Template:Did you know nominations/Seward Highway

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by The Bushranger _{One ping only} 07:18, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Seward Highway

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... that, of the 127 miles of roadway designated as the Seward Highway, over 72 miles are located in Chugach National Forest?

Reviewed: List of Olympic medalists in art competitions

Created/expanded by Awardgive (talk). Self nom at 09:04, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

Date and five-fold expansion confirmed. But I'm not sure I see the reliable sources for the 127 and 72 mile measurements in the hook. I don't see those figures explicitly stated in a source. Are you basing it your interpretation of the map? Isn't that original research? Also, the proposed hook seems kind of mundane. The article is full of facts, some of which seem more interesting than this. Would you consider submitting an alternate hook that is more likely to generate attention/interest on the Main Page. Possibilities include that it was built to connect people of Seward without need for air or sea travel; or maybe some indication why its passage through Chugach is interesting or important. Cbl62 (talk) 00:47, 15 March 2012 (UTC)
Note: there was no notification made on the author's talk page of outstanding issues on this nomination; I have just done so today. BlueMoonset (talk) 17:14, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Sorry. I just assumed that everyone kept their DYK noms on their watch list, now that we are able to do that. Cbl62 (talk) 20:25, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment
Possibilities include that it was built to connect people of Seward without need for air or sea travel; or maybe some indication why its passage through Chugach is interesting or important.
I was going to save this for when someone started the GA review. All of that would need further fact-checking. First, there was no need for air or sea travel between Seward and Anchorage. The Alaska Railroad had been providing regular passenger service for approximately three decades prior to the opening of the highway. Scheduled airline service to much of anywhere was in its infancy in 1951. There has never been much demand for air service between the two places, either then or now. To travel between the two places by sea would involve a long journey around the Kenai Peninsula. Second, any significance regarding the Chugach National Forest is missed, in my opinion. If I remember correctly, the entire area, including Anchorage, was included within the original boundaries of the forest. Areas had later been parceled off for settlement, to create military installations, to satisfy Alaska Statehood Act land grant obligations to the state, and perhaps for other reasons as well NEPA didn't exist then, so it's likely that there was no significance attached to building a road through the forest inasfar as environmental concerns.RadioKAOS (talk) 05:34, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Disputed sentence removed. How about ALT1? -- Esemono (talk) 07:07, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

ALT1... that the Seward Highway is viewed as a highway that is important to defense policy and which provides defense access, continuity and emergency capabilities for defense purposes?

Article is reasonably well sourced (some of the route description has to be assumed to be sourced to maps).

I'm unimpressed by ALT1 -- it describes a highway classification that applies to many highways in the U.S., and the article doesn't provide contextual details on why this road is important for defense policy, etc.

Like Cbl62, thought that "no land connection until this road was built" would make a good hook, until I learned that the railroad existed earlier (I edited the article to include that information).

Although the details of the mileage are in question, it's clear from maps that most of the distance is in the national forest. Accordingly, I recommend the following revision to the original hook:

ALT2 ... that most of the length of the Seward Highway (pictured), which connects Anchorage and Seward, is within Chugach National Forest? --Orlady (talk) 15:52, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm fine with alt 2. Still not terribly interesting but at least it avoids the other problems noted above. Cbl62 (talk) 18:27, 22 April 2012 (UTC)