Norman and Jack Harlin
Norman and Jack Harlin worked on the construction of airstrips at Watson Lake and Teslin. They were hired in the spring and summer of 1942 to help locate the Alaska Highway line. They knew the country from Lower Post and Fort Frances west to Kluane Lake. They were personally acquainted with the Teslin, Atlin, Marsh Lake, and Squanga country. They knew and had flown with the bush pilots of the day: Les Cook, Herman Peterson, Stan Emery, Frank Barr, Pat Callison, Ernie Kubicek, and Sheldon Luck. The Harlins had a pack train and an airplane with them all the time. They would look over the country in the plane and then go out flagging. They had an Indigenous crew cutting line, and seventeen men on the survey party coming behind. The grub came into the nearest lake and they used packhorses to move camp every ten days. They tried to run a mile of location every day. Norman and the pilot flagged ahead with the rest coming behind slashing. The location was mostly done with the plane. They would fly low over about ten miles to make sure they did not run into rock or a bad canyon. Aerial photographs were furnished to the crews on the ground as soon as possible.1)