John and Lily Noyes

John and Lily Noyes were former residents of Juneau who were close friends with Territorial Governor Benjamin Franklin Heintzleman. In 1956, John Rutherford Noyes died from injuries suffered in a plane crash near Nome, Alaska. Noyes Mountain, in the Mentasta Mountains about 50 miles south of Tok, is also named in Noyes’ honor.

In 1948, John Noyes was assigned as Commissioner of Roads for Alaska, stationed in Juneau, and from 1948 to 1951 he supervised the modernization of the state’s road system at a cost in excess of $50 million. By 1951, the Alaska Road Commission had been reorganized along modern lines, road standards were modernized, 300 miles of pavement were laid (the first paved roads in Alaska), and the program was laid out and has been followed up to the present time.