Clint Kamstra

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The Dalton Highway is a treacherous 414-mile road that crosses the Arctic Circle and the Brooks Range to connect Fairbanks, Alaska to Prudhoe Bay, the site of North America’s largest oil discovery. The highway, which parallels the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. It ends at Deadhorse, an unincorporated oil field service town built entirely on gravel pads laid atop frozen tundra.

Originally built in 1974, the highway was presented as a temporary, private industrial road. Despite opposition rooted in land rights, preserving hunting grounds, and the fear that industrial access would become permanent, the state opened the route to the public. It enabled access to land that had never before had a road through it.

The Dalton Highway passes near the western edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On his first day in office in 2025, President Trump signed an executive order declaring the federally protected refuge open for oil and gas exploration. Land leases are now for sale. Any new drilling operation would require an extension of the Dalton Highway and pipeline corridor. Currently, there are no roads leading into or within the refuge.

The Dalton Highway is a treacherous 414-mile road that crosses the Arctic Circle and the Brooks Range to connect Fairbanks, Alaska to Prudhoe Bay, the site of North America’s largest oil discovery. The highway, which parallels the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, is one of the most isolated roads in the United States. It ends at Deadhorse, an unincorporated oil field service town built entirely on gravel pads laid atop frozen tundra.

Originally built in 1974, the highway was presented as a temporary, private industrial road. Despite opposition rooted in land rights, preserving hunting grounds, and the fear that industrial access would become permanent, the state opened the route to the public. It enabled access to land that had never before had a road through it.

The Dalton Highway passes near the western edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On his first day in office in 2025, President Trump signed an executive order declaring the federally protected refuge open for oil and gas exploration. Land leases are now for sale. Any new drilling operation would require an extension of the Dalton Highway and pipeline corridor. Currently, there are no roads leading into or within the refuge.