the Utah Construction logo on the truck leading the convoy.