Dempster Highway

I was interested in the Jan. 5 article by Barry Schiff about Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. May I point out a misconception, namely where he writes, "Neither roads nor rails tie this place to any other on earth." In 1980 I left with a tour by bus from Dawson City north to Inuvik. We traveled the Dempster Highway constructed in 1979. This runs to mile 231 at Eagle Plains, then on to Inuvik for a total of 450 miles. This is a spectacular highway as it travels along the ridges of that mountainous area.

Anne Saunders has lived here for 15 years. She likes the town, but that's not what keeps her tethered. "Much as I love Dawson," she said, "the Dempster is why I live here." Reaching north for 457 miles, the Dempster Highway runs from Dawson in the Yukon to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, two degrees north of the Arctic Circle. Sitting atop the permafrost and weathering temperatures that can vary as much as 142 degrees, the Dempster is entirely gravel, 20 feet thick in places.

Anne Saunders has lived here for 15 years. She likes the town, but that's not what keeps her tethered. "Much as I love Dawson," she said, "the Dempster is why I live here." Reaching north for 457 miles, the Dempster Highway runs from Dawson in the Yukon to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, two degrees north of the Arctic Circle. Sitting atop the permafrost and weathering temperatures that can vary as much as 142 degrees, the Dempster is entirely gravel, 20 feet thick in places.

I was interested in the Jan. 5 article by Barry Schiff about Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. May I point out a misconception, namely where he writes, "Neither roads nor rails tie this place to any other on earth." In 1980 I left with a tour by bus from Dawson City north to Inuvik. We traveled the Dempster Highway constructed in 1979. This runs to mile 231 at Eagle Plains, then on to Inuvik for a total of 450 miles. This is a spectacular highway as it travels along the ridges of that mountainous area.

Being another happy visitor to Inuvik in Canada's Northwest Territories, I was pleased to read your article (March 10), and the letter from David Wilson (April 6). Here's more that was not mentioned in either the article or the letter. In late June, 1983, I flew from Los Angeles to Yukon's capital of Whitehorse. From there I took another plane on up to Inuvik, with stops at Dawson City, "Heart of the '98 Klondike Gold Rush" . . . then at Old Crow, a village of 250 Indians, far north of Dawson City and almost 100 miles above the Arctic Circle.

In your July 10 article about oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, drilling proponents advocate spending large sums of money to permanently alter a pristine wilderness, resulting in at best 30 years of oil or at worst the "world's most expensive dry hole." In either case this country eventually ends up just as dependent on foreign oil as we are today. The resources required to open up ANWR to oil drilling would be far better spent on the development of practical, affordable electric vehicles.

I was pleased to reacquaint myself with lnuvik in the Canadian Northwest Territories (Times, March 10)--and on the front page! But why repeat and stress the old cliches of life in arctic towns? If drunks, bugs and ice were news, Buffalo or Milwaukee would be stronger candidates for treatment, and this year, God help us, even San Antonio. I visited Inuvik for a couple of August days two years ago, and much of what made the place distinctive and interesting to me was missing from your man's story.

Travel newsletters abound. So do health newsletters. And a handful focus strictly on travel health, according to the Newsletter Publishers Assn. of Arlington, Va. Such publications fill a niche, bridge an information gap and attract a loyal readership, even though in several, the information is the attraction rather than polished prose and sophisticated graphics. Here is a round-up of newsletters that specialize in travel health or include travel-related health tips.