11/20/2022
*** EDITED to add more photos! *** Check them out!
It's a small world, especially on the North Slope! 🚛 Does anyone remember John "Tennessee" Miller and his 1955 Mack Truck? Read on...
This is pretty interesting! A gentleman placed an order for some North Slope stickers/decals from this site, ( aknorthslopedesign.com ), and emailed me this message:
"I have Mr. Millers personal truck, he took the first supplies by land in 1964 to Prudhoe Bay. This truck was used to get the D7 Cats to Fairbanks. I’m going to put the decals on it"
1964!!! That’s 58 years ago! I was 5 years old! (oops, just dated myself 😄 )
So here is a link to the story of John "Tennessee" Miller below as it pertains to the North Slope and the ice road. It's short and a good read!
https://www.seniorvoicealaska.com/story/2018/11/01/columns/ice-road-emerges-in-alaska-wilderness/1835.html
If you’re reading this, and you or someone you know may have worked with John Miller from his slope days, please contact Dean Jenkins at [email protected] - he's interested in any stories or info related to John Miller and his hauling days on the north slope.
Here’s a snippet about Mr. John Miller via Mr. Dean Jenkins:
Mr. Dean Jenkins has John Miller's semi now as pictured below – and although he never knew Mr. Miller personally, he is an avid collector, and in his own words, “I’m just a Heavy Equipment Hauler that collects old Mack trucks, and this one has been very interesting tracing the history”
Dean is in contact with John Miller’s great Nephew, and he was unsure if this truck was with the Dozer caravan to the North Slope in 64 (*see black and white photo - there is a truck that pulled a tanker of fuel for the dozers? You can see the tanker in the photo), and said the Truck hauled some of the dozers to Fairbanks to the staging area.
Dean stated that Mr. Miller brought the truck back to Tennessee in the 70’s, restored it and used it to pull Show horses. The truck went from an Alaska working truck in the 50’s & 60’s, to a Tennessee Show truck in the 70’s & 80’s. He’d like to put a book together about this legendary 1955 Mack truck.
John Miller passed away in 1984, having no kids, Mr . Jenkins aquired the truck from a great Nephew of his, who lives near him. This same nephew also worked for Mr. Miller in Prudhoe Bay in the 70’s.
Mr. Miller retired to Lewisburg, TN, and brought the truck with him in the 70s. He raised world champion Tennessee walking horses (1973 world champion black stallion, “Delight Bumin Around”), and had a farm in Tennessee & Kentucky, hence the name on the door of the truck: 10Tucky 😊
He gave Middle Tennessee State University 25 million to build “ Tennessee Miller “ Colosseum. https://www.mtsu.edu/tmc/bene.php
*** Facts are as they were relayed to me - any discrepancies / deviations are unintentional and unknown at this present time - corrections will and can be made if the need arises.
