Yukon Highway 4, also known as the Robert Campbell Highway or Campbell Highway, is a road between Watson Lake, Yukon on the Alaska Highway to Carmacks, Yukon on the Klondike Highway. It is 583 km (362 mi) long and mostly gravel-surfaced. It serves the communities of Faro and Ross River and intersects the Canol Road near Ross River.
The first portion of the Robert Campbell Highway, between Watson Lake and Miner Junction, was built in the early 1960s as part of the project to complete road access to Tungsten, Northwest Territories. The portion east and north of Miner Junction is now known as the Nahanni Range Road, and is presently Yukon Territorial Highway #10.
During the late 1960s and continuing to 1971, highways were built to connect Carmacks with Ross River, with a spur road to Faro to serve the new lead-zinc mine that opened in 1969. Additional road work was also completed between Ross River and Miner Junction. The completed road complements the Canol Road, providing two loops and bringing year-round access to Ross River.
The Campbell Highway is mostly gravel, and the most improved section is between Carmacks and Faro, where it has taken the most abuse from trucks hauling ore to Whitehorse and beyond.
The highway was originally route 9, but became route 4 in 1978. For travelers from the south whose destination is Dawson City, this route is some 20 miles shorter than going through Whitehorse.
Famous quotes containing the words campbell and/or highway:
“‘Ye are brothers! ye are men!
And we conquer but to save:—
So peace instead of death let us bring:”
—Thomas Campbell (1774–1844)
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)