Casual Country Adventure in all Seasons
2013
2 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 3
Index
Casual Country 2013
Stampede
People
Cover shot: Bull riding is a most popular Stampede event..
Cover shot: Mt. Timothy Ski Hill celebrates 25 years.
Stampede royals busy all year................................................Pages 6-7
Doctors Asa and Tracy Brown move north from the U.S. ........ Page 64
Stampede volunteers honoured............................................Page 6-7-8
Loran-C historical warning system dismantled......................... Page 65
Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees .........................................Page 8-9-14
Jay Goddard grounds TRU students in social sciences .......... Page 67
Legion welcomes visitors ................................................... Pages 10-11
TRU grows with the Cariboo ..................................................... Page 68
Dave and Jean Dorsey pioneers with history .................... Pages 12-13
Famed bridge builder Rudy Johnson honoured ....................... Page 69
Frontline Helicopters at work and play...................................... Page 16
Theatre and writing inspire John and Ann Walsh...............Pages 70-71
John Dell recording history as a videographer ........................ Page 17
Muriel Lee a serious horsewoman ............................................ Page 72
Business Cover shot: Beekeeper Diane Dunaway at Medieval Market. Bob’s Shoes and Repairs in new hands .................................. Page 24 Durfeld Log and Timber updates Stampede facilities ....... Pages 25-27
Al and Raeleen Campsall take on new challenges........... Pages 73-74 Linda Purjue finally meets life-long pen pal ....................... Pages 75-76 Outdoor adventure for all seasons............................................ Page 77 Cariboo potters enjoy Japanese Raku......................................Page 78 Green agriculture on Slater Mountain Farm ...................... Pages 79-81
Delainey’s Lock and Key enlivens downtown core.........Pages 31-32
Only in the Cariboo
Chilcotin Guns outfitting the generations ........................... Pages 33-34
Cover shot: The Horsefly Follies a buzzing tradition.
Mark Coe carves character into long guns.................................Page 35
Tuba John Sykes and the Cariboo Pantleg Polka ............ Pages 84-85
Bee Happy Honey busy at Soda Creek............................. Pages 29-30
Out West Cover shot: Darlene and Bill Van Es at their Escott Bay resort. Cariboo West Stages passenger bus finally arrives.......... Pages 37-38 Fiddle music connects communities ......................................... Page 39 Donna’s Place popular Anahim Lake eatery ..................... Pages 41-42 Dick and Maxine Wright recall early years ........................ Pages 43-44 Winter flightseeing with Cameron Linde ............................ Pages 45-47 Boise Williams recalls life with Eagle Lake Henry ............. Pages 48-50 Walter Anchikoski, recalls cowboy ride home...........................Page 50
Bella Coola Valley Cover shot: Creekside Studio and Gallery established Snootli Hatchery open for summer tours............................Pages 52-53 Clarence Hall survives cougar attack ................................ Pages 54-55 Rob Skelly, helicopter pilot to seaman ............................... Pages 57-58 Ernest and Jill Hall establish potter’s studio ...................... Pages 59-60
Tourism’s wild ride in the west Chilcotin............................. Pages 86-87 The Blanketing premieres in the lakecity .................................. Page 88 After Dark with The Horsefly Follies.......................................... Page 89 Mitch Cheek daredevil videographer ........................................ Page 90 Barrowman Vineyard grows at Soda Creek ............................. Page 91 Likely research centre a global resource .................................. Page 92 Lodgepole pine produces sweet spring treats......................Pages 93-95
On the Cover
Black Press photo
Kelly and Jocelyn Croswell, owner-operators of Frontline Helicopters, enjoy an outing on Quesnel Lake with their children Calvin, 11, Kolby, 8, Katie, 6, and Jack, 3. Their story is on Page 16.
Bella Coola Archives a valuable resource ................................ Page 61 A photographic look at Bella Coola’s past ................................ Page 62
Published by Black Press Group Ltd. 188 N. 1st Ave., Williams Lake, B.C. Publisher Lisa Bowering Acting Editor Gaeil Farrar Layout & Design Gaylene Desautels
4 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
STREET
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5 Blocks of Family Activities!
PARTY! Downtown Williams Lake
2013 CONTESTANTS
Rachel Abrahamse
Kyra Stuart
Miss Daybreak Rotary
Miss M.H. King Excavating Ltd.
SATURDAY, JUNE 29 12 pm - 4 pm
th
It’s Time To Walk The Walk! Aug. 6 - Sept. 7 th
th
Celebrate artistic talent and support the community minded businesses in Williams Lake.
SHOW & SALE
Take a tour of our downtown core, experience the incredible and diverse talents the Cariboo has to offer, and stamp your way to some fabulous prizes!
For more info call 250-398-5717
info@wlcbia.com
Karina Sukert
Miss Williams Lake Rotary Club
2012 ROYALTY Photos courtesy Craig Smith of About Face Photography
Come out and enjoy our Local Performers, Wagon Rides, Activities, Car Show, Vendors & Much More!
Alexis Forseille
2012/13 Stampede Queen
Terris Billyboy
2012/13 Stampede Princess
Thanks to:
ABOUT FACE PHOTOGRAPHY ALL SILENT & EVENT JUDGES AMBER’S COUNTRY TACK SHOPPE ANIMAL CARE HOSPITAL BEAVER VALLEY FEEDS BOB’S SHOES & REPAIRS BODY CONNECTION BRAUMANDL, KIRSTIN C PLUS RODEO CANADA SAFEWAY CARIBOO GMC CARIBOO CUSTOM MONOGRAM CARIBOO QUALITY CLEANERS CARIBOO SADDLERY CARIBOO SPURS APPAREL & TACK CITY OF WILLIAMS LAKE COLGATE, PAULINE COOK CONTRACTING DAYBREAK ROTARY DELAINEY’S LOCK & KEY DENNY, MARK DOLLAR DOLLAR EAGLE VIEW EQUESTRIAN CENTRE ECONO GLASS FAUXY WESTERN WEAR GAZEBO FLOWER & GIFT SHOPPE HEARTLAND TOYOTA HIGHLAND HELICOPTER INDOOR RODEO ASSOCIATION INLAND KENWORTH JAMES WESTERN STAR JOHN DELL VIDEOGRAPHY LAMMLES KAMLOOPS LENNOX, BARB & BRUCE LOGGERS LUNCH LO’S FLORIST MAGNOWSKI, DOUG M.H. KING EXCAVATING
MUSEUM OF THE CARIBOO CHILCOTIN PANAGO PANDLE ENTERPRISES PARENTS AND FAMILIES OF ROYALTY AND CONTESTANTS PEEL, BRIDGETTE PMT ACCOUNTANTS ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION, BRANCH 139 ROTARY CLUB OF WILLIAMS LAKE SAVE ON FOODS SCHICKWORKS SIGNS & STITCHES SHOPPERS DRUG MART SILVA, JOHN SMITHBILT HATS STAMPEDE TACK THE LOG HOUSE, 100 MILE THE GAZEBO THE RUSH THOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY TOTAL BODY CARE TOURISM DISCOVERY CENTER UNITED CONCRETE AND GRAVEL WATER FACTORY WELCOMETOWILLIAMSLAKE.CA WILLIAMS LAKE LIONS CLUB WILLIAMS LAKE RCMP WILLIAMS LAKE STAMPEDE ASSOCIATION WILLIAMS LAKE TRIBUNE WILLIAMS LAKE TRAIL RIDERS WILLIAMS LAKE VETERINARY HOSPITAL WL FORESTRY SUPPLIES WOODLAND JEWELLERS
If we’ve missed anyone, our sincere apologies.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 5
Greg Sabatino photo
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2012 Stampede royals wrap up a busy year Alexis Forseille 2012 Stampede Queen Casual Country 2013
Oh what a year! We were privileged to represent the Williams Lake Stampede over the past year at several fabulous rodeos and many wonderful community events. It is a year we will not soon forget. Beginning with our crowning at the 86th Annual Williams Lake Stampede, our entire year was transformed into clouds of hairspray, fast horses and wonderful people. Our first official travel plans as royalty took us to the 100th annual Calgary Stampede. We participated in the parade on horseback, watched the Stampede from the front of the arena, and were toured around as part of the visiting royalty package. The weekend was the best way to get us excited for all the travels we had ahead of us! Calgary was also where we met the Omak Stampede Queen, who cordially invited us to attend the Omak Stampede and Suicide Race the weekend after we attended Quesnel Billy Barker Days. The Omak Stampede and Suicide Race was our one and only across the border adventure into Washington State.
Terris Billyboy
Alexis Forseille 2012 Stampede Queen
2012 Stampede Princess
We did not anticipate the near 40 degree Celsius heat, and quickly learned why the rodeos are held in the evenings. We arrived in time to watch the rodeo performance on the first evening and watch the famous Suicide Race. Like the Williams Lake mountain race, this race runs straight down a fast hillside, however, the race crosses a river at the bottom of the hill before the track continues into the arena. Your heart is in your throat watching as the horses come dashing over the top of the hill and down into the river! On the day we participated in grand entry on two matching black horses, we helped break an arena record for the most royalty in the arena at one time; over
rolled around, we were eager to get back at the rodeos. Thankfully we were able to attend the Falkland Stampede and the Kispiox Valley Rodeo. We would like to extend a thank you to all our chaperones, especially our moms, for taking us on all our adventures over the past year. It has been an honour to represent the Williams Lake Stampede as Queen and Princess. Thank you to everyone who has made our year possible and to those we have met along the way who added to the overall experience. Thank you. Alexis Forseille Williams Lake Stampede Queen. Terris Billyboy Williams Lake Stampede Princess.
Liz Twan photo
Miss Rodeo Canada, Gillian Shields visited Williams Lake during the Williams Lake Indoor Rodeo this spring. She visited with local and visiting royals, participated in grand entries, and in the B.C. Cowboy Hall of Fame presentations. Pictured here during a brief respite from their busy schedule are Gillian and her wee new friend and fan, Justine Biilyboy, youngest sister of Williams Lake Stampede Princess Terris Billyboy and Williams Lake Stampede Queen Alexis Forseille. Justine was far more interested in watching the clown act going on in the arena, than posing for a picture. 40 girls participated on horseback in grand entry lined up that evening. The following day we rode the horses in the Omak parade carrying the Williams Lake Stampede flags! It was the most amazing road trip, and we even met up with many rodeo fans from the Williams Lake area. The rest of the summer was filled with
highlights from the Redstone Rodeo, Smithers Fall Fair and Rodeo and The North Thompson Fall Fair and Rodeo Pageant, before the British Columbia Rodeo season ended at the Quesnel rodeo grounds in September. We were very excited to be given the opportunity not only ride in grand entry at the BCRA finals, but to also chase
cattle out of the arena. It meant a lot to us to be invited to participate in the arena on horseback and let everyone see our horsemanship skills. In early November it was time to pack our royalty bags once again and take a wintery drive to Edmonton to watch the Miss Rodeo Canada Competition and the Canadian Finals Rodeo! Despite the cold weath-
er, we enjoyed every moment in the big city! The rodeo was amazing. We watched many live country artists, a few arena records be broken and took in the expo centre shopping maybe a little bit too much. The week spent at the Canadian Finals Rodeo was another huge highlight to our year. By the time spring
Roy Slavens earns lifetime pass Monica Lamb-Yorski Casual Country 2013
Liz Twan photo
Williams Lake Stampede director Roy Slavens (left) presents buckles to the Wild Horse Race Championship team during the 2008 Williams Lake Stampede.
Williams Lake Stampede 2013 lifetime pass recipient really enjoys rodeo. Roy Slavens served on the Stampede board of directors for a decade and says his involvement with the Stampede goes back to the early 90s when his son Tyler was involved with high school rodeo. “The high school rodeo club used to have to go down help paint, and get the arena ready for the Stampede so I was involved there,”
Slavens explains. He was also involved with the Chilcotin Rodeo Association, which doesn’t exist anymore as it was absorbed by the B.C. Rodeo Association. While serving on the Stampede board, he was rodeo committee chair. The role involved applying for approval from CPRA, hiring stock contractors, contract acts, arranging for equipment, and ensuring that all of the arena equipment and arena were maintained. “It became a big job, almost full-time. I was
campground director for a couple of years too,” he adds. Two years ago he didn’t let his name stand for re-election, and last year he was recovering from surgery and was not able to volunteer very much. “I’ve enjoyed working with the great people who have dedicated hundreds of hours each year and the volunteers who help ensure we put on a world-class show.” When asked what he likes about the Stampede he says it’s pretty extensive. “Just being involved
with rodeo people. You get to meet rodeo people from all over North America. The cowboys coming to compete. You get to meet some of the biggest names in rodeo.” Meeting different stock contractors is also a plus, he says. Slavens also judged for the CRA and the High School Rodeo for a number of years. “I’ve been involved for quite awhile.” As long as he can watch the “rough stock” events; bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding he’ll continue to volunteer.
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Stampede
Three in race for Stampede Queen
Rachel Abrahamse
Miss Daybreak Rotary
Hi everyone, My name is Rachel Abrahamse, Miss Daybreak Rotary. I am 17 years old and currently a Grade 12 student at Maranatha Christian School. I was born and raised in Williams Lake. I have participated in 4-H for the last nine years doing projects in beef, sheep, poultry and photography. 4-H has taught me confidence, leadership, and how to stand up in front of a group of people and deliver a speech. I have volunteered at a number of community events and clubs such as the Williams Lake Stampede Association and Awana. I have also worked on a few ranches in the area including The Gang Ranch and the Princeton Stock Ranch doing tasks such as yard work, haying, and riding. Growing up on a farm with horses and cattle has made me love being outdoors and getting my hands dirty. Most of my free time has been spent with my dad on the farm. Family has always come first and is very important to me. Even though my three older siblings have left home, we have stayed really close. My mom is a great cook and my entire family loves cooking. We are constantly having people over for meals and a good visit. My family has deep roots in the Williams Lake area. Felker Lake is named after my greatgreat-grandparents and we’ve been residents of the area ever since. I am a very outgoing person, I love meeting new people and I have never been described as shy. I also love to try new things. Once I graduate from high school and take some pre-level university courses, I plan on going into a Bachelor of Science in hydrogeology. Thank you to my family for helping and encouraging me, my sponsors for getting me here and supporting me and my friends for your support.
Craig Smith photo
Rachel Abrahamse Miss Daybreak Rotary Kyra Stuart
Miss M.H. King Excavating Ltd.
Greetings Williams Lake and surrounding areas! My name is Kyra Stuart, Miss M.H King Excavating Ltd. I am thrilled and excited to be taking part in the 2013 Williams Lake Stampede Queen competition. I am 17 years old, and born and raised in Williams Lake. My family settled in the Chilcotin almost 100 years ago, it’s safe to say I’ll always call the Cariboo home. I graduated from Columneetza Secondary last year and I am now
upgrading and looking forward to starting my nursing degree next year at Thompson Rivers University. After spending sometime volunteering in the Save-On pharmacy and at the hospital, I am even more excited to begin my university education as I have found my niche in helping others. My family is a close knit family and my parents, brother, sister and I enjoy camping and rodeos. We live in the Cariboo so why not take advantage of the local destinations and events? As a little girl I had the opportunity to compete in the local gymkhanas, but as we grew and got
Craig Smith photo
Kyra Stuart Miss M.H. King Excavating Ltd. busier with school and my parents with work, we had to make the hard decision to let go of our horse and wait until the time was right. This last few months have been very exciting for me, everything has fallen into place and we are now the proud owners of Ace, a five-year-old Appaloosa gelding. He’s giving me quite the refresher course in horse maintenance, and riding! There’s nothing more relaxing than shovelling out a stall at -15C. I love having the opportunity to share in the legacy and tradition of the Williams lake Stampede. To represent, and promote our unique cul-
ture, community and vast history with people would be an honour for me. I have been to the Stampede nearly every year of my life. In the early years, I was there with my mom and family anxiously awaiting the bull riding so we could cheer on my dad from the stands. A huge hug and thank you to my sponsor Mike and Myles King of M.H. King Excavating Ltd. and to my family for all of their love and support.
Karina Sukert,
Miss Rotary Club of Williams Lake
Hey Rodeo fans!
Craig Smith photo
Karina Sukert Miss Rotary Club of Williams Lake My name is Karina Sukert, Miss Rotary Club of Williams Lake. I am 17 years old and graduating from Williams Lake Secondary School this year. I was born in Williams Lake and raised in the Black Creek Valley in Horsefly, moving into town in 2010. I have been going to the Williams Lake Stampede since I was a little girl. I have been a member of the Horsefly 4-H Club since I was a Cloverbud at age six. 4-H has been a huge part of my life and has taught me many life skills. I have volunteered for the Stampede Committee
STAMPEDE VOLUNTEERS HONOURED
Above Stampede volunteer Liz Twan receives a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal from Lieutenant Governor Judy Guichon in Vancouver this year. Stampede president Fred Thomas, Stampede director Willie Crosina, and long-time Stampede volunteer Claudia Blair were also received the medals.
Photos submitted
The Williams Lake Stampede directors are all suited up and ready for their respective roles in bringing you the 87th annul Williams Lake Stampede this weekend. Pictured are Lorne Doerkson (back left), Courtney Smith, Joe Pushak, John Margetts, Tim Rolph, Wendell McKnight, Surinderpal Rathor, Willie Crosina; Bev Williamson (front left), Ellie Seelhof, Dolores Berkelaar, Jamie Tanis, Fred Thomas, Liz Crosina, Cindy Brady, and Sherry Bullock.
and Indoor Rodeo Committee: usher or wherever needed at the Indoor Rodeo; Stampede Queen Coronation reception, Stampede gate and usher, selling raffle tickets programs, and belt buckles. Through high school I have been a part of many sports teams and clubs, student council, and attended the B.C. student wellness and leadership conference in Prince George. I coached Grade 8 volleyball this season and my girls brought home a championship. I have been playing volleyball for several years and the WLSS Thunder volleyball team has gone to zones both my senior years. This year I am a member of the Stags rugby team. For the past two years, I have been barrel racing for fun. Thank you Charlotte Morrow for teaching me! Last year, I started attending gymkhanas with my horse Charlie. I finally lived the dream of racing around the track at the Williams Lake Stampede Grounds. In the 2012 Stampede Parade I rode Charlie carrying the 4-H Canada flag while the members of my Horsefly 4-H Club danced away on the float to Elvis Presley’s “I’m All Shook Up.” We won best Community Float. Thank you to the Rotary Club of Williams Lake; Mitton Creek Ranch for the use of Charlie; my mom and dad; 4H, the Stampede Queen Committee; and my Baba (grandma) for all my western attire.
8 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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Volunteers rally for 2013 Stampede
LeRae Haynes Casual Country 2013 Bev and Daryl Williamson from 150 Mile House are long-time volunteers with the Williams Lake Stampede Association, and as momentum builds toward the 2013 event, they say that the Stampede is an exciting, defining event for the community. Bev has been a Stampede Association Director for the past 10 years. She helps in the office, answering phones, organizing sponsorship packages, tickets and more — working as a liaison for all the events and ‘departments’ in the Stampede Association. “The Stampede has been an important part of our families since we were young. Daryl’s dad was a Director for about 10 years, and my parents volunteered with the Stampede for years,” she explains. “When I
was little I used to help by selling tickets — they used to cost 50 cents.” Daryl has run the beer garden for years, and also brings an excavator and other equipment from his business for projects on the Stampede Grounds. “Our kids and our grandkids all come home for the Stampede,” he continued. “In the 30 years we’ve been married we have missed only one year at the Williams Lake Stampede.” The Williams Lake Stampede is a yearround project for the dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, but the weeks leading up to the Stampede are a real build-up of anticipation and excitement. There are now ‘work bees’ on the grounds every Monday night from 6 to 8 p.m. where volunteers do things like paint, sweep, clean, trim weeds and mow grass and move fences and
LeRae Haynes photo
Bev and Daryl Williamson of 150 Mile House are this year’s honoured Stampede volunteers.
corrals. Bev and Daryl says that volunteers are much-needed and very welcome. “On Stampede weekend we have people helping in the beer garden, selling and taking tickets, running the concession, moving animals and taking water around to the volunteers — there is something for everyone,” she says. “We’ve made some of our best friends over
the years volunteering for the Stampede Association. Like our president, Fred Thomas says, ‘We’re here to have fun.’ “It’s a big event and a lot of work but it’s a lot of fun, too.” Another unique benefit of volunteering with the Stampede Association is the fact that it ‘gives back’ to many groups and organizations throughout the
community. “The firemen do the concession as a fundraiser, 4-H kids collect all the bottles and cans and we donate to the Cancer Society through our ‘Tough Enough to Wear Pink’ campaign,” she said. “We support minor hockey and we support the Stampeders — we’re proud of the fact that this community is so incredibly diverse.” Daryl said
that improvements to the Stampede Grounds are a constant focus. “This is a real centre of attention when people come to Williams Lake. We have a class-one campground here, and the new log construction done by Durfeld Log Homes really makes the facility stand out,” he explains. “The work and materials are local — another way that money goes back into the community.” One of the most exciting things about the Stampede is the number of people from Europe, South Africa and Australia who call for tickets, according to Bev, who says that this event really showcases the community. “This is so rewarding — meeting people from around the world,” she states. “I love this.” Volunteering for the Stampede is a great opportunity for people to bring their kids and grandkids and have
fun together helping at an exciting, historical event, Daryl says. “You don’t have to know anything about horses or cows,” he explains. “Come on down and get a big dose of history and culture.” The hours are flexible and the shifts are short to accommodate people’s busy lives. “We will fit you in wherever we can — evenings, weekends — whatever works for you,” Bev says. “Attendance at the Stampede has been steadily climbing, and there are between 400 and 500 volunteers over Stampede weekend. Come and be part of this amazing event.” For more information about volunteering for the Williams Lake Stampede on June 28-July 1, phone 250-398-8388, email info@williamslakestampede.com or visit www.williamslakestampede.com.
reer working on ranches including the Gang and Circle S. Later he was hired to manage the Chilco Ranch and then the River Ranch. He loved the cowboy way of life, riding the open range. John volunteered his time freely to help youngsters with their horses, with 4-H and with repairs and maintenance of the Williams Lake Stampede grounds. John was a member of the BC Cattlemen’s Association and worked at the Williams Lake Stockyards for several years. He was always there to encourage and help his sons Mike and David who were rodeo competitors in the rough stock events. When he was ready to retire, John settled at Riske Creek where he kept a few saddle horses. He died at the age of 80 in 1995. LARRY RAMSTAD WORKING COWBOY Larry Ramstad has always made his living on horseback. After graduating from agricultural college, Larry went to work at the Guichon Ranch and the Nicola Valley. He spent a year in New Zealand and Aus-
tralia working on remote ranches then returned to Quilchena Cattle Co. Larry, his wife Bev and their two children, Larry Dean and Lori, moved to the Chilcotin where Larry was cow boss on the Cotton Ranch until he was hired to manage the River Ranch for absentee owners and turned the neglected ranch into a successful operation. Larry soon gained a reputation as an excellent ranch manager as well as an expert horseman and cowboy. Guy Rose of Quilchena asked Larry back to manage the ranch, a position he kept for 12 years until 1999 when he was hired as manager of the Gang Ranch. His 23-year tenure there is legendary. The huge ranch had been through several owners and Larry knew he had taken on a difficult job, getting the run-down ranch productive again. Everything needed fixing including the cow herd. Larry and his crew of cowboys and ranch hands got to work immediately improving the cattle’s welfare. Other ranch improvements followed. See WORKING, Page 9
BC Cowboy Hall of Fame honours 2013 inductees
Pat Skoblanuik Casual Country 2013 Cowboys from many parts of B.C. have been selected to join the B.C. Cowboy Hall of Fame for 2013. The Chilcotin, Cariboo, Nicola Valley, Bulkley Valley and Kamloops are represented. All are very deserving of recognition. Their stories and photos are displayed in the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin in Williams Lake. Nominees were selected in each of five categories. Working Cowboys honoured in 2013 are Stephen Archachan, John Dodd and Larry Ramstad. Archie Williams was honoured in the Competitive Cowboy category. Mike Puhallo was honoured in the Artistic Cowboy category. The Sammy Pozzobon family is the honoured in the Ranching Family category. Frank Teer was inducted into the ranching pioneering category. The Pooley Ranch in Nicola Valley is honoured in the Century Ranch category. ARCHIE WILLIAMS COMPETITIVE
COWBOY In the Competitive class ‘one-of-a-kind’ cowboy, Archie Williams was selected. Archie was born and raised on the Bonaparte reserve at Cache Creek where he still makes his home today. He started competing at age 14. He is an excellent horseman and competes in the timed events, calf roping, cow penning, barrel racing and team roping. He also worked as a pick-up man for bucking events and was the first pick-up man for the Canadian National Finals Rodeo to be chosen by the cowboys themselves. Archie is a five-time BC Team Roping Association champion. He has had several team roping partners including his son Neal and recently, his grandsons. His granddaughters are learning how to rope and will soon be competing with their grandfather. He raises and trains horses on his ranch and holds horse training clinics. Archie Williams– trained horses are in demand all over B.C. and Alberta. Archie and his wife, Julie, have two children of their own and eight grand-
Liz Twan photo
The BC Cowboy Hall of Fame local area inductees were honoured at the Williams Lake Indoor Rodeo and treated to lunch at the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin. Pictured are Walker Field (left), Miss Rodeo Canada Gillian Shields, and inductee Archie Williams. children and have raised at least 17 foster children and provided a summer home for a lot of other children who wanted to learn to cowboy. Archie was chosen 2010 Rodeo Person of the Year by the BC Rodeo Association. STEPHEN ARCHACHAN WORKING COWBOY Stephen ‘Hyde’ Archachan has been cowboying over 60 years. Hyde is a native of the Nicola Valley and claims he was born “in a willow bush” at Quilchena Creek. He is a top-notch cow-
boy and cattleman. He was one of the fastest calf ropers around and is well known in rodeo circles as a champion team roper. After a serious horserelated accident doctors thought Hyde would never walk again but two years later in 2009 he won the team roping championship. Hyde has earned the respect of his peers not only for his ability as a cowboy, but for his work ethic, as a gentleman, story teller and mentor. At age 78 he is still going strong, team rop-
ing and working at the Guichon Ranch and the Lauder Ranch, accompanied by his two loyal working dogs that understand no English, just Hyde’s native language. JOHN DODD WORKING COWBOY John Dodd was born in Spuzzum in 1915. He was a life-long working cowboy and a decorated soldier. Before enlisting in the Canadian Scottish Regiment in 1940, John worked as a ranch hand. After the war he continued his cowboy ca-
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Stampede
Working, competitive, and artistic cowboys honoured Continued From Page 8 Today the Gang Ranch is a successful, well-cared-for operation with a healthy cattle herd. Larry is well liked by his peers and has a reputation for being honest and respectful in his dealings with others. He is an excellent horseman and provides opportunity for the ranch cowboys to improve their cowboy skills by putting on horsemanship clinics. He is an avid supporter of ranch rodeo and was recently honoured at the Nanton rodeo for upholding the western tradition and lifestyle. FRANK TEER RANCHING PIONEER The 2013 ranching pioneer Frank Teer, carved a ranch out of the wilderness in the Bulkley Valley and became a successful cattle rancher, horse breeder and dedicated community volunteer. Frank was raised on a farm in Saskatchewan. He joined the army in 1942 and went overseas and after the war came to B.C. to work at Mound Ranch near Clinton and then the Gang Ranch. Frank left the Gang to start a small ranch near Clinton then eventually applied for a veteran’s grant of 160 acres and 320 acres of grazing rights in the Bulkley Valley near Huston. It was raw land and Frank worked hard at clearing, building a road and buildings. Everything was done by horse power. He was eventually able to start a cattle herd and move his family on to the property while continuing to make improvements. Once they were established, Frank bought his first quarter horse stallion and raised horses to sell and train. The Teer children competed in western horse competitions. Frank and his two oldest daughters, Frances and Colleen, started the first saddle club in Huston and spear headed the development of an 80-acre parcel of public land into a rodeo arena, reining arena and a race track. He also helped in the
Frank Teer, ranching pioneer inductee, with his team of Belgians.
Photos submitted
Larry Ramstad, working cowboy inductee. Stephen “Hyde” Archachan, working cowboy inductee.
John Dodd, working cowboy inductee.
Mike Puhallo, artistic cowboy inductee, demonstrating how cowboy gear works, in this case spurs. development of ball fields and hiking trails in the community. In later
years Frank dedicated much of his time to the horses on the ranch and
drove the big Belgian team in parades and shows. He was dedicated to his family and taught his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren the cowboy ways and promoted the ranch life style until his death in 1999. MIKE PUHALLO ARTISTIC COWBOY A most deserving inductee, Mike Puhallo was honoured in the Artistic category. Mike lived the cowboy life. He was always spreading the word and educating people on cowboy ways and his passion for preserving cowboy heritage lead him to become one of the founding members of the BC Cowboy Heritage Society, the Kamloops Cowboy Festival and the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame.
He served as president of the BCCHS until his death in 2011. He was a working cowboy, saddle bronc rider, packer, horse trainer, and especially a poet, artist, entertainer and educator. Mike was a third generation rancher and rodeo cowboy, born and raised in Kamloops on the family ranch. At age 16 he was on the rodeo circuit riding saddle bronc. He was a partner with his brother Gord on the Twilight Ranch at Big Creek. In 1993 he was inspired to write his first poem “B.S.” after attending a cowboy poetry gathering. This was the first of many that were widely published. His poetry reflected the ranch culture that he lived and many were
based on the culture and history of the old west. Mike won many prestigious awards for his work and had the distinction of having one of his poems read into the official record at a NASA launch and in the Canadian House of Commons. He also received a Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of his outstanding community service. He was a talented artist, drawing and painting cowboy scenes. SAMMY POZZOBON RANCHING FAMILY The Ranching Family inducted into the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame this year was the Sammy Pozzobon family. The first Pozzobons came to the Kamloops area from Italy around 1900.
Sammy Jr. was born in Kamloops and has lived his entire life in the Pritchard area. He entered his first rodeo in Falkland at age 15. He started cowboying on ranches as a teenager and was a good hand with a rope. Sammy and his wife, Lillian, purchased property on the Pemberton Range where they built up a ranch. Sammy built an outdoor arena where their three children Cheryl, Keith and Kevin got their first taste of roping. He passed on his love of rodeo to the children and they all went on to compete in amateur and professional rodeo. The Pozzobon name is well known in rodeo circles. All three are still involved in ranching and competing. See POOLEY, Page 14
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Legion Branch 139 welcomes visitors
Tara Sprickerhoff Casual Country 2013 The Royal Canadian Legion Branch Br. 139 has been a fixture in Williams Lake for more than 65 years and come the Stampede and Canada Day weekend the branch is an enthusiastic participant. Since legion members are the “ultimate patriotic people,” they take part in the Canada Day festivities in Boitanio Park on the Stampede weekend and host a Canada Day lunch in the legion hall, says Vivian MacNeil, past branch president and executive member. Stampede also falls right at the end of Legion Week June 24-30 so it is only natural that Stampede becomes part of their celebrations. “Legion week is our opportunity to tell the public what we are doing, invite the pub-
lic in, and relax our door rules a bit and just have people come in and see that we are user friendly,” MacNeil says. There will be an open house and displays in the legion, as well as steak, music and dancing on the Friday, June 28 and Saturday, June 29 plus a veterans’ luncheon featuring the Old Time Fiddlers. Over Stampede weekend the legion also hosts pancake breakfasts and buffets all weekend. Support for Stampede actually began earlier this year with a special ladies night in which the 2013 Stampede Queen contestants were introduced and participated in the fashion show. Twice a year, the legion holds “a night all for the ladies, with a fashion show, a pretty meal and girl-type entertainment,” MacNeil
says. The legion lounge, which is open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. (sometimes later), is home to good company and a whole host of special and regular events. Regular activities include the Cariboo Eight-ball club, darts, and drop-in pool games on Fridays and Saturdays, monthly luncheons for seniors where the Old Time Fiddlers play. “They’re fun,” MacNeil says. “It’s not just the seniors from the home that come. A lot of people just from the community come down and they enjoy the music. That is a big plus and it’s just a good afternoon.” Once a month is steak night where “anybody is welcome to come, buy a steak and dance their feet off,” MacNeil says.
You don’t have to be a senior or a veteran to enjoy the many events the legion hosts. Once a week a group meets at the legion to learn line dancing, two-step, and other dances. Members sign guests in at the door. “We’ve got a young couple coming here now, they’re getting married in August and they wanted to learn how to two step so that they could dance at their wedding,” MacNeil says. On Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, there are meat draws. Patrons are invited to buy tickets and the winning ticket picks their preferred package of meat. Meat draw funds and donations go back into the community for scholarships, community groups, amateur sport groups and those in need. See TRIBUTE, Page 11
CAN’T HEAR CLEAR?
LeRae Haynes photo
Stampede Queen 2013 contestants Miss Rotary Club of Williams Lake Karina Sukert (left), Miss M.H. King Excavating Kyra Stuart, and Miss Daybreak Rotary Rachel Abrahamse model at the Branch 139 Legion Ladies Night this spring.
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Tribute paid to Scottish poet Robbie Burns Continued From Page 10 “We try and keep it in our community, and basically we do,” says MacNeil, who has been involved in the Williams Lake branch for 40 years. Her father was a veteran, and she joined because of him. “I’m a patriot. I’m so proud to be a Canadian citizen, and all of those guys fought for us. My dad wasn’t an active rabid patriot - I get a little carried away sometimes - but he was proud of what he did.” The legion provides assistance for both sea and army cadets. The army cadets meet in the downstairs legion hall which is also available for special occasion rentals. The Williams Lake Pipe Band also practices in the legion’s basement and plays
at a number of legion events, not the least of which is the formal Robbie Burns Night celebration which sells out every January and features Scottish decorations, Scottish dancing and more. “It’s a celebration of the spirit of the tartan,” says MacNeil, who has eight rubbermaid containers full of Scottish decorations for the event. The legion imports haggis from Vancouver for the event. “It’s very Scottish” she says. “It’s a traditional [Scottish] meal. We have roast beef, mashed tatties (potatoes), mashed neeps (turnips) and that’s very traditional. We have a Canadian salad, sometimes we have peas. We usually have trifle - Scottish trifle - and shortbread cookies, centerpieces. We try and change it up
LeRae Haynes photo
The traditional Scottish dish, haggis, is brought to the buffet with great fanfare including reading of the poem Address to a Haggis written by the Scottish bard Robert Burns in 1786. every year, but that’s basically what we do.” “My oldest grand-
child is 29 and has a family of her own now, but she came to
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her first one when she was two. All the rest of them - I’ve got 19
grandchildren - they have all been raised at Burns night,” MacNeil says. But lest we forget, through all the fun and games the legion is there for veterans. Branch 139 is home to 320 members: veterans, the sons and daughters of veterans and many others. New members are welcome. Today the only requirement to join the legion is interest and sponsorship by a current legion member. “Our mission is to serve veterans and that includes serving military; RCMP members and their families; to promote remembrance; and to serve our communities and our country,” MacNeil says. What the legion is known for best is the annual Remembrance Day ceremonies.
There are two in Williams Lake, one hosted at the Gibraltar Room and one, following a parade, at the cenotaph at city hall. Every year before November 11, the legion offers the wellknown Canadian poppy pins to the public for donations. “We use [the donations] first and foremost to help any veterans - that includes RCMP… and veteran’s widows,” MacNeil says. “It is sacred. We don’t use it for anything to do with legion. It’s veteran support.” The funds raised in Williams Lake stay in Williams Lake and it is only through special circumstances that a branch might donate these funds elsewhere, MacNeil says. “We are here to support our community,” MacNeil concludes.
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Grains of Squinas/Dorsey wisdom passed to next generation Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 Dave and Jean Dorsey grew up together in Anahim Lake. They were both born the same year, in 1935, and they both went to school together for one year when the first school opened in Anahim Lake in 1947. Dave’s mother, Mickey Dorsey, was the teacher. Dave says the school was set up by the Indian Department for First Nations children but non-aboriginal kids went too because there was no other school available. “There was me and my brothers Steve and Mike, and Stan Robison, who stayed in the old Hudson Bay store, had three kids.” Asked how they got along as kids, Jean says she and Dave fought like crazy when they were going to school. “He threw a snowball at me and I got mad and got a stick,” Jean says. Both sets of Dave and Jean’s parents were legendary. Jean’s father, Thomas Squinas, was a distinguished Dakelh (Southern Carrier) guide, trapper and wolf hunter. Her mother Celestine Dagg, was of the Tsilhqot’in Guichon clan. Together they raised 10 daughters and a son at Anahim Lake. Dave’s father, Lester Dorsey, came to the Chilcotin by horseback from Eastern Washington in the 1920s and became a well-known frontiersman. He established several ranches, broke horses, raised cattle and guided hunters. Dave’s mother, Mickey Tuck, grew up in Bella Coola after her boat-builder dad migrated there from Newfoundland. Mickey was a school teacher very much at home in the wilderness, and over the years she taught school in Bella Coola, Rose Lake, Anahim Lake, Williams Lake and Riske Creek. Dave was the old-
est of Lester and Mickey’s six boys and one daughter, and was home schooled by his mother and had her for his teacher most of his student life. Dave never really took to book learning in a big way, and was more like his dad that way, at home in the outdoors. He talks of a time when he was 12 or 13 years old, and went off with his younger brother Steve, and family friend, Ollie Nukalow, to hunt wild horses in Chezacut. “Us kids got a kick out of Ollie Nukalow,” Dave says. “I think he was sent to babysit us kids. We’d go some place and nobody knew how to cook, and Ollie would end up doing a lot of the cooking. We went to Chezacut for three weeks in early May, trying to snare some horses.” Dave says every place you went in those days you’d run into wild horses. “We were on Ollie Knoll’s range at the time. Every direction had horses in it.” They bought lots of new rope from the store, and used it to set snares on the trails. Then they got around behind the horses and tried to chase them into the snares. “We had lots of big ideas,”
Sage Birchwater photo
Today Jean and Dave Dorsey continue to make their home in Anahim Lake. Dave says. “We were going to get rich catching these wild horses, but we never did catch any. This was probably a lucky thing. I think one of them wild horses at the end of a rope would have done us more damage than we’d have done him.” Jean and Dave both remember during the Second World War when the Canadian Army did winter exercises in Anahim Lake in February and March of 1945. Known as the Polar
In her teens Jean Dorsey fed and took care of her team of horses. Her father, Thomas Squinas, was a noted guide and trapper.
Bear Expedition, the exercises were intended to provide ground support for Bella Coola in case of a Japanese invasion. They involved hundreds of men, snowmobiles like small tanks, two-man motor toboggans, different types of small tractors, and tracked transport vehicles known as Weasels. The battalion set out from Williams Lake on Feb. 15, 1945. Part of the entourage was a 128-horse pack-train
to provide transport for 75 mm mountain howitzers mounted on travois poles lashed together. Dave was attending school in the Bella Coola Valley when the army was doing the exercises in Anahim Lake. Part of the training involved Jean’s dad, Thomas Squinas, helping guide the troops through the Rainbow Mountains to Bella Coola, where they were loaded on a ship and transported to Vancouver.
“I can remember the army marched through and going by the Hagensborg School,” Dave says. Jean was in the middle of the excitement in Anahim Lake during the training exercises. A runway was ploughed on Anahim Lake and planes landed on the ice. “They had lots of airplanes, snow machines, lots of everything. They gave us rides in the Weasels,” Jean recalls. “We liked that. All four kids go in there and we loved that. The only one who could speak English was me. My grandmother said, don’t go with a white man, don’t trust him. Don’t go, going to kill you, army. I said, no he’s not going to kill us.” Jean, who was nine or 10 at the time, says the Weasel was a jeep with a track on it. “One guy buried the Weasel at Goose Point when he went through the rotten ice.” A few years later Dave went on three of the last beef drives leaving Anahim Lake for Williams Lake and Quesnel. He rode on two drives to Quesnel following the Blackwater River with Pan Phillips and his dad, Lester Dorsey.
Photos submitted
As a child, Dave Dorsey (second from the right) enjoyed swimming with his friends and brother Steve (far left) at Batnuni.
He preferred the Blackwater route because you just followed the trail down the south side of the river. Going to Williams Lake was another matter. Dave was 19 years old in 1954 when he made his last beef drive to Williams Lake with Tsilhqot’in cowboy, Felix Bob. Lester had gone pulp logging in Bella Coola and Dave had never been on this route before. “Felix Bob knew where he was going but she was some rough country.” Dave says they managed to push 132 head of cattle belonging to his dad, Lewis Holtry and Johnny Weldon through the jack pine into some open country along the Chilanko River east of Towdystan. Then the trouble started. It turned dark and there were no fences or corrals to hold the cattle overnight. The animals bedded down OK, then in the middle of the night some of the cattle got up and started heading back home along the trail. Dave attributes it to Johnny Weldon’s dairy stock. “Milk stock are a bad one. You can’t drive them. They just jump up and away they are gone.” To compound things further, Dave was on one leg. “I had just had my leg taken out of a cast and I was hopping around.” Dave says if he had known there were milk animals in the herd, he would have just let them go home. “Milk stock don’t rest. They lay down for a little while and chew their cud, then all of a sudden they’ll start walking. They walk like a horse. They’re different than beef.” They only lost five animals that escaped and went home. The rest finished the drive to Williams Lake. They went across country through Ollie Knoll’s and Bill Mulvahill’s places, then through the Ross Ranch. See LONG, Page 13
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Stampede Long cattle drives give way to trucking
Continued From Page 12 “We just took the log fences down, pushed
the cattle through, then put the log fences back up again. Felix knew what he was doing. I
Photos submitted
Dave’s mother Mickey Dorsey on the porch of her school house at Rose Lake.
had no idea. We hit the highway just before Riske Creek.” Dave says after that he was content to let the trucks take the cattle to market. “Some of the ranchers drove their cattle part way, as far as Chilanko Forks, then trucked them from there,” Dave says. “After that drive the Old Man (Lester Dorsey) tried to get me to take another drive, but I said no. The trucks can have her. I never bothered with it again.” Dave and Jean say they got “tangled up” together when they were both about 18 years old, and got married at the courthouse in Williams Lake about four years later. Jean says their son, Terry, was about two years old when they decided to tie the knot. “He was wondering what we were doing when we got married,” Jean says. “He don’t
Dave’s dad, Lester Dorsey, was a legendary horseman, guide and rancher in the Anahim Lake country. understand. What you doing Jean? What you doing Dave?” It wasn’t a fancy affair. They were both wearing gumboots. Dave says they went to the courthouse because they heard that a judge had the power to marry. “Jessie Foster was
the judge, so we went to her. I talked to her and she said, yeah, I can marry anyone,” Dave says. “So I turns around and offered to pay her and she wouldn’t take it. I figured it would look better if you paid for it. But no, she would have nothing to
STAMPEDE ROUND-UP Buffet Breakfast - 8:30 till Noon Every Stampede Day Saturday, June 29th Meat Draw 3 - 5 pm Steak Dinner with “Perfect Match”
Friday, June 28th Meat Draw 3 - 5 pm Steak Dinner with “Perfect Match” Sunday June 30th “Old Time Fiddlers” 4:00 pm Beef Dip & Fries
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do with getting paid.” Dave says the rest of the world was upset about it. “Afterwards, close to two years later, the priest jumps on me and said we were living in sin and weren’t really married,” Dave says. “I told him I don’t think it’s going to mat-
ter a hell of a lot to me and Jean. The Catholics were pretty resentful, especially when you’re native. They figure anything native that they own you. What the hell, we’re still together 56 years later.” Dave and Jean Dorsey have had a good life. Their second eldest son, David Jr., arrived five years after Terry. Two years later Laurie (Vaughan) was born. They are now enjoying the sweet pleasures of great grandparent hood. Dave and Jean ranched together, broke horses and guided hunters together. Dave worked 17 years for the Department of Highways. They are both fiercely independent as befits their lineage, and they take special delight in passing on their grains of wisdom to their coming generation.
You Can Be A Member! By supporting your local branch, you support your veterans.
Branch 139 of the Royal Canadian Legion, part of the largest organization supporting our veterans and community since 1934. Visit us at 385 Barnard Street or phone 250-392-7311 (office) 250-392-4255 (lounge). Membership has benefits!
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Pooley Ranch a 100 year legacy in the same family Continued From Page 9 Their children, Sammy and Lillian’s grandchildren all have careers in the agricultural field and com-
pete in roping events and barrel racing. Sammy was honoured with a lifetime gold card by the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association in 1972.
Lillian and Sammy Pozzobon among the ranching family inductees.
POOLEY RANCH CENTURY RANCH The Pooley Ranch in the Nicola Valley was recognized in the BC Cowboy Hall of Fame as a Century Ranch. Members of the Pooley family have been in the area since the 1800s. Will and cousin, Jim, were the first of the family to immigrate from England and pre-empt land. Jim developed the ranch that has been operated by Pooleys for more than 100 years. The Home Ranch in the valley and summer pasture in the mountains totalled around 1900 acres. Jim died as a result of an accident and left the Home Ranch to his widowed sister Mrs. Batten and the mountain land to his other sister and five brothers.
The unique 6P Pooley Ranch brand originated from these six siblings. William Pooley made a deal with his brothers and sister for the land and continued to develop the ranch. William’s three younger children Gladys, Harold and Bill took over the ranch after their mother Alice died and William left the ranch. Gladys, a nurse, worked out and helped keep the ranch going with her earnings. The boys, Harold, 18, and Bill, 11, operated the ranch. Harold started logging on the ranch and became a very successful construction and logging contractor. Gladys took over the reins and ran the ranch for more than 40 years and was a
well respected stockwoman. Harold died when his only son, Mark, was just 11 years old. Gladys died soon after, and the youngest brother, Wilfred, and Harold’s son, Mark, became equal partners. Eventually Mark bought out his uncle and continued to improve the ranch and the cattle herd. Mark Pooley, a good steward of the land, has a holistic approach to land and water management. He created an environmental ranch plan in 2007 to improve the environmental soundness of the ranch and address water and wildlife conservation in the area. The Pooley Ranch was one of the first in Canada to receive a Salmon-Safe certification for its operations to reduce nega-
tive impact on waterways and salmon runs. Mark is the third
generation Pooley on the ranch and is making plans to pass it on to his son.
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Frontline Helicopters in the air for work and pleasure Gaeil Farrar Casual Country 2013 Besides his family, Kelly Croswell’s most serious passions in life are flying and the outdoors. It’s hard to say which comes first, but fortunately Kelly has each of these great loves in his life – a large, close-knit family, the outdoors and flying. Kelly and his wife, Jocelyn, are the owneroperators of Frontline Helicopters Ltd. Their home base is 150 Mile House but Kelly can be found flying all over Western Canada working with various industries. And in the off season Kelly loves nothing more than to take people on flyin fishing trips to remote lakes and rivers in the region. Kelly is an avid outdoors person and loves the diversity of adventure that is found in the Cariboo and is sharing that love with his wife and four children Calvin, 11, Kolby, 8, Katie, 6, and Jack, 3. On any given day off you might find the family flying into a favourite spot on one of the local lakes for a day of fishing, swimming, hiking, exploring and rock gathering. Or maybe just hanging out and enjoying their property, working in the garden, going for hikes, building forts, quading, or dirt biking. You will definitely find the family hanging out at the soccer fields during
Chris Harris photo
Kelly Croswell photos
Guide Doug Mooring driving a jet boat on the Mitchell River as Kelly Croswell flies behind to catch the action.
Doug Croswell catches a big one while ice fishing at a remote lake.
the Williams Lake soccer season watching either Calvin or Kolby play. Frontline Helicopters is a supporter of the local WLYSA and usually sponsors one of the kids’ teams each year. Kelly and Jocelyn are typical of many young people who grow up in Williams Lake and head off after graduation to pursue higher education or work opportunities, and are eventually drawn back to the beauty of the Cariboo. Kelly is the son of Bev and Doug Croswell who first came to Williams Lake in 1974 from the
John where Kelly gained experience as a pilot flying all over the northern region of B.C. and also worked as an AME. After a few years in the great white north they moved south to Prince George where they started Frontline Helicopters Ltd. Then coming full circle they returned to Williams Lake. They bought a home and 80 acres south of 150 Mile House, where they built a hangar and established their main base. Kelly is the chief pilot and operations manager. Jocelyn is the company accountant and adminis-
family farm in Alberta. Jocelyn is the daughter of Brian and Lynda Sawyer who also came to Williams Lake in 1974 from Vancouver. Both families still live in Williams Lake. Kelly came by his love for flying naturally, having come from a long line of pilots. His grandfather, father, uncles, cousins and brother are all pilots, either privately or commercially, from large jets and small planes to helicopters. Kelly wanted to fly helicopters but was advised by an old industry insider that the best route to a job in the
industry was to become an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME) first. Kelly took this advice and graduated from BCIT with his AME diploma. Meanwhile Jocelyn was obtaining a business degree at Simon Fraser University. After they both graduated they got married in the fall of 1999. The first few years after they married would take them around the province while they built skills in their respective careers and started their family. Jocelyn went on to obtain her Chartered Ac-
Kelly Crosswell photos
Boots parked on the shore next to the helicopter, Doug Croswell puts on chest high waders to fish in the Penfold River.
countant designation with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC. She articled at Ellis Foster Chartered Accountants (now Ernst and Young LLP), a firm in Vancouver and then at BDO Dunwoody in Kelowna. They were back in Williams Lake for the birth of their first child and where Kelly worked as an AME and Jocelyn as a CA. They did not stay long in the lakecity before moving to Campbell River where Kelly would fulfill his dream and earn his helicopter pilot’s licence. Their next move would take them north to Fort St.
Biologists Chris Procter (left) and Francis Iredale put a tracking collar on a mule deer buck in the Fraser River grasslands.
trative assistant. Frontline Helicopters is a commercial charter company working mostly with firefighting crews and forestry/mining crews doing a variety of work in the summer months and working with biologists and environmental crews on various projects and studies over the winter months. Kelly has also been developing a clientele that enjoys fishing as much as he does. While fly-in fishing isn’t a big money maker for a helicopter company, Kelly says that it is one of the most enjoyable parts of his business. There are some spectacular fishing spots on lakes and rivers in the region that are only accessible by air – unless of course you want to hike far! Last fall Kelly took B.C. photographer Chris Harris flying into the Mitchell River where Harris was taking photographic images for his next book project which features the world’s only inland rain forest situated here in the Cariboo Mountains, Kelly says. Frontline Helicopters, along with Cariboo Rivers Fishing Adventures, has recently been featured in two popular outdoor magazines – Sport Fishing Guide BC and Sportsman’s News. Both articles featured the amazing fishing opportunities in the Cariboo region.
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Videographer keeps a positive outlook and lookout for stories Monica Lamb-Yorski Casual Country 2013 It is important to keep a positive attitude to all that you encounter, says Williams Lake videographer John Dell. He says if he was asked to impart thoughts to a younger generation he would insist that thoughts create. “By following our thoughts and setting goals to achieve them, working towards those goals draws our desired reality to us.” During his life, Dell has achieved his dreams through time and effort and admits it was always harder at the beginning than when the goal was being reached. Dell is one of those guys who remained in his home town. His family moved to Williams Lake from Quesnel soon after he was born and he never left. There was an opportunity at one point to move to northern Manitoba or even New Zealand with his parents, but early on he decided “Williams Lake was the place to be.” All of his schooling was in Williams Lake. He attended various elementary schools and graduated from Columneetza Secondary School. He’s had a variety of jobs too. As a teenager he was hired to pen cattle at the stockyards. Later he worked at car dealerships and was even an electrician’s helper at a sawmill. He trained in industrial first aid and worked at Gibraltar Mine, P&T Mills, and with the Riske Creek Fire Attack Crew. He served as an alderman for two terms, and ran for mayor once, but was defeated. Over the years, John and his wife, April, have also owned and operated businesses. Their first venture was a bowling alley they bought from Dell’s parents. Later they opened and ran a pool hall. They even tried being restaurant owners for a few years. These days John documents events for a living. Whether he’s filming local stories, transferring
old forms of film and video onto DVDs, making promotional films for companies and organizations, or freelancing for the television news, he’s a busy guy. Most recently he coordinated a young film crew to document the St. Joseph’s Mission residential school commemorative project. In the summer of 2012 he created a video about the art walk in Williams Lake. John’s maternal great grandfather, William Broughton Sr., was a grand-nephew of William Pinchbeck and grandson of Anderson Pinchbeck, William Pinchbeck’s brother. “He came to the Cariboo to work at Anders Road House in Alexandria,” John notes. His son, William Broughton Jr., was born in Alexandria in 1905. He worked as a conservation officer, B.C. provincial policeman, and a rancher. John’s paternal grandfather, Herbert Marshall Dell, was born in Delhi County, Ont. in 1886. In 1918 Herbert married Gertrude Hewitt, a First World War bride born in London, UK. Herbert lived at Alexandria throughout his life and operated the ferry there. “My dad, also Herb, grew up in Alexandria. He went off to the Second World War and when he returned he met Eileen Broughton who was living at the bottom of the hill in Alexandria,” John says. Herb and Eileen “sparked” and got married. Eventually the couple moved to Quesnel where their first two sons — Rob and Gerry — were born. Soon after John was born the family moved to Williams Lake because Herb was offered a job at Wright Brothers Mills. A fourth son, Albert, was born in Williams Lake. “There was a house that sat on the hill, right where Amalgamated Steel is now, that we lived in for a couple of years,” John says. Later the family moved to Chilcotin Road, which John remembers vividly. “It was really nifty when the big logging trucks came down be-
Monica Lamb-Yorski photos
Williams Lake videographer John Dell recently acquired an old film projector he can use for transferring film to newer formats.
Videographer John Dell filming during the St. Joseph Mission Residential School press conference held in May. cause the mothers would all be excited about their kids playing on the side of the road. Trucks were smaller than what the trucks are now, but it wasn’t a very wide road I’ll tell you.” Growing up, John played hockey and was an air cadet. “We used to go out to the St. Joseph’s Mission, that’s where air cadets was held,” John says. Another fond memory of John’s was when Art Rosoman was hired as a band teacher in 1967. “He was quite an accomplished musician,” John says. “He and Gwen Ringwood developed The Road Runs North, a musical about the Gold Rush.” John played alto saxophone in the orchestra. He graduated in 1973
from Columneetza Senior High School, a school he recalls being designed as a “free” or “open” school. “If you had a B average or better you didn’t have to go class,” John says. That worked for him for one report card, he chuckles. There was a “fantastic opportunity” in 1970 when a history teacher named Jim Despot decided he wanted to organize a 35-day tour of Europe, starting in England and returning to Canada from Amsterdam. It was open to all students in Grades 8 to 12 — 128 students signed up. Three tour buses transported the students through England, Belgium, France, Italy, Aus-
tria, Germany Holland and Monaco. The cost of the tour was $700, which included the flight, accommodation meals and everything. “If you ever meet anyone from my age group ask them if they went on the Euro trip,” John says. “I would consider it to be a very important growing experience for myself and the other 127. We had 12 chaperones so we outnumbered them pretty badly.” Most of Europe has no drinking laws. But they got used to that about half way through France. John’s first foray into anything resembling computers was when he owned the pool hall. “At that time video games — like Asteroids, PacMan, Defenders — were becoming quite hot. I started buying up my own equipment from a brother-in-law on the Coast in the business.” He was able to purchase the games so he wasn’t sharing them with another company. He developed a vending route and had machines at the 150 Hotel and old Chilcotin Inn where Save-On is today. Eventually Nintendo was emerging with console home games and John saw “the writing on the wall” and determined it was time to try something new so he sold the business. By 1993 he knew computers “were going to be the future.” “I had time on my
hands so I decided I would learn how to put these things together so I started taking them apart and putting them back together, put the software in and all the rest of it.” I learned the process of how to make computers, build computers, back then it was DOS, even before Windows. There were all sorts of wonderful things.” Because he’d been on city council, ESP Consulting approached him to teach public speaking courses at their facility. For a number of intakes he taught public speaking for them and later for the University College of the Cariboo. During one of the intakes, a guy showed up who had been doing a janitorial business in the Cariboo. He had no store front, it was strictly business to business. He had an established route, but says he wanted to get out of the business, and asked if John wanted to take over. “I didn’t want to be a salesman, but I had run across a very remarkable lady in one of my public speaking courses, named Elaine Dill.” Elaine and John set up a janitorial supply service to 100 Mile, Quesnel, and Williams Lake west. “I did that for two years and then sold the business to Elaine. She moved to Kamloops and I don’t know who is operating it now.” He also taught internet courses and was approached by some people in Quesnel who were trying to build a phone book for the region. They had enough money to do the project in Quesnel, but didn’t have the contacts in Williams Lake to make it work. “They talked to a bunch of people in town and no one wanted to take it on,” John remembers. “Who wants to compete with BC Tel’s yellow pages?” The key element was that the CRTC had changed the rules. A database could be bought from BC Tel for so many cents per name. “For about $2,600 per year I could get a hold of the complete data base of all the phone numbers in Williams Lake,” John explains.
In 1997 he agreed to go into partnership and the partnership was able to build the first Info Book and show a small profit. After putting an ad in the Tribune looking for an executive assistant, he hired Jackie LaFlamme and two other people. His biggest problem was that the bowling season runs from September to April and the phone book season runs from March until October so he had no time off. “Even though I had staff all the way around, I was always on the go,” John says. He decided to take April to Europe for a 25th wedding anniversary trip anyway and when they got back he told LaFlamme he was going to shut the phone book down or sell it. “So Jackie and Michelle went to Community Futures and got a loan to buy some new computer equipment. I turned the bank account over to them, sold them the business for one dollar and said, ‘OK you guys run with it.’” To this day he’s very proud of what Jackie’s done with the Info Book, and that he was there to help get it started. “The Info Book lumped everyone together to make it a region,” John adds. “We were trying to take the whole Cariboo and create unity within the book.” Working on the book also gave him an insight on how to do graphic design and work with computers. That experience was growing while in 1997, it was his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, and he wanted to create a short video for the celebration. He built a 12-minute video, put it to song and played it at the event. “It was all on VHS tape because that’s all we had at the time.” A decade later he reached a point where he decided he needed some kind of hobby or business to operate into his aging years and decided video would be the way to go. “I think an audio visual experience is much more interesting for the viewer, than just a read. It’s another medium,” John says.
18 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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Getting to know our neighbours one cup at a time.
We wouldn’t be here without the support of our neighbours. That’s why we are proud to support the Williams Lake Stampede.
© Tim Hortons, 2009
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 19
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Business
Gaeil Farrar photo
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Business
Bob’s Shoes approaches 60 years in Williams Lake LeRae Haynes Casual Country 2013 It has been nearly 60 years since Bob’s Shoes and Repairs opened its doors in Williams Lake. When Susan and Dan Colgate bought the business just over four years ago, they renovated, expanded and increased store inventory by 50%. Bob’s is a family business, with Susan’s parents and two out of Dan and Susan’s four children working in the store. Besides renovating and expanding the store, Susan said that they have expanded their customer base as well. She added that quality work gear is still a ‘staple’ at the store, but the whole family can shop for casual, fashionable shoes and clothing. “Carhart for men,
women and children is still our bread and butter, and we listen to our customers and their families to find out what they want,” she said. “We bring in Merrill and Cruel Girl clothing, for example: outdoorsy, comfortable and fashionable and in a range of sizes for everyone.” Things that haven’t changed at Bob’s includes the full shoe repair service, the focus on customer service and the product quality that has ‘branded’ the store from the beginning. Well-known for footwear lines like Red Wing, Bluntstone, Bogs and Ariat Western, Bob’s has expanded its boot and shoe department to include something for almost everyone, according to Colgate. “The products we sell are long-lasting
and our companies all stand behind their products,” she continued. “Customer service is critical for us – it’s huge.” She added that it’s important to Bob’s to give back to the community by donating to events that matter to their customers. “We support events throughout the year, sponsoring things like 4-H, ladies golf, Harvest Fair, local schools, High School Rodeo, and the Stampede Queen program. We try to change it up to help everyone we can,” she explained. “We want to serve a wide range of customers; the worker, yes, but also the wives and husbands and the kids - we want to cater to everyone. Our vision is to see the downtown core offer here what people go out of town for.”
Tara Sprickerhoff photo
Merv Deausy (Susan Colgate’s dad) works on putting a lift in a running shoe to accommodate a client with special needs for a leg injury. The shoe repair workshop is located in the back of Bob’s Shoes and Repairs which has operated in the city for 60 years.
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Business
Dürfeld Log & Timber enriches Stampede Grandstand Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 Prominently on display at the grandstand of World Famous Williams Lake Stampede is the timber frame log construction of Dürfeld Log & Timber. The VIP viewing area, the announcer’s booth, and the front entrance to the grandstand all bear Dürfeld’s impeccable brand of craftsmanship. The heavy post and beam edifice is a recent improvement to the city’s most familiar public face, seen by thousands of Stampede visitors year after year, and rodeo television viewers from across the globe. Ric Dürfeld, owner of the local log home company, says precision log work and a big name stampede go hand in hand representing what this region is all about. Forestry and ranching are two mainstays of the lifestyle and economy, he insists.
The Stampede’s log construction improvements came in three stages, starting with the VIP covered seating area a few years ago, across the arena from the main grandstand. Ric laughs how Paddy Thomas, a perennial Stampede volunteer, who keeps the rodeo events running smoothly from the announcer’s booth above the chutes, complained to him one day that the people who do all the work at the rodeo were stuck in a flimsy plywood shack. “I told Paddy that if the Stampede Association decided to go ahead with a log frame announcer’s booth, that we would ask architect, Phil Harrison, to design something they would be very happy with.” Shortly after that Ric got the nod from the Stampede Association and in 2009 the new announcer’s stand was put in place. See LOG, Page 26
Sage Birchwater photo
Stampede volunteers, president Fred Thomas (left) and his wife Paddy, and volunteer Bev Williamson check out the new log entrance to the Stampede Grandstand with log builder Ric Durfeld.
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Business
Log construction diversifies Cariboo economy Continued From Page 25 This year, in time for the 2013 Stampede, the third installment of Dürfeld Log & Timber’s contribution to the grandstand facelift was added. Two entranceway arches and a roofed area in front of the Stampede office and ticket counter will have two functions. They will provide shelter from the elements to those waiting in line to buy tickets, and will offer welcome relief from the summer heat for Stampede volunteers selling tickets. “We don’t have any air conditioning in there,” says volunteer, Bev Williamson. “The new roof area has already made a huge difference.” For Ric Dürfeld, having the craftsmanship of his company prominently displayed, speaks volumes for the industry he has so passionately dedicated his life to for 35 years. “The log display is not
me,” he states emphatically. “It demonstrates the knowledge-base and level of craftsmanship we have in our community. It’s not about me or my company.” Ric is a champion of value-added manufacturing to get the best return from British Columbia’s forest resource. He says by adding value to the trees being harvested, you are investing in people. “Added value is an investment in people’s skills,” Ric says. “It allows them to be more diverse.” Conversely, he says, if we don’t invest in people’s skills, we create a dependency on an industrial process that is not sustainable. Ric is quite outspoken about what he feels is an industrialization of the forest resource, where he says technology replaces human beings. “Big business and big government is not a healthy combination. See CARIBOO, Page 27
Photo submitted
In 2009 Durfeld Log & Timber installed the log timber-frame announcers pavillion above the bucking chutes in the Williams Lake Stampede arena. This year they built a covered entrance to the Grandstand.
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Business
Cariboo log craftsmanship “world class”
Continued From Page 26 We need to teach a different mindset to encourage people to work with wood as craftsmen.” Ric maintains that British Columbia is known worldwide for its high level of craftsmanship and the ability of its skilled wood crafters to work with logs. “The things we can do here are second to none. Craftsmanship demonstrates a higher level of understanding,” Ric says. He says highly skilled European master builders have moved to British Columbia because of the quality of life and trees, and an opportunity to work with their hands while passing their skill set on to others. The result is a world-class log home industry. Ric and his brother, Matheo, started building log homes 35 years ago. They learned the basics from B. Allen Mackie’s log building book,
and over one summer built their first log home. Ric says the experience inspired the idea of crafting shelters that go beyond a basic structure. It’s interesting following the progression of their work, and how the craftsmanship of fashioning log structures really took off. Initially they built the homes on site, packing their chainsaws and small cache of tools to the property where the house was going to sit. After building five or six shells that way, they had the opportunity to build a little cabin at Whistler. The year was 1978 and things were about to change significantly for the Dürfeld brothers and the log home industry as a whole. For the first time they built the log shell in a building yard in Williams Lake and disassembled it and trucked the logs to Whistler. At that time Whistler was a
Sage Birchwater photo
A detailed look at the artistry going into the craft of log construction. This gateway welcomes visitors to the Stampede Grandstand. one-horse town with one gas station and a hotel. Ric says Whistler’s development had a big impact on the log home industry as Vancouver architects were pushing the log and timber design envelope. As interior builders, spruce and pine trees were chosen as building logs – gun barrel straight and uniform. “The Whistler market introduced us to the superior qualities of Western red cedar for log
building,” Ric says. For one of the Whistler projects the cedar logs were sourced from the Seymour water shed and came with flared butts. Then Matheo suggested incorporating these unconventional shapes into the design of the project. Now flared butts have become the norm. As the projects got more specialized, the call went out for specific wood requirements. Ric says it took them
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two months to find a specialty cedar tree that produced a log 53 feet long with a three-foot diameter top required for a vertical support structure in a house five-and-ahalf stories tall. “It had a spiral staircase all the way to the top.“ Ric says this is an example of getting the highest value for a tree. This tree was the focal point of the house. When the house was sold, the price tipped the scale for the most amount paid per square foot for residential construction Canada wide. He says they started seeing things with a broader understanding that enabled them to work with organic forms and integrate them as feature elements in the houses. In its infancy the log home industry was anything but sophisticated. Ric remembers being mystified when they met a Swiss timber framer who had eight major
specialized timber power tools in a little trailer. “We had not got to that level of craftsmanship yet,” Ric says. “Now we can’t afford not to have these tools.” Methods and techniques of construction have also changed over time. now we haven’t used fibreglass for insulating,” Ric says. “We use sheep’s wool instead.” It isn’t a matter of trying to be funky, he adds; the wool is naturally superior without health risks. Shifting into a philosophical mode again, Ric seriously questions the wisdom of clear cutting the landscape because of the pine beetle infestation. “The beetle kill is an issue, however, it also seems to be used as an excuse to extract the whole works with little concern to what is left behind,” Ric says. “What’s the race to the end all about? Is sustainability part of the plan?” He says you can’t
measure the well-being of a country through an economic lens where maximizing profit is the only consideration. “The industrial model is volume based. Good economics requires investing in people skills. You need to have a healthy middle class. Social well being is realized through sustainable development which will drive good economics.” Ric describes his company as a family operation. Since 1989 his brother Matheo has been in Whistler, and in 1991 Ric established his log building yard at Wildwood, which gave him a clean environment and room to expand. His wife, Liz, and their two sons, Levon and Caius are also involved. Traditional values and succession are important factors in this business philosophy and structure. For more information check out the company website at www.durfeldlogandtimber.com.
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Historical
28 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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150 Mile House One of the original stops along the Gold Rush wagon road was 150 Mile House. The bustling community became a departure point for mining settlements on the banks of Keithly, Antler and Horsefly Creeks. The village included a district telegraph office,
150 Mile House around 1890
express office, post office and provincial constable’s office, not to mention its well known roadhouse. Today you will still find a roadhouse at 150 Mile welcoming travelers as they tour our beautiful British Columbia. While it is still a small community, it is growing and is home to many businesses and amenities for travellers and its residents. Locals and visitors alike can still enjoy the historical value this community has to offer. A point of interest is the fully restored 1890’s “little red schoolhouse”, which is a visible landmark in the community.
153 Mile Store built in 1914
For more information on the school house, contact the 150 Mile School at 250-2963356 and book your personal tour with the principal during the school term.
Little Red Schoolhouse
From 150 Mile House, travelers can head east to historic Likely, Quesnel Forks and Horsefly.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 29
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Bee Happy Honey bees thrive with loving owner Monica Lamb-Yorski photo
Monica Lamb-Yorski Casual Country 2013 A visiting swarm of bees that flew past the living room window and moved into her chicken coop could have been the catalyst for getting Soda Creek beekeeper Diane Dunaway started back in 1991. A few years later when she was working at the library in Williams Lake she suggested to a co-worker whose husband kept bees that he should bring some out to her place in Soda Creek. “That was Mike Ambach,” Dunaway recalls, “the first of many mentors. He brought some bees out and every time he came to work them, I looked over his shoulder thinking this is so cool!” Her beekeeping started off small in the summer of 1998 with two colonies. In 2001 Dunaway obtained her Bee Masters certification at SFU and began expand-
Diane Dunaway of Soda Creek has been keeping bees since 1998. Here a routine check shows the bees are busy and happy in one of the many hives she keeps at Dunaway Ranch. Note the bee resting comfortably on her finger without stinging her.
ing her apiary. In 2013, 15 years along, she plans to have 90 colonies. “It’s become a passion,” she says, adding a few years ago, she experienced some heavy winter bee losses, but has seen a surge in the last three years. “There are a lot of challenges with keeping
bees and it’s a lifetime of learning for sure,” Dunaway says. “I know that sounds corny, but it’s true.” She “plunged” into the beekeeping culture completely, she says, first becoming involved with the Central Cariboo Beekeepers’ Association and eventually with the B.C. Honey Producers Asso-
ciation (BCHPA). She was on the executive of BCHPA for two years and editor of its publication for five years. “It was a really fun run.” Not every beekeeper joins the local club, but she guesses at least 30 people are keeping bees within the Central Cariboo region. “There’s been a resurgence of
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young people getting into keeping bees in the last few years which is pretty great. It’s been a nice, much needed revitalization.” Insisting that without honey bees the world would be in trouble, Dunaway says pollination is worth 10 times the value of the honey itself. “A third of what we eat
depends on honey bee pollination.” When asked about pasteurized and unpasteurized honey, she explains that it’s a dairy term that should not be used for honey. “Somehow food regulators decided to use it for honey. It has to do with how high you heat it.” Nowadays, all her honey is being sold as raw, which means she never goes past 118 F when warming it. Keeping it raw retains honey’s nutritional enzymes and true flavour. Her label includes a note about granulation — Has Your Honey Gone Hard — and is part of her raw honey campaign. She’s also made the transition to organic beekeeping. “I’m not certified, but I stopped using strong miticides quite a few years ago because you end up getting drug resistant parasites and residues in your beeswax. Our hives are also antibiotic
free. Otherwise it’s like a chemical treadmill.” Instead she uses organic acids and other Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices, which are better for the bees, even though beekeepers need to be “darn” careful when using them, she warns. “You can’t splash organic acids like formic or oxalic, or inhale them,” Dunaway says. “I’m waiting for the skin on my thumb to grow back because I had a hole in my glove. You don’t notice it right away because it just kind of stings, and before you know it you’ve gone through a couple of layers of skin. Conventional chemicals are easier to use, so being organic is more of a commitment. However, it’s do-able, and more congruent to my values.” Besides, she’s noticed the bees are happy, “touch wood.” See COLOUR, Page 30
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Monica Lamb-Yorski photos
Removing one of the trays in a hive, Diane Dunaway checks to ensure the bees are happily at work making honey (left). Using a smoker, she “politely” lets the bees know that she’s coming to inspect their hive.
Colour reflects source of bee pollen Continued From Page 29 During the last six years, Dunaway has worked as the co-ordinating editor of a new book, A History of Beekeeping in British Columbia from 1950 to 2000. It was released on April 29, 2013. In the book there’s a whole section on the Cariboo Chilcotin. Folks like Hugh Mahon, Ted Hancock and Mike Ambach are mentioned. “Everyone’s very proud of the book,” she says, adding some of the stories are pretty funny. In one story a bee inspector shows up at a nudist colony in the Kootenays where all he could manage was making eye contact for the length of his stay, in another territorial dogs attack the inspector’s ankles and truck tires as he flees the scene. “It’s not all dry and the photographs are amazing. We’ve been getting lots of orders for the book from the U.S. too,” she says. Proceeds of the book will go toward honey bee research in B.C. A few weeks ago the Dunaways transported hives to different ranches owned by friends in the region. Because the population in each colony will grow from around 10,000 to 15,000 to 60,000 to 70,000 in the height of the summer, a beekeeper’s goal is to get the maximum population up during the nectar flow. Being in different lo-
cations ensures the bees will get access to a variety of nectars and pollen such as dandelion, sage, sweet clover and alfalfa. In the Soda Creek valley, there’s what she describes as a “mild floral mix,” that includes forage from a variety of wild flowers, a “great” dandelion flow, and lots of Saskatoon blossoms. Dunaways keep the bees going year round and have learned it’s important to be diligent with fencing to keep bears away. “Every time I arrive at a bee yard I have a fence tester and I check the voltage. You have to keep the charge at 5,000 volts to keep a bear out,” she says. “It’s not fair to the bees or the bears if you don’t keep your fences working, you’re setting them up for failure.” In 2012, the Dunaway’s bees produced 7,600 pounds of honey. That amount is considered “small commercial” or a “side-liner” in B.C. or a “hobbyist” in Alberta. “Alberta is like the Texas of Canada for beekeeping,” she says. An ability to market her honey herself is one of the reasons for her success. “Most of it sells locally. I have an organic store in North Vancouver that sells it, but most of it is bought in the Cariboo, which is great, honey is pretty heavy,” Dunaway chuckles. She adds selling locally lets you get to know
Recently Diane purchased 30 queen bees from Saskatchewan for her hives. your customers and allows you to practice sustainable farming by containing your carbon footprint. Dunaway also sells every year at the Medieval Market in Williams Lake in November. Dave, her husband, has worked for 20 years in the B.C. film industry as a special effects technician and stunt rigger, and has travelled with work, being away about six months of the year. “It’s taken him around the world and let us get ahead a bit up here, but now he’s doing contract millwrighting and loving it, he’s home every night.” Dave makes “invaluable” contributions to the beekeeping operation, even though he has worked away to be the main breadwinner. His latest creation is “Camille” a new warmer he’s built for the honey house. “I wanted to name her Bertha, but Dave thought she was
A bee returns with some pollen for the hive. This time the hue is orange.
hotter than that.” She’s painted crimson red and looks like she’ll live on for eternity. In their honey house where they extract and bottle the honey everything is on wheels. “We’re into saving our backs,” Dunaway explains, adding beekeepers don’t tend to retire so they are planning longterm. Dave’s parents were living down below by the Fraser River when Dave and Diane came to Soda Creek for a visit from Whistler 24 years ago. They saw the house they now own and she remembers it caught her eye. An old railway station house, circa 1920 joined with a house built in the 1960s. Sarah Spring-Stump and her partner Dan were running the place and brought people from Williams Lake to stay there who needed to dry out. “I remember them sit-
ting on the porch,” Diane recalls. “There was no siding on the house, the grass was all grown up in the yard, there was a cow walking around grazing.” The next year Dave and she visited again and the property had been freshly logged. The house was empty. Instantly she felt the place needed to be loved. “It really called. Luckily we were younger and had the energy because now I’m all about low maintenance,” Diane laughs. “We’re in our 50s, the energy level changes and I’m hoping it will be offset by working smarter, maybe not as hard.” Besides caring for a menagerie of rescue animals on their spread, they have three family members living at the Seniors Village. “We’re the only family for both sides here,” and both moms are in town as is Diane’s uncle Arden.
Dave’s mom just turned 99 years old. His family moved to the Cariboo from Eastern Oregon in 1950, when they bought the old 150 Mile Ranch. Diane’s mom has been a horsewoman from an early age and made the move from Vancouver Island four years ago. She loves having horses back in her life. A 19-year-old apprentice from Soda Creek has been helping Diane for six years with the bees. “He’s at a point now where he’s working without gloves, which is a good sign for beekeeping because it shows you’re being respectful and it decreases the chance of transmitting disease from hive to hive.” Dunaway hopes he’ll take his bee masters next year, and said if there was a queen rearing course between now and then that it would be a bonus. “There’s a huge demand for experienced beekeepers in New Zealand and I think that would be a nice way to launch him.” Raving about her apprentice’s attention to detail, Dunaway says she’s realized she’s now at a point in her life where she can mentor. A young couple from Telkwa took on the provincial BeesCene beekeeping journal from Diane two years ago. She exchanges emails with them regularly to make suggestions, give support, share ideas
or just play devil’s advocate. It’s been a wonderful experience! As Williams Lake city council begins to explore the possibility of creating a bylaw so people can keep bees within the city limits, Dunaway welcomes the idea. “There are misconceptions associated with bees and lots of fear mongering. I hope they give us a chance, as beekeepers, to let people know what we know.” Bees have been domesticated for centuries and were bred for gentleness, she implores. “And even if a bee bylaw is approved, that doesn’t mean hundreds of people will begin keeping bees. It will probably legitimize everyone who is doing it in town already.” Asked about future plans, “It’s a little bit addictive,” she says. “You open up a hive and all your senses come alive. There’s the smell and the sound. You can tell if it’s queen-right or not. That is, if the queen bee has been accepted or if she’s missing, the bees will make a different sound.” “If the bees jiggle on the comb, it’s not a good sign either. Beekeeping engages all the senses so it’s pretty hard to give it up,” Diane adds. “The experience has been rewarding even though there are no guarantees,” she says. “I was a city girl, but this is definitely home now.”
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 31
Business
Early hardware store evolves into eclectic main-street mall Tara Sprickerhoff Casual Country 2013
Tara Sprickerhoff photos
Greg Delainey makes keys in the family lock and key shop
Delainey’s Centre Mall is part of a trend in business that is breathing new life into the city’s downtown core. Once the city’s only hardware store, the Delainey building is now home to a funky collection of small eclectic shops. A key and blade shop, barber shop, yoga studio, sustainable/fair trade shop, art therapy centre, and tattoo studio all inhabit the building. While the building has undergone several transformations over the years, Delainey’s Lock and Key has remained a constant in the building as the oldest locksmithing business in the city. The walls are filled with keys of all shapes, colours and sizes, and a side display hosts a large selection of hunting and utility knives. True to name, when you first walk into Delainey’s Lock and Key,
The Delainey’s Centre Mall is one of the city’s oldest heritage buildings and retains its western facade and an old-time feel for the interior shops. you are most likely to be greeted by one of the three Delaineys who work in the shop. The business has been owned by the Delaineys since the 1970s when the current owner Greg Delainey’s father, Chuck Delainey, bought it from the Halfnight brothers. At the time, Delain-
ey’s Home Hardware was the sole occupant of the building. The building itself, with original wooden floors uncovered two years ago, and an oldstyle wooden facade and balcony, is one of the few heritage structures left in Williams Lake. It was built in the
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1930s and housed Smedley and Sharpe’s Hardware store until the Delainey family purchased the building in 1963. The hardware store became Delainey’s Home Hardware and when Chuck bought the lock and key store it was shifted into the basement of the building from its
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original location in town. When Chuck retired and sold all of the stock in the hardware store, his sons, Doug and Greg Delainey inherited the lock shop and moved it to the main floor at the front of the building where it has lived ever since. “My father conned me into working in the hardware store,” Greg admits with a laugh. Before he started working in the building in 1985 he was a logger, bucking, landing and falling trees. “I ran the hardware store for 12 years, and while I was there I ended up building locks, so then I took the locksmith correspondence course,” Greg says. His brother Doug also changed careers after the Delaineys bought the lock store. He had originally gone to school to become a draftsman and wound up becoming a locksmith instead. See DELAINEY’S, Page 32
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Delainey’s Centre Mall on trend rejuvenating downtown core Around her neck hangs an intricate key on a chain. She started working at the lock and key shop in the summer of 2000, shortly after she graduated from high school. Her brother, Steven, is returning from Vancouver to work at the store as well,” Greg says. “I’m happy Steven is
coming back. He’s really good at locksmithing, like his dad. Krista’s good at finding her way too. “It’s like doing puzzles all the time. “You have to be a MacGyver to be a locksmith. You have to be mechanically minded.” The store itself is “a family type of situation,”
A third generation family business member Krista Delainey carries on the family tradition of helping to run Delainey’s Lock and Key. Her brother Steven is also returning from Vancouver to work with her in the business.
Greg says. “It’s a family business as long as I have family around to help.” Despite the number of businesses currently in the building, “it wasn’t really planned,” Greg says. When the hardware store closed, Delainey’s Home Hardware became Delainey’s Centre Mall. He says Gary Lewis, the owner of the former Reflections Gallery, a framing store, was the first business to move in. “He traded me a picture for building a wall,” Greg says. The mall grew from there. Since Reflections Gallery moved in and later out, other businesses that formerly resided in the building include a fabric store, a chiropractor, Forever Blue Jeans, and Future Fashions. Greg’s daughter, Angie Delainey, has been a “driving force” in the rejuvenation of the mall. She co-owns the Satya Yoga Studio with Tricia Hohert in the basement
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of the building. Satya Yoga studio opened in 2011, shortly before Dandelion Living opened across the hallway from Delainey’s Lock and Key. The women had a dream of changing Delainey’s Centre into a “Wellness Centre.” “They’re doing a super good job,” Greg says.
Since the yoga studio and Dandelion Living fair trade/sustainable clothing and gifts opened, the building has also attracted Highway’s Shortcuts, a barber, the Exposed Expressions Tattoo Studio as well as a multi-purpose room used for Art4Wellness. Despite the new activity in the mall, for Delain-
ey’s Lock and Key it’s been business as usual. “We’ve been here so long we try to help out and make sure we can solve most problems with locks and keys,” Greg says. “The customers are also important,” Greg teases. “We don’t like to beat too many of them up.”
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Dora Althaus the new owner of Dandelion Living, one of the stores in the Delainey’s Centre Mall dedicated to selling locally made, sustainable and fair trade products.
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Continued From Page 31 Now, since Doug’s death in 2002, Krista Delainey, Doug’s daughter and a “bonded” locksmith, helps run the store with Greg. “She runs the shop, I’m just here,” Greg jokes. “He’s just a pretty face,” Krista replies.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 33
Business
Chilcotin Guns: hunting, fishing, camping outfitters Monica Lamb-Yorski Casual Country 2013 Chilcotin Guns owner Al Bush jokes
that his wife tells him “he’s off to play” when he goes to work each day. He admits it’s great to work at a place
where he can share his passion, and says his day is filled with visits from people passionate about hunting, fishing, and camping.
“It keeps me in touch with the rest of the people who hunt, fish and bow. The hours get long sometimes.
Monica Lamb-Yorski photo
Chilcotin Guns owner Al Bush (left), his father Joe (centre), and customer Striker Kyle examine knives because Kyle says he’s in need of a new one.
“You’re in here six days a week and I don’t think I’ve had two weeks holidays in 10 years,” he chuckles. Within moments of the shop opening its doors one Thursday morning, customers arrive. Some are regular old timers, others newcomers. Local resident Joe Dandre, preparing for his annual trek to go fishing in Bella Coola, stops in the store to buy some special bags for carrying fish. “You’re not supposed to put your fish in garbage bags because the bags have something in them that will get into the fish. Even the bags you put in the kitchen are bad,” Dandre explains, adding he is hoping to catch some Spring Salmon. “We’re going to bring our trailer down to Bella Coola. If the water’s too high, we’ll come back,” he tells Al
size that it is now. “It got busier and busier,” Al recalls. By 1990, he stopped working in mills and took over running the shop full time. In the CaribooChilcotin all businesses feel the different economic turns, but they’ve been able to stay busy, Al says. “Right now we’re getting busier again.” He faults the federal government’s long gun registration for causing a slow down in gun sales, and says 50 per cent of the gun shops went out of business. “It was a big economic hit for anyone involved at that time and we, like everybody, were slow for a couple of years.” The walls of the shop are lined with several trophies, many of them the result of Al’s father’s adventures. See GAME, Page 34
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and Joe. If you want to learn how to fish, you talk to “Old Joe,” Al says as Joe leaves the store. His father Joe Bush, now retired, is often inside the shop before the doors open. He lives right next door on Broadway Avenue South. He is waiting for his childhood friend Striker Kyle to show up. The two men are going gold panning north of Williams Lake. They’ve known each other since the 1930s. Joe began selling guns out of the basement of his home when he lived on Dog Creek Road in the 1970s. “He was always collecting guns,” Al says. When Joe opened the store on Broadway Avenue South in 1981 it was a small store, measuring 16-by-24 feet. In 1985 he expanded it, and by 1997 the store was the larger
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Business Game cheaper than beef in the old days
Continued From Page 33 Joe hunts, mostly moose, but has shot sheep and goats. Five years ago he returned from a South African safari with five different trophies, including a wildebeest and a kudu. He grew up in Dugland, Man., heading west in 1946 by hopping a ride on the top of a boxcar. “It was winter wasn’t it dad?” Al asks him. “No, but when the train was passing through Golden and Revelstoke there was frost on the top of the boxcars,” Joe replies. “It was pretty cold.” Eventually Joe made his way from Merritt, where he was living, to the Cariboo. He worked as a ranch hand on Chilko, Alkali Lake, Gang and Onward ranches. Later he and his
wife, Janet, bought a home on Chilcotin Road and ran the Chilcotin Road General Store, where Highway 20 and Hodgson Road intersect now. “Department of Highways was going through our place so we had to move,” Joe recalls. “After we settled with highways we bought a place in 1971 on Dog Creek Road.” A large assortment of guns line the racks behind the counter — old Winchesters, old army rifles, including a Ross rifle from the First World War, and, of course, the newest style of semi-automatics. Holding up the Winchester 86 model he explains a gun like it was built as the tool of the day. “Even though it was built in 1891, you could go shoot with it today,” Al says.
Compared to today the quality of the firearms back then were extremely well-done, he insists. “Pride was taken in every piece in those days. To have a firearm that’s 120 years old that you can use safely today proves that.” The old guns often arrive at his shop because of consignment sales through family estates, he explains. Aside from the guns, the shop sells archery, fishing, camping and hunting gear. Al’s been shooting bow since the late 80s and has seen a spurt that’s rejuvenated archery in the last two years. Al’s first hunt was with his grandfather Joe Dynes, who was a guide in the Skulow Lake area. “I went hunting with him in his old red Willys jeep, I must have
been five or six,” Al recalls. At his cabin on Horsefly Lake there’s a photograph of Al after that first hunting excursion. He is standing on the hood of the jeep with a moose up on the fender. His brother and grandfather are in the photo too. “Getting out camping and hunting is a passion,” he says. “You were brought up with it. In earlier generations putting a moose in the freezer helped the family along.” For everyone living in the Cariboo-Chilcotin in the early days, hunting was the norm. “You couldn’t afford to buy beef all the time, so a lot of large families supplemented their livelihood by hunting. The kids that came out of that loved to hunt and were good hunters,” he says.
Monica Lamb-Yorski photo
Joe Bush stands beneath a Kudu, one of five trophies he brought back from a hunting safari in South Africa five years ago.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 35
Business Gunning for art
Gaeil Farrar Casual Country 2013 In the Cariboo-Chilcotin where long guns are used for hunting game and protection from predators, people share a special connection with their weapons. One of the ways gun owners personal-
ize their rifles is with carved art work. Mark Coe has been carving for years and showed some of his handiwork at the Williams Lake Sportsmen’s Association gun show this spring. The art work doesn’t come cheap, but Coe says gun owners often
personalize their weapons one art piece at a time in much the same way people get tattoos, as they are inspired and as they can afford them. He uses a high speed air drill to hand-carve decorative art on laminate, wood, steel, and glass. This allows his customers to match fa-
vourite art pieces to their hunting knives, truck windows, rifles and other items with patterns and motifs of their choosing. Fish scale and basket weave patterns are often paired with animal and other motifs to achieve the rifle owner’s personalized look. The rifle at left features a wolf howling at the moon. Below are pictures of two rusted out rifles Coe refurbished and decorated which are now family heirlooms.
Gaeil Farrar photos
Mark Coe has been sculpting in wood for years and more recently discovered the beauty in personalizing rifles for his clients. Here he holds a laminate Marlin 22 target rifle.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 37
Out West
Road runs west bus service finally arrives Hank Van Tamelen Casual Country 2013 In 1972 I went camping with Dennis Murray and his family. He was a pipeline welding inspector and bus driving was my chosen work and lifestyle. We both had a mutual desire to move to central west B.C. and on that camping trip discussed a way that goal might be achieved. I wanted to operate a small bus line where it was needed. The 300 mile stretch of Highway 20 from Williams Lake to Bella Coola was the only highway in B.C. from the interior to the coast with no bus services. So we decided to check it out. After much preparation and red tape we were granted a licence to go. We figured Cariboo West Stages was the correct name.
I lived in Grande Prairie, Alta. at the time and drove for Canadian Coachways in the north from 1959 to 1973. My new partner, Dennis, lived in Ft. St. John and worked for North American Inspections. In early 1973 I moved to Williams Lake and acquired a 1953 Prevost 33-passenger bus and started two trips per week from Williams Lake to Anahim Lake for the first while and then on to Bella Coola. Our schedule was to leave Williams Lake for Bella Coola on Mondays and return Tuesdays; then leave for Bella Coola again on Thursdays, returning on Fridays. A while after the schedule was established Dennis moved to Williams Lake and we bought a 1950s something ex-military bus. Soon after we were hired to carry high school dorm students
Photo submitted
Cariboo West Stages owner and driver Hank Van Tamelen (right) prepares for a trip out west with a couple of passengers. from Anahim Lake on Sunday afternoons with pickups east to Tatla Lake and on to the Williams Lake High-school dormitory. On Fridays we picked students up after school and took them back home for the
weekend. We replaced the Prevost in about a year with a Western Flyer Canuck (1966 I think). The Canucks were designed by Western Flyer in Manitoba for Canadian Coachways.
Welcome Summer Visitors
They were used mainly for the Alaska Highway. They were 33-passenger buses with rear curbside door freight sheds, plus baggage compartments underneath the bus. I was very familiar
with these buses having driven them since they were new. Over the years, we wore out and replaced about three Canucks. We also bought an M.C.I. MC5 for charter work, etc. We did quite a charter business in addition to our Bella Coola Run. We also did Greyhound overloads and did our own maintenance. The Chilcotin Road was about four times as rough as the Alaska Highway (no kidding) and we broke and wore out pretty well everything possible. Our package express brought in almost as much revenue as passenger tickets on the west run. We hauled a heck of a lot of parts for haying machines and almost anything of reasonable size you can imagine. About our second year, we bid on and were awarded the mail
contract from Williams Lake to Bella Coola, which sure helped pay for the fuel and tires. We met some of the best down-to-earth people in the mid-west. We never left anyone in Williams Lake because they didn’t have enough money left to go home. I don’t think we lost $200 in “jawbone” in 10 years. Chilcotin people would always remember and go out of their way to pay for their ride. I will never forget Bella Coola, the beautiful valley and the people, or the “Hill” — chains mandatory up and down in the winter. Ya’ gotta’ see it to believe it. In 1985 I left Dennis with a new partner and left the area to help out my ailing and aging parents. I’m not sure how long Cariboo West continued to operate.
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Out West
Belated honeymoon on the Cariboo West Stage Line Gerry Bracewell Casual Country 2013 My husband, Alf, and I met the two CaribooWest Stage Line owners Hank Van Tamelen and Dennis Murray back in the early 1970s. We were thrilled to learn they would be operating a twice-weekly passenger bus service on Highway 20 between Williams Lake and Bella Coola. The Chilcotin was ready for the passenger bus service on the 300 mile route even if the road was not. “Often the ditch was smoother than the road,” Dennis told us. But this bus service was the lifeline for the Chilcotin and Bella Coola people, dependable and barring washouts and rock-slides, usually on time. Their tight schedule left only Wednesdays for repairs between the two weekly round trips.
If the bus broke down en route Hank or Dennis would “call home” for their wives to drive out and rescue the passengers. There was an opportunity that came up for Alf and I to take our long-awaited honeymoon. The Cariboo-West bus was now going through to Bella Coola and returning the next day. Their usual stop at Tatla Lake, happened to fall on our 21st wedding anniversary, Jan. 4, 1975. I suggested to Alf that we could hurry off to Tatla Lake (22 miles); leave our pick-up truck there; catch the bus as it came through and enjoy a trip over the road that he had helped to build so many years before in 1952/53. He was all for it. We asked our two sons if they were in agreement. They would have all
Photo submitted
The Cariboo West Stage Line bus, Western Flyer “Canuck,” makes the hairpin turn coming up the lower end of the notorious Bella Coola Hill. of the feeding and ranch chores to do for two days. “Go for it,” was their response. We arrived at Tatla Lake and Dennis welcomed us.
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We had a most delightful, if short, visit with friends at every mail stop, and since they were few, going west, we had time to chat with Dennis. The infamous “Bella
Coola Hill” was much improved. We stopped at Hagensborg, then reached Bella Coola village about suppertime. A cold east wind came up. We sought
refuge in their big hotel overnight to be ready early for the return trip. We left after breakfast in the company of several Bella Coola native women who were going to Williams Lake. The sky was clouding over and the wind was still blowing. When we “toppedout” from the crawl back up the hill we were surprised by brilliant sunshine glistening on the snow accumulated over the few months of winter. The ladies were delighted with the wintery scene, so Dennis stopped the bus to let them off to enjoy the snowy landscape close up and personally. They played in the snow like a group of school kids for about 20 minutes, then, out of breath and glowing, they brushed each other off and climbed aboard. Dennis was grinning and teasing them, happy
that his short stop had allowed them so much pleasure. It was a different world compared to what they were used to Bella Coola which, being coastal has a much milder and wetter climate than the Chilcotin plateau. Everyone in Bella Coola and the Chilcotin appreciated the efforts demanded by “the road,” which, over the years, with a great deal of upgrading, earned the title of Highway 20. But in its infancy, the pioneering spirit of Hank and Dennis, with their CaribooWest Stages, deserves its place in the history of the development of Bella Coola and the Chilcotin. We returned home well satisfied with our short honeymoon, since, as ranchers, we knew “a change is as good as a rest.”
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 39
Out West
Connecting communities through fiddle music LeRae Haynes Casual Country 2013 Lively fiddle music fills the halls of two rural Aboriginal schools in the Chilcotin as young students practice, jam and receive instruction throughout the school year. Professional fiddle instructor Calvin Cairns, along with fiddler Carli Newberry, fiddler instructor Roxanna Sabir and the Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society, have provided support and mentorship to get them started and keep them playing. The two schools that have had week-long fiddle lessons and instructor visits are the Tsi Del Del school at Redstone and the Anaham Band school at Alexis Creek. The program was modelled after a very successful, long-running music program that has caught on with huge momentum in the North West Territories. Calvin Cairns is one of the instructors with Fiddleworks Community Development Society, and has been teaching in remote Aboriginal communities since 2004. Cairns explains that Fiddleworks is based on Salt Spring Island and works to promote the joy of fiddling. They work to foster community through music, celebration and education. They create and implement educational programs that use music to develop leadership, teamwork, selfesteem and life skills. They also help provide accessible, affordable music education for children and adults. The school fiddle program in the Chilcotin got started when Deb and Sage Trampleasure from the Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society met Cairns at a fiddle workshop. When Deb found out that he taught fiddle in remote Aboriginal communities she asked him about coming to the Chilcotin and he said yes. Cairns recently paid his third visit to Anaham this school year,
Sage Birchwater photo
Youth fiddler mentor Sage Trampleasure performs at the Medieval Market arts and craft event in November 2012. explaining that the initial week-long fiddle instruction at the schools is only the beginning. “Two instructors go for one week and teach fiddle all day, and then invite the community to a concert, a jam session and a social time,” Cairns says, adding that when he takes on a school project he commits to four visits a year to keep momentum going. There has been great response from the very beginning from students, teachers, principals and parents. Fiddlers are provided for the kids, some donated by Fiddleworks. “At Redstone we donated four fiddles and the principal bought another eight,” Cairns continues. “I get used ones, usually rentals, from a store in Victoria and they give me a good deal. Sometimes if a really expensive fiddle is donated, we sell it and convert it to four or five student fiddles.” At the Anaham school one of the teachers took up fiddle and teaches it to the kids between his visits, working with groups of kids for a half hour, he explains. “Every recess has an open fiddle jam. Carli
LeRae Haynes photo
Chilcotin fiddlers perform at the Tsilhqot’in National Government 2012 Christmas party. The students attend schools that received fiddle instruction from professional fiddle instructor Calvin Cairns and support from the Cariboo-Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society.
Gaeil Farrar photo
Cariboo-Chilcotin Youth Fiddlers Keaton Carruthers (left on cello), Amy Hanson, William Newberry, Christina Kelly, Lauren Neufeld, Carly Magnuson, and Jenna Menzies (on guitar) perform at the Cariboo Festival Honours Concert in May. Newberry is really moving things forward at her school. Before that I would have to back up, start over and do lots of remedial work between visits,” Cairns says. “This last time I walked in and took right up where we left off.” The local Cariboo Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society donates teaching hours to the Chilcotin program when they host workshops. The Chilcotin kids have travelled into Williams Lake by bus to learn from professional
fiddle instructors Gordon Stobbe and JJ Guy. The teaching trips were hosted by Densniqi Services Society where the kids also performed for an elder’s lunch and for the Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG) Christmas celebration. In March 2012 Stobbe and Guy travelled to Redstone for a workshop hosted by the Tsi Del Del school and taught 40 fiddlers who had come together from both schools. Sage Trampleasure from the Cariboo Chil-
cotin Fiddle Society has volunteered as a mentor and has taught and played at Anaham reserve on numerous occasions over the past two years. Sage originally visited the school with Cairns to show the kids what fiddling was like and helped them to hold the fiddles and give it their first try. Sage has also volunteered as a mentor for the kids on their in-town performances, tuning fiddles and reassuring nervous performers. Sage and fellow-fid-
dler Keaton Carruthers travelled two hours to Redstone to mentor students. Sage and 2012 First Nations Role Model Kasey Stirling, also of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Youth Fiddle Society, lead a practice at Desniqi Services Society. They rode on the float with the Chilcotin fiddlers during the 2012 Daybreak Rotary Stampede Parade. The two fiddle groups also joined to play for the Rick Hansen 25 year anniversary
tour. Cairns says the community concerts at the schools take it beyond just the kids. “Adults in the community including parents, band chiefs and councillors, RCMP officers — anyone who plays music shows up and elders come to listen,” Cairns explains. “We will play a couple of tunes and welcome everyone. I take the kids through their tunes to show what they can do, and then we open it to the community.”
40 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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Building Foundations in the Community that Last a Lifetime ONCRETE DY MIX C
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Old Mac Johnson on the back of his mixer at a Williams Lake residence
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nited Concrete & Gravel Ltd. is a locally owned and operated company serving the entire Cariboo region, with plants in Williams Lake, 100 Mile House and Quesnel, plus a portable batch plant for “project” type jobs. United’s history goes back to the mid 1950’s with the Quesnel Redi-Mix operation which included Glendale Redi-Mix and Cariboo Redi-Mix. In July of 1977 David and Paul Zacharias
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started Ever-Redi Concrete Products Ltd in Quesnel. Ever-Redi Concrete began its operations with two old Ford Tandem mixers, a small loader and a basic batch plant. The Company operates a fleet of mixer trucks, concrete pump trucks, gravel trucks, highway tractors, loaders, excavators and various other equipment. Aggregates for concrete and a wide
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range of gravel products and peat soil come from a number of pits throughout the Cariboo region. The aggregate is processed by stationary washing, screening and crushing plants at each location, as well as mobile screening and crushing plants. Concrete aggregates are stored in heated facilities permitting year-round operations of the redi-mix batch plants, even in the dead of winter. United Concrete is proud of their
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many employees who have helped make the company what it is today. Their professionalism, efficiency and helpfulness have earned the company a respected reputation in the industry. David and Colleen Zacharias and their families live in Quesnel. Paul and Sue Zacharias and their families live in Williams Lake. Rod Zacharias and his family oversee the 100 Mile Division.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 41
Out West
Donna’s Place popular Anahim Lake eatery Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 It’s easy to find Donna Wickenheiser. She’s got the only eatery in Anahim Lake, aptly named Donna’s Place, across from McLean’s Trading on Christensen Road, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thank God for Blessed Mondays, she gets a day off. “It keeps me busy,” she says, grabbing a bite to eat between serving customers on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Since the Dutchman Restaurant burned down last winter and Nimpo Bakery took a long spring sabbatical, there was nowhere else in the community for folks to sit down and take a meal. Some people make a difference in the community they live
in, and there’s no better example of this than Donna. For 15 years she was secretary/treasurer of the Anahim Lake Community Association, which meant she was the “go-to” person for a whole range of community functions including the Anahim Lake Stampede, booking the community hall, and running other community events. She has also worked in two of the community’s general stores and set up her own bookkeeping and tax preparation business. So yes, she keeps busy. Soon Donna’s husband Doug, walks in. He’s currently on his days off from his heavy-duty mechanic’s job in Tumbler Ridge. Over the years Doug and Donna have worked as a tandem in Anahim Lake, shortly
after Doug arrived to take a logging job driving a skidder for Dick Wright in 1987. Doug and Donna met in Williams Lake in 1975, where Doug was working as a heavy duty mechanic for Timberjack Interior Diesel. Donna had come up to the Cariboo to visit friends when they were introduced. They fell in love and eventually married in 1979. Along the way their lives were enriched by the arrival of daughter, Kathy, in 1975, and son, Jimmy, in 1979. When Timberjack Interior Diesel shut down in 1987, Doug started sub-contracting for Dick Wright in Anahim Lake, where Dick was the main logging contractor for Carrier Lumber. See WORKING, Page A42
Sage Birchwater photo
Donna Wickenheiser serves Eric Hamilton and Ron Lynds on a lazy Sunday afternoon at Donna’s Place in Anahim Lake.
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42 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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Out West
Working out helps support Chilcotin life style Continued from Page 41 Donna and the kids would come out to visit on weekends and took an immediate liking to the community. When it looked like Doug’s work in the area had a future, Donna and the kids moved out west for good in 1988. What appealed to Donna most was the quiet, laid-back lifestyle and friendly West Chilcotin community. “When our kids were young they could do things that didn’t cost a ton of money,” she says. “It wasn’t like the city where you don’t know your next door neighbour.” Doug ran a skidder for Dick Wright until Carrier Lumber shut down in the early 1990s, then when the logging and sawmilling enterprise regrouped as West Chilcotin Forest Products,
CAT Resources and Chunta Enterprises, Doug put on his heavy duty mechanic’s hat and started maintaining the equipment. Meanwhile Donna started working for Sandra and Hans Lutters in Anahim Lake Trading general store and post office for five-and-a-half years. Following that she managed Ulkatcho General Store for sixand-a-half years. There’s a saying that if you want to get something done, ask a busy person. Doug and Donna both got involved with the Anahim Lake Community Association, Doug as a director and Donna as secretary/treasurer. When West Chilcotin Forest Products shut down and CAT Resources folded in the mid-2000s, Doug spent a year looking after the logging
equipment for Ulkatcho’s Yun Ka Whu’ten Development Ltd. Then when industry jobs dried up around Anahim Lake, Doug looked further afield for employment. He headed north to maintain the equipment at Kemess Mine north of Smithers for five years, then went further afield to the diamond mines in the Northwest Territories. Ask him how much fun it is monkey wrenching outside in -50 degree Celsius temperatures, two hours flying time north of Edmonton. In 2012, Doug started maintaining heavy equipment in Tumbler Ridge. Despite going out to find work in other parts of the country, Doug still finds solace coming home to Anahim Lake. “I like fishing and hunting and I’ve taken a few rides in the
mountains with Dave and Jean Dorsey.” He chuckles about the time he and Dave headed out and forgot the food and tents. “It’s always interesting going out with Dave. We shot a marmot and roasted half and had the back half hanging on a tree when the game warden showed up.” The conservation officer landed in a helicopter and accused the men of hunting a black bear without the proper tags and permits, and confiscated the marmot. “He was a bit embarrassed when he realized what he had done.” Doug would go out in the mountains with Dave and Jean Dorsey before their guiding season began. “We weren’t really hunting. One time we had 12 dozen eggs when the packhorse
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walked over a bees nest. Once we picked out the egg shells, Jean cooked up a lot of scrambled eggs.” Between her jobs working in the general stores, Donna upgraded her skills and took a bookkeeping and tax preparation course. It was the kind of work she could do from home. Now in her office at Donna’s Place and at home, she still performs bookkeeping tasks for a couple of clients between frying burgers, baking buns, cooking up her delicious soup specials, and serving customers. The cinderblock building across from McLean’s Store has a bit of history. It was built by D’Arcy Christensen and his son, Chuck, in 1987 as the Lucky Flip Laundromat and storage rental facility. Later on Marg Mero,
who followed the pine mushroom pickers to town with her mobile meals on wheels eatery, rented part of the Laundromat for a fast food outlet. She called it Marg’s Take Out and ran it for several years before selling the business to Dawn Benton. Dawn kept the Marg’s Take Out name before shutting down and taking over the Dutchman Restaurant from Bernie Wiersbitzky. Cam Moxon used part of the building for his auto parts business during some of those years. Donna and Doug bought the building and property from D’Arcy Christensen in 2008, and Doug did extensive renovations before they opened up Donna’s Place. “Doug took down the walls and built stairs and we put in all our own chairs, tables, stoves
and equipment,” Donna explains. She opened Donna’s Place on June 26, 2008, one week before the Anahim Lake Stampede. “Not knowing what I was in for Stampede weekend, I had our oldest granddaughter, Chantel, who was only, 13, working for me. It got really hectic and overwhelming at times, but we made it through.” Donna says she learned a lot about what to do and what not to do for the following Stampedes. Of course like any successful business, it is Donna herself that makes the difference. She knows everybody and provides an important service to the community that people need. People appreciate that and her welcoming, efficient demeanour, and her hearty meals.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 43
Out West
Busted leg lands rodeo cowboy in wedded bliss Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 Where does the time go? Dick and Maxine Wright have been married 62 years. It seems like only yesterday that they and their four daughters made their way from Colorado to the Chilcotin seeking a new start and a place to build a ranch. Dick grew up in high altitude country of Grand Lake, Colorado, and Maxine was from Chicago. She came to Colorado on vacation and ended up working for Dick’s mother who had a trading post in the Rocky Mountains. Dick came home with his leg in a cast after breaking his leg in a rodeo, and swears that’s how Maxine managed to catch him. They were married in 1951. Dick came up to Anahim Lake for the first
time in 1957 on a hunch to have a look around, and ran into Lester Dorsey who gave him a brief introduction to the country. Dick had a large livery stable for 50 or 60 horses in Grand Lake, and ran a trail riding and hunting business in the mountains, but the business was starting to change. The game had been shot off after the Second World War, the hunting season reduced, and people were losing interest in going out on pack trips for more than one day. Dick was finding it hard to make a living. One day a man from Texas walked in and asked Dick if he wanted to sell his business, and Dick says he thought about it for two seconds and said, let’s talk. A deal was struck and Dick and Maxine made plans to head for Canada. In the fall of 1958 Dick and Maxine and their four daughters, Pat, Candy, Coleen and
Sage Birchwater photo
Wright family photo
Maxine and Dick Wright moved from Colorado to ranch in the Chilcotin where they have raised their family.
Dick Wright riding a cow at one of the early the Anahim Lake Stampedes.
Debbie headed north for Canada. “Debbie was three months old and three of the girls were in diapers,” Maxine says. When they got to Anahim Lake Lester Dorsey offered them his 16-by18-foot log cabin with
When the loggers went on strike they moved back to Anahim Lake and Dick bought an unbroke workhorse from Lester Dorsey and borrowed a second one and started cutting a bush road into the property
no outhouse and wood cookstove. “It was pretty interesting washing diapers for three kids with that setup,” Maxine says. Dick staked a piece of land ideal for a ranch past the end of the Mor-
rison Meadow Road. It had plenty of water, lots of wild hay meadows, and potential to develop a ranch. In April the family moved down to Bella Coola so Dick could go logging for Andy Gibbs.
they had staked. “We chopped a trail to the property so we could wiggle our way through the pine stumps,” Maxine says. See COLORADO, Page 43
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Out West
Colorado couple finds home on Chilcotin ranch Continued From Page 43 “With kids in diapers we had the willow bushes white with drying diapers all along the trail.” When the Anahim Lake Stampede rolled around, Dick offered their unbroke workhorses for bucking stock in the rodeo, and ended up drawing his own horse for the bronc riding event. The animal was pretty rank and sent Dick flying. He ended up with a serious concussion. “He had double-vision for a while,” Maxine says. “This made it hard for him to tell which tree he was chainsawing down once we got back to clearing the road rightof-way.” Dick’s brother Hank showed up to help him build a log cabin, and they almost had the log work completed when the strike ended and Dick and Hank headed back to Bella Coola to continue logging for Andy Gibbs. That’s when they got the devastating news that the government had denied their application for staked land because they said it was too swampy. Dick and Maxine were discouraged, and when he got a job offer to build farm buildings, homes and apartments in Eltopia, Washington, they moved down there. “We had been in Eastern Washington for about a year when we got a letter from the Canadian government saying they reversed their decision and that we could have the land,” Maxine says. “So we got the land surveyed.” The government only wanted $56 an acre for the 400 acres they applied for, so Dick kept working to put the money together. When the Wrights returned to Anahim Lake in 1963, Dick’s threeand-a-half years experience in the building trade stood him in good stead. “I built a house at Cless Pocket Ranch for Evan Sleaman, a house for Fred Brink in Kleena Kleene, and built Don Baxter’s house and motel and four or five native homes in Anahim Lake, and half a dozen different things around Nimpo
Lake including Ida’s Cafe.” He also started building his own cabin on the west end of Anahim Lake, seven miles out of town. “I worked on it for a couple of years before selling it. Elsey Road was too far for the kids to walk back and forth to school.” Any chance they got, Dick and Maxine went to work building their ranch up the Morrison Meadow Road. Dick cut lumber with Lester Dorsey and finished off the cabin. Then he got an old Cat to build a stumpless trail up to the property. After the girls spent one year in public school the family moved to the ranch for good. The girls did the rest of their schooling by correspondence. “We did everything with horses the first few years,” Dick says. “We cut hay with a horse mower, raked it with a dump rake, piled it in shocks with pitchforks, and stacked it with derrick poles.” They also used the horses to smooth off some of the hummocks in the meadows to make it easier to cut hay. “The first year we put the hay up in shocks then it rained and rained,” remembers Maxine. “Pretty soon the hay was floating.” Building fences was a priority to contain the horses and few head of cattle they started accumulating as they gradually built up a herd. “We got a milk cow to feed our kids, and started right from the beginning,” Dick says. “We didn’t have a dime when we got there. We were broke.” At first they could only put up a limited amount of hay on the wild meadow, but they bought a tractor and started rotovating the rough places. They cleared a big area of willow brush and expanded their hay production more. The West Chilcotin was pretty much a frontier when Dick and Maxine first arrived. The mail came once a month on the freight truck then once every two weeks. Mail day was a pretty big event, Maxine recalls. “People would
congregate at Lester and Mickey Dorsey’s place at Three Circle on mail day. People came from the Blackwater and the Mooney Ranch and would eat, sleep and party. Sometimes it got pretty rough.” Maxine says she often ended up cooking. “It was quite a learning experience.” Dick says the key to making a living in Anahim Lake country was to be inventive. “I worked as a carpenter’s helper, ran small sawmills, hauled gravel, and did odd jobs. I moved my little sawmill around the country and sawed lumber for different people where the logs were.” When Carrier Lumber started operating in 1987, Dick’s was named the prime logging contractor for the 06 and 07 sawmills. “Amazing for us in the middle of nowhere,” Dick says. “All of a sudden here was this mill. A good gravel road was built right up to our ranch.” When the Carrier Lumber formed a threeway partnership with the Ulkatcho First Nation and the community investor group known as CAT Resources, Dick was no longer the prime logging contractor. Instead he worked as a director for CAT Resources. It was Dick who came up with the name, West Chilcotin Forest Products, for the new logging and saw-milling company. He also coined the term CAT Resources for the community shareholder group. “CAT Resources stood for Chilcotin Anahim Tatla,” he explains. Looking back on all the opposition to Carrier Lumber and the waves of pine beetle attack that followed, Dick says all the wood processing that took place is a good thing. “Just think of all the wood that didn’t get wasted.” Maxine says when the kids were old enough to look after the ranch she got a job with the telephone company, helping to run the old telephone switchboard before the system got changed over to dial phones. “There’s a photo of me in the mu-
Wright family photo collection
The Wright daughters Debbie, Candy and Coleen went to Oregon to study for and earn their high school graduation certificates.
There was always something fun happening around the Wright ranch. Over the years the girls dressed up their dogs as humans and trained them to ride their horses in the Anahim Lake Stampede Parade. seum with Hazel Mars and Lora Vaughan,” she laughs. “The phone office was at one end of Hazel’s trailer.” When Candy, Coleen and Debbie were teenagers, they spent a month with their cousins in Oregon to get their GEDs. They only wore western clothes, cowboy hats and riding boots, and were considered unusual by their classmates. “When the girls started talking about their way of life
in Anahim Lake, the newspaper and television people got wind of it and profiled them. They were quite the hit.” Anahim Lake Stampede was a fun time for the kids. Especially the parade. The girls trained their milk cow to wear a saddle, and trained their dogs dressed in costume to ride the milk cow. “Back home the dogs pulled a toboggan to check the haystacks.” Life in Anahim Lake
has been good for Dick and Maxine. “We’ve had a good life with wonderful kids, grandkids and great grandkids,” Maxine says. “Our children learned to be selfsufficient and fit into the world. To see it as it is, not how they wanted it to be.” When they moved to Anahim Lake 55 years ago, she says they weren’t related to anybody. “Now it seems we’re related to half the
country. We’ve got six grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren and we’re expecting two more great grandkids. People thought we were crazy moving out to the bush with four daughters. I wouldn’t trade them for any of those city kids.” Dick says it’s important to take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. “You’ve got to be willing to try something if it comes along.”
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 45
Out West
A winter flight with Cameron Linde
Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 One of the pilots who contributed immensely to the book I wrote last year with Chris Harris, Flyover British Columbia’s Cariboo Chilcotin Coast, was Cameron Linde. Cameron and his wife Joanne live at Springhouse, just a stone’s throw from the Springhouse Air Park, and Cameron has his own airstrip and small hangar next to his house. There he keeps his Piper PA12 airplane that he has owned since his was 15 years old. In January my old friend, Dan Dunaway, was up from Victoria visiting family. Somehow he and Cameron crossed paths, and Cameron offered to take Dan on a winter flight in his skiequipped Piper PA-12, and I got to come along. A PA-12 is a small two-seater plane with the pilot in front and the pas-
senger or passengers in the seat behind. The itinerary of our flight was quite vague. Cameron told Joanne he was going to take us for a spin around Farwell Canyon, a 15 minute jaunt to the west. I had flown there a few years ago with Louie Helbig, but that was in the summer. Once we cleared the ridge that separates Springhouse and the Fraser River, a wide open vista presented itself. Fog enshrouded much of the Fraser far below us, hiding much of the canyon. The great thing about the vantage point from the air, is realizing the proximity of one place to another across the landscape. Usually you think of the place you live more lineally, traveling by road from point A to B. Peering below long stretches of the Fraser River are ice-bound. Further south the river has open water hedged by
Sage Birchwater photos
Dan Dunaway (left) with pilot Cameron Linde before they take off on a winter air tour of the Chilcotin. ice shelves reaching out from either shore. Above us the sky is blue but thick fog blankets the confluence of the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers. This obscures the
course of the Chilcotin River all the way to Farwell Canyon. We catch glimpses of the canyon and switchback roads through the fog, but Cameron flies on.
I have heard many stories of Big Creek Canyon but had never been there. Chris Harris took several spectacular images of it for our book, so I recognized the gorge carved
through the basalt cliffs as Cameron begins to circle the area. We head north leaving the Chilcotin River, and the Chilcotin Highway passes below us,
straight-as-an-arrow as it crosses Hance’s Timber. I remember 30 years ago when this section of the plateau was still thickly timbered, and Hance’s Timber meant trees. We circumvent Alex Graham Mountain where the Forest Service once maintained a fire lookout tower. Back in the 1990s there were a dozen or more lookout towers spread across the region, manned by men and women keeping a watchful eye out for smoke. Now spotter planes and satellites do that work. I was a fire warden then and spent several summers traveling the terrain below us, monitoring forestry campsites for abandoned campfires. We cross over a white frozen expanse and Cameron explains this is a nesting lake for the white pelicans that summer in the Chilcotin. See LINDE, Page 47
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Horsefly
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Gateway to Horsefly River, Quesnel Lake & Horsefly Lake Outdoor adventure from fishing to horseback riding, kayaking to snowmobiling, await you in and around Horsefly. Just a 40 minute drive east of 150 Mile House on Highway 97, Horsefly is a diverse area of hundreds of small lakes and rivers. The more commonly known large lakes, Horsefly and Quesnel, offer opportunities to angle for Kokanee, Dolly Varden, Lake Char and wild stock Rainbows. As you approach Horsefly, you are presented with an enticing panoramic view of the Cariboo Mountains. The miners of the mid 1800’s have long since left this area, but not without leaving their mark. If you’re a history buff, the Jack Lynn Memorial Museum, open during the summer months, offers you a look into what life in Horsefly was like in those days when Harper’s Camp was first established. It wasn’t until the 1930’s that Harper’s Camp officially became Horsefly. While logging and ranching have become the mainstay of people living in and around Horsefly, many of the descendants of the early miners and pioneers still call Horsefly their home. Horsefly is very proud that the community is, and many outdoor activities are, accessible to disabled persons. Every business, the library, the community hall and the museum have ramps. There is also a wheelchair-accessible fishing ramp at Tisdal Lake, east of Horsefly where you can almost be sure to catch a rainbow trout. The interpretive trail at the salmon spawning channels is also accessible for disabled persons. At the other end of this vacation continuum is the Horsefly Provincial Park, located 11km east of Horsefly, a popular destination or base camp location, open from May to October. It offers nicely groomed campsites, a picnic and swimming area, boat launch, trails, nearby laundromat and much more. A variety of accommodations are available: resorts, B&Bs, guest ranches, a motel, as well as seasonal camping at Forest Service spots or the Provincial Park. Horsefly offers great shopping, whether for groceries, hardware, gas (regular and diesel), propane, a light or Offering Rural, Recreational, Ranch & Commercial Properties in the East Cariboo Lakes District.
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full meal, alcohol, souvenirs hand crafted by local artisans, camping supplies, fishing and hunting licences, stamps or even a piece of property - bare or built up. The Horsefly River turns crimson as millions of Sockeye return from a life’s journey that took them far out into the ocean and back into their home waters to spawn. Horsefly celebrates the return of the salmon every autumn on the Labour Day weekend. There are educational displays on the riverbank, and lots of entertainment. There is an interpretive trail that goes around the entire salmon spawning channels that is wheelchair accessible. Sockeye return to the Horsefly River every year, but it is only every four years that they return in peak numbers. We invite you to visit and expect to stay a while. Find out more about Horsefly by visiting our website: www.horsefly.bc.ca or for a more complete history of Horsefly, www.harperscamp.ca. Once you’ve been here, you will return! Call 250-620-3440.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 47
Out West
Linde reads ice and tracks in the snow like a book Continued From Page 45 It’s by far the largest lake of a dozen nearby
lakes dotting the region. We spot the odd ranch house below, and feeding grounds for cattle. Tracks
Sage Birchwater photos
Heading west over the Fraser River.
in the snow betray the winter activity. Animal tracks, snow machine tracks, roads, logging patches. Cameron has a destination in mind, and I lose track of where we are. I ask if we have reached Chezacut yet, and Cameron chuckles. It’s a long ways yet, he points to the horizon. Suddenly Cameron banks sharply and a long skinny lake comes into view below us. “He’s going to land,” Dan says. You can see ski-plane tracks on the lake surface in the snow. Cameron keeps a watchful eye for signs of overflow, a wintertime bane for bush pilots. If you were to sink through the crust of snow and get bogged in the layer of water that collects on the ice surface below the snow, you could easily get stranded. Forty-five years of piloting the skies of the Cariboo-Chilcotin has equipped Cameron well. He is wise to the ways of the country. He can read
the ice conditions and tracks in the snow like a book. We land without incident on Nazko Lake, a long skinny widening of the Nazko River as it flows northwards towards the Blackwater River west of Quesnel. I’ve been here on the ground before too, years ago, monitoring campsites for the forest service as a fire warden. We stretch our legs and trudge across the snow, past an ice-fishing hole. The fresh winter air is invigorating. Nazko Lakes is a provincial park established as a canoe paddling refuge at the height of land separating the Chilcotin River and the Blackwater River drainage. Returning here in season with my canoe is on my to-do list. The flight home seems shorter as we head directly to the Fraser River. Below us are thousands of hectares of wilderness lakes, willow swamps, rivers, meadows, logging clearcuts and roads. We
Ariel view of the Springhouse air park where the trio began their winter flight over the Chilcotin to Nazko Lake. pass by the back side of the Dome, a basalt plug noticeable on the skyline from Highway 20, north of Riske Creek and Becher’s Prairie. It’s funny how mountains take on such a different persona depending on the angle you view them from. As we approach the federal military reserve, Cameron circles a home-
stead. “That’s the Three Against the Wilderness cabin of Eric Collier,” Dan relays to me. Soon the Fraser River is in view and the familiar landscape of Sheep Creek Hill and the bridge crossing the province’s major artery slips below us. Just over the ridge is Springhouse and we are home again. Cameron circles and
lands effortlessly on the airpark strip where I have left my truck. Just another day for him, seizing the moment on a glorious January day, to show his friends the sights. A memorable day for Dan and me as we marvel at the wonders of this place I’ve called home for 40 years, and Cameron’s generosity to show us around.
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Out West
Boise Williams: born in a meadow along the road Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 Boise Williams was born during Priest Time near Redstone in 1948 while his family was camping and waiting for the Chilko salmon run to make its way up the river. “I was born along the road, this side of Stuart’s store,” Boise says. “There’s a little meadow on the south side of the road, and I was born right there. Then the next day they took me to Redstone to get baptised. I forget who the priest was. It was probably Father (John) Hennessy.” It was quite uncommon for the priest to baptise a newborn. Usually children were older than that because the priest only visited the area once a year holding weeklong festivities known as Priest Time in the various native communities across the region. This was a tradition started by Father Francois Ma-
rie Thomas in the early 1900s when he would spend six weeks on the trail every spring visiting his charges as soon as there was enough green grass to feed his horses. He’d take care of a year’s worth of church business in each community, baptising all the children born the previous year, blessing the graves of all who had departed, and performing marriage ceremonies for the betrothed. He’d start out at Nazko, west of Quesnel, and continue west up the Blackwater River in a big loop through Kluskus, Ulkatcho and Anahim Lake, before swinging east through the Chilcotin and stopping at Redstone Flats, Anaham Flats and Toosey. Eventually he’d make it home to St. Joseph’s Mission near Williams Lake. “Long ago natives would camp out for the summer,” Boise explains. “My family was hunting and waiting for the fish to come up to
Sage Birchwater collection
Formal portrait of Alyetta and Eagle Lake Henry in the early days. Boise Williams recalls visits with the couple. Siwash Bridge. I was born on July 28, and the next day they brought me over to Redstone Flats. The Father was there and I was baptised the next day. “My dad said it was
Priest Day, and people used to come from all over the country and camp out together. Dad was saying sometimes people were baptised at 20 years old.” After Boise got bap-
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liams, and he grew up in the heart of the Chilcotin travelling between Redbrush, Tatlayoko Lake and Nemiah Valley. “A red-headed guy leading two packhorses came into Nemiah Valley, and he was my greatgrandfather,” Boise explains. “His name was James Elkins. He was an Irishman. Long ago my great grandmother didn’t have a husband, and that’s where my grandmother Annie came from. She had reddishorange hair.” Contrary to the fate of most aboriginal children who were forced into residential schools during the 1950s, Boise and his siblings were able to attend public school in Tatlayoko Valley. “I heard pretty bad stuff about the mission, but we went to school with the white kids and quite a few natives in Tatlayoko. Some of them were half native.” See, RECALLING Page 49
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for a couple of days. “I think I had to help my brother get a moose out of the bush and I couldn’t be there that day, so I told Carl to just drop my cheque off at Konni Lake Store.” Two days later he went to pick up his cheque and asked store proprietor, Dixie Murdoch, if Buchholtz had left a cheque for him. She said there was nothing there for him. A couple days later he went in again, and this time Dixie apologized profusely. One of her store staff had accidentally given the cheque to the wrong Boise, and even cashed the cheque for him. Fortunately the “wrong Boise” signed his own last name on the back of the cheque, which didn’t match the “Boise Williams” on the front of the cheque, so the error was traced and Boise got his money. Boise was the seventh of 14 children born to Mabel and Eugene Wil-
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tised and his parents brought him back to the camp, his uncle, Casimir, asked them what they named him. When they told him, John, he wasn’t impressed. “Whoever went with my mom to the priest must have told him my name was John. My uncle said he wanted them to take me back the next day and change my name to Boise. So they took me back again and had my name changed. That’s why my birth certificate says Boise John on it. They put the Boise in front of John.” While Boise is an uncommon name, there are a handful of other Boises in the Chilcotin. “There’s Boise Haines and Boise Cooper, and Alex Paxton told me he had a brother named Boise.” Boise was working for Carl Buchholtz in Nemiah Valley doing some cement work building a foundation when he had to go and help his brother
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 49
Out West
Recalling the early days with Eagle Lake Henry Continued From Page 48 Boise was eight years old when he started school in 1956. It helped that his older sisters Julianna, Agnes and Catherine were there first, staying in Harry Haynes’ old house. Then Gabby and Pete Baptiste, the sons-in-law of Eagle Lake Henry, built a cabin in Tatlayoko so their children could go to school there too. “We camped at their place and Dad started to build a house for us in Tatlayoko too,” Boise says. “I stayed there until I finished school. I was 14 when I quit school. I finished Grade 8 then I had enough. Later on I took Grade 9 correspondence in Nemiah Valley.” He says the difficult thing about attending school in Tatlayoko was the lack of support for the teachers to help the slower learners. “There was one classroom with 42 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and no
teacher’s aides.” Eagle Lake Henry was an influential figure in Boise’s life. He lived on the east side of the Chilko River at a place called Mountain House with his wife Alyetta, and was a force to be reckoned with. He lived in both worlds – native and white – and mastered both cunningly. He was a deadly shot with a rifle and made his fortune trapping before getting into ranching and raising magnificent horses. He was an astute businessman, despite not knowing how to read or write. Henry’s mother was Tsilhqot’in and his father was Dakelh (Southern Carrier), and at birth he was given the name Alexis Sill. Somewhere along the way Henry opted for “whiteman rights” and voluntarily gave up his aboriginal status. That’s when he adopted the name, Eagle Lake Henry. “I’m a whiteman the same as you,” he used to
Sage Birchwater photo
Boise and his wife Lina Williams at their home in Tsi Del Del (Redstone). tell his friend Bill Bliss. White rights allowed Eagle Lake Henry to own Crown land, purchase alcohol, and vote in federal and provincial elections like any other Canadian citizen. Boise says Eagle Lake Henry was his father, Eugene Sammy’s uncle. “We used to call him Grampa Henry.”
Boise says Eugene and his family lived around Redbrush for 12 years hunting squirrels and going back and forth between Redbrush and Nemiah Valley. “One day we stopped at Eagle Lake Henry’s place and he invited us to stay overnight. He asked my dad when he was going to stop moving around
like a coyote, and pointed out a nice place close to Brittany Creek where he could build a ranch.” The next day Henry took Eugene by horseback to look at the property where Brittany Creek flowed into the Chilko River. It was known as the Chaucer Place. Eugene liked what he saw and Henry of-
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fered to help him get title to the land. “He took my dad to Clinton because there were no government offices in Williams Lake at that time. Dad didn’t know very much English at all. They went into the government building and Henry said this is where you do business. They went in there and were talking to two guys. Every once in a while Eagle Lake Henry would ask my dad, ‘You understand what they’re talking about?’ Dad said no. “When they were done, Eagle Lake Henry told Dad, ‘Now we’ve got you some land. You’ve got a place now.’ That’s when my dad settled down and got a little ranch, raised cattle, horses and his family.” Eugene named his new place Nusibaghilin (Noos-ae-bay-leen), which in Tsilhqot’in means “water running into a bucket.” Boise has many stories of growing up
around Eagle Lake Henry. In the spring of 1967 Eagle Lake Henry had grown old and feeble. His first wife Alyetta had passed away, and so had his second wife, Millie, and he was living alone at Mountain House. Boise was staying in Nemiah Valley with his aunt Lucy, when he suddenly got the urge to go and visit Henry. “I told Lucy I’ve got to go see my grandfather Eagle Lake Henry. So I saddled up and away I went.” Boise stayed overnight with his parents in Upper Elkin Creek and continued the next day over the mountain to Captain George Town, to Burnt Stable and finally to Mountain House. “I got to Mountain House and walked into Eagle Lake Henry’s kitchen but nobody was there. I went into the living room and he was lying on the couch. See HENRY’S, Page 50
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Out West
Cowboys end adventure with back country ride home Walter Anchikoski Casual Country 2013 My friend Bill and I were working on the Alkali Ranch. We were both 17 at the time, that’s 66 years ago. We had our own horses so one day we decided to ride home on horseback to the Okanagan valley. We also bought a packhorse for the trip. It was a very sad day leaving the people we worked with, also the friends we made with the local First Nation. The dances at the reserve, the penny-anti poker games in their homes, the practice riding bronks at the old Stampede corrals! Many of them gathered to wish us goodbye. Bert Johnson even bought a mickey of rye for $30, so we all had a farewell drink. The morning that we started out on our journey home was warm and beautiful. We rode on past the lake and took off on a trail over a pass. We were informed by the natives that this was a short cut that they used in going to their meadows. Encountering snow at the higher elevations, we kept to the trail by following the sleigh tracks. On one south slope that the snow had melted and some green grass was showing we observed a band of wild horses. The stallion’s tail and mane were dragging on the ground. He stood on a knoll and challenged us as we rode by. Descending off the mountain we came upon a large meadow. This we were told by Charlie Twan, before
leaving, was called the Place Pasture owned by the Diamond S of Dog Creek. Spotting the log ranch building across the meadow we rode over there. A couple who were looking after the place and feeding a bunch of cows greeted us. We were treated to a good moose stew supper and after caring for our horses we visited by the light of a coal oil lamp. The bunks they offered us to sleep on were warm and comfortable. Sleep came quickly. Awaking next morning to a good bacon and egg breakfast, thanking them, we saddled our horses and continued on our journey. We headed south and east towards Clinton on an old wagon trail. Around noon we came upon a large lake. At the outlet of this lake was an encampment of First Nations people. Not recognizing any of them, after exchanging greetings they told us they were from the Canoe Creek Reserve, and were here to do their spring fishing. The fish they were catching and smoking were rainbow trout. Some of the trout must have weighed five pounds. They had an elaborate set of wiers and traps consisting of sticks driven into the lake bottom near the mouth of the creek that flowed out of the lake. It seems that the trout were spawners. The smoked fish tasted real good as they gave us a few to take along. Moose were everywhere, some cows had
even started to calf. This was ideal country for them as scattered through the pine trees were many small lakes and swamps. From time to time we saw where some of the hay meadows were cut and hay stacked. Towards evening at one of these sites we noticed a log cabin with smoke coming out the pipe chimney. A native came out and to our surprise we had seen him at Alkali. He invited us in. Inside was his wife and a couple of young children. He said there were two more but they were at the Mission Residential school. His wife made us supper, moose meat boiled, and bannock and tea – sure tasted good after the long ride. The bunks they had were made of small peeled poles covered with hay. I can remember seeing a sack of flour, a can of salt, one of tea and sugar, but not much more in the
line of groceries. Outside there was moose meat hanging from the trees. He went out and unsaddled our horses, fed them and insisted we stay the night with them. We thanked him and did. They had many squirrel pelts, also some beaver that they trapped hanging from rafters. A coal-oil lantern is all they had for light. We had our own bedrolls and slept on hay on the floor. At daybreak we woke up to find out that our horses were already fed and that breakfast was just about ready. Fried moose meat and bannock with tea to drink. They lived very simply off the land and appeared very content and happy. We thanked them and started out on our third day. No roads or clear cuts like now. How beautiful it was to ride through the forests. We rode along the Jack pine plateau past Meadow Lake and arrived at the old Cariboo Highway
near 59 Mile House, then along the highway until we hit Clinton. The livery stable was on the high side of the road across from the old cemetery. At the stable we had our horses looked after. They just loved the oats as they only got meadow hay for the last couple of days. Bill and I went up town, got a hotel room, had a much needed bath, after which we ate a restaurant meal, and later taking in a picture show in the hall. Yes this was the hall that everyone up country talked about. This was the place where some of the young cowboys off the ranches rode for many miles to take in the annual Clinton Ball. Leaving Clinton we proceeded along the highway (if one could call it that, it was just a plain old gravel road). Cache Creek was just a ranch and a couple of shacks then. But it was the junction where one could go south
to Vancouver or east to Kamloops. We struck out for Kamloops. By night fall we were at Six Mile ranch. The people there were surprised to hear what we were doing and insisted that we spend the night. They told us to use the bunk house across the road (which is still barely standing today). As we approached it we heard an unfamiliar noise that startled us. There curled up on the porch was a huge rattlesnake. Hurrying back to the ranch house to tell them about it, but they were not surprised and sent a cowboy out to do away with the snake. When we got back there it was gone. Somehow we did not sleep to well that night. We were riding anywhere from 30 to 40 miles a day. The horses were starting to get leg weary. On the fifth day our journey took us along the highway following above the Thompson River. It was very hot and the sage brush was in bloom, sending off an aroma. The bunch grass was really growing and we gave our horses every chance to feed on it. As we approached Dead Mans creek we noticed a wooden flume along the hillside. It was starting to deteriorate. Apparently some people emigrated from England and the dream was to turn the benches above the river into orchards. The remains of apple trees were here and there and were in bloom. However, the project failed. We crossed the Thompson River on the
rode all the way to Eddie’s Upper Place. I was looking at you all the way. Then you stay overnight with your parents and came to my house. You saved my life. The third bell was going to ring.” Henry told Boise he couldn’t eat anymore, and was waiting to die. “‘Go cook for yourself,’” he told me. So I cooked for myself. “‘You can stay overnight, but I could die any time,’” he said. “‘It’s up to you. You can stay
overnight or you can go back and tell your parents.’” Boise finished his food and got back on his horse and rode several hours to Upper Elkin Creek to let his family know that Henry was dying. “When somebody tells you something like that, you don’t feel right. You think about it. I said, I’ll go back. That same night I got back. As soon as I walked through the door I told my parents Henry’s
not doing too good, that he might not make the night. The next morning my mom and dad left for Mountain House.” Boise says Henry’s neighbour, Jack Casselman found Henry before his parents got there, and Casselman was there when they arrived. “Then Casselman and my dad drove off to Tatla Lake and phoned for an airplane to pick Henry up.” Gerhard Walter was ranching at Alexis Creek
when he got a call from Bobby Blatchford asking if he could fly out to Henry’s Crossing and pick up Eagle Lake Henry at the range cabin at Choelquoit Lake. “I flew Dick Church’s four-seater Taylorcraft airplane over there and Eagle Lake Henry was sitting in front of the cabin all by himself,” Walter says. “I picked him up and flew him to the airport in Williams Lake and the ambulance took
Liz Twan photo
Alkali Lake Ranch cowboys bring in a herd of horses for shelter closer to home.
old wooden bridge that was right near the water. The steel bridge was in the process of being built. We were lucky that the old bridge was still in as our horses would never have crossed on the iron mesh of the new one. They were used to cattle guards. On through Savona we rode, then up over the mountain, not where the road is now but much farther inland. By evening we made camp just west of the Cherry Creek Ranch. This was the noisiest camp! We made the sad mistake of camping across the road from a sheep corral. There were several thousand ewes lambing, the bleating all night echoed in our ears. No sleep at all, being not used to it! On through Kamloops, the traffic was picking up but nothing really to what it is now. The road then to the Okanagan went through Barnhartvale. Where we made camp. Next day we rode passed Monte Lake and reached Falkland. We stopped at Falkland Ranch and they told us to roll out our bedrolls in a hay barn. A couple of pack rats kept checking in to see who the intruders were. Sleep again was sporadic. Finally on the eighth day after passing the Salmon River area and on down the canyon road through Enderby we reached Grindrod our home. A distance of 350 miles, a feat that brings back many memories. The horses and us were tired and weary.
Henry’s last ride was by helicopter to hospital Continued From Page 49 ‘You kind of saved my life,’ he told me.” Eagle Lake Henry was in a delirious state. “He told me the first bell had rung, and when you hear three bells you die. He said a bunch of people were talking to him, then the second bell went. ‘I was just waiting for the third bell when you showed up,’ he told me. ‘You saved my life.’” Boise says he was amazed when Eagle Lake
Henry told him he knew he was coming. Then his hair stood up on the back of his neck when Henry continued speaking. “When you left Nemiah, I was looking at you riding your horse. I was looking at you all the way. First you left Lucy’s house and stopped at William Setah’s house. Then you went again and stopped at Konni Lake Naghtaneqed. You stay there for a while, then you took off again. Then you
him to the hospital. Three days later he died.” Boise says he used to drop in and visit Eagle Lake Henry lots of times after he lost his second wife, Millie. “He was lonely all by himself with his four horses, two cats and one dog,” Williams says. “That’s all he had left. He liked having somebody around to talk to. He’d tell me stories... ‘You’re not in a hurry are you?’ Nope. ‘Stay overnight...’”
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Bella Coola
Sage Birchwater photo
52 - CASUAL COUNTRY 2013
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Bella Coola
A hatchery worker shows the shows Chinook salmon fry from the Atnarko River that are raised at the hatchery and will be released back into the Atnarko River after having their adipose fins clipped and being tagged for tracking purposes.
Rory Villars (left), Louise Hilland, Shawny Evans and Diane Robson clip the adipose fins and tag Chinook salmon fry that will be released back into the Atnarko River to start their journey to the Pacific Ocean where they will remain for four years until returning to the Atnarko to spawn.
Bella Coola hatchery open for summer tours
Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 One of the great gems in the heart of the Bella Coola Valley is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Snootli Creek Hatchery located on Snootli Creek just west of Hagensborg. The hatchery breathes life into the Pacific salmon fishery, supporting fish stocks from Terrace to Rivers Inlet, and benefiting the sports, commercial and aboriginal fisheries. All three groups contribute support to specific programs run by the hatchery. This Japanese-style hatchery, built by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in 1978, had an initial capacity of 10 million eggs. It was designed to increase adult chum salmon returns to the Bella Coola River system by 160,000 fish annually. Locally, chum or dog salmon, are considered the bread and butter fish of the fishing industry. Expansion over the last 20 years has increased the hatchery’s capacity to eight million chum, three million Chinook, 500,000 coho, and one million sockeye. In addition to that, the hatchery is responsible for maintaining the pink salmon spawning chan-
nel on the Atnarko River inside Tweedsmuir Park. Snootli Hatchery is classified as a satellite hatchery because all fish raised there come from sites removed from the hatchery itself. Each species of salmon has its own rearing requirements which occur at different times of year as they go through their life cycle phases. The hatchery is geared to emulating the natural cycles the fish experience in the wild. On week days, Monday to Friday, the hatchery offers public tours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. We visit the hatchery in early May, and Haakon Hammer is our tour guide. Haakon grew up in the Bella Coola Valley, and started working in the hatchery as a high school student. Now, at 27 years old, he’s a knowledgeable fisheries technician who followed his passion for fish to Nanaimo’s University of Vancouver Island fisheries and agriculture program. Our first stop is a shed containing half a dozen aerated tubs each containing 30,000 to 40,000 Wannock chinook fry. These are the biggest salmon on the B.C. coast. The world record 126-pound chinook came from the Wannock River in Rivers Inlet,
Sage Birchwater photos
Snootli Hatchery manager John Willis outside the hatchery in Bella Coola where visitors are welcome during the summer. Haakon states. “The size of those fish is ridiculous. Just massive.” In another shed half a dozen hatchery workers, Catherine Moody, Diane Robson, Shawny Evans, Colleen Gabriel, Rory Villars and Louise Hilland are clipping adipose fins from two-inch-long Atnarko chinook fry, and implanting coded wire tags into the cartilage of their noses. Their skilled hands can process
15,000 fish in a day. Once the fish head to the sea the adults are caught as far away as Alaska, so the information on the tag is an important management tool to determine the fish’s origin. Fishery managers can trace what hatchery it came from, its brood stock, river of origin, timing and migration through the various fisheries, contribution to the
fisheries, and rate of survival. The missing adipose fins let fishermen know they have caught a hatchery fish, and the head is turned in so the tag can be recovered and viewed through a microscope. Heading to an outdoor pen, Haakon explains the intricacies of a salmon’s life cycle. “Each fish looks the way it does for a reason,” he says. “Fry growing up in the river have parr marks, or light and dark banding on their sides to camouflage them from predators. As the fish grow into yearling smolts and are ready to move into the deeper water in the river or ocean, they become dark on top and light on the bottom.” He explains how these markings protect the fish from predators. Looking up towards the surface the belly is light, and looking down the dark back blends in with the dark water. Thanks to funding and volunteer participation from the Central Coast Fisherman’s Protective Association (CCFPA), the hatchery has a small coho program enhancing the Saloompt River and other tributaries of the Bella Coola system. “We got six or seven live female coho from the Saloompt,” Haakon explains. “Our goal was
30,000 eggs.” Coho are raised to yearling smolts to avoid competition between wild and hatchery fish at the fry stage during the year they need to rear in fresh water before migrating to the ocean. As well, survival from release to adult is increased with a smolt release. “The 2011 brood Saloompt coho will be released in a couple of weeks,” Haakon says. Besides its important work rearing salmon for the Pacific fishery and conserving stocks, Haakon says education is also an important function of the hatchery. “I first got interested in salmonids in the classroom,” he says. Snootli Hatchery staff work with the Community Involvement Division, assisting with the classroom incubation program where 50 eyed coho salmon eggs are delivered to schools. There the eggs hatch and the fry are raised to the release stage in the classrooms. Then whenever possible, the children and DFO staff release them into the appropriate streams where the adult fish were captured. Haakon says it was his summer job feeding fish at the Snootli Hatchery that got him hooked on a career in fisheries.
“It’s really important for students to have access to fun summer jobs like working in the hatchery where you have the opportunity to learn so much.” As a fisheries student at Vancouver Island University, Haakon says he was particularly intrigued with diseases and parasites that affect the salmon. He says this is especially important when rearing sockeye. “There are several key components of biosecurity including adult screening and egg disinfection at plant, discarding eggs from highly infected females, use of well water that is free from pathogens, use of cooler water to reduce proliferation of diseases, strict fish culture practices to reduce stress, and segregation between species. He says sockeye are more prone to certain diseases than the other salmon species, so as the eggs are stripped from the female sockeye, the fish are sampled for the presence of IHN (Infectious Hæmopoietic Necrosis) and BKD (Bacterial Kidney Disease). “The eggs from each female are then kept segregated from all others until the fry are ponded.” See SNOOTLI, Page 53
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Bella Coola
Snootli Hatchery a gem for sport and commercial fisheries Continued From Page 52 Haakon has tales of adventure harvesting adult chinook salmon from nearby Nusatsum River. It’s a 30-minute drive to the river from the hatchery, and a 10 to 15-minute walk from the road down to the stream bed. That’s the easy part. “Once an adult fish is snared, you put it in a water backpack and hoof it back up the steep trail as quickly as possible. All the while the tail is slapping you on the back of the head,” Haakon says. “But it’s fun.” The adult fish are brought back to the hatchery and held for two or three weeks until the females are ripe, then the eggs are harvested and combined with milt from the males. Fertilization happens almost instantly. Fertilized eggs are placed in upwelling bulk incubators known
as Atkins cells, and supplied with a constant flow of aerated well water until they reach the eyed-egg stage. Then they are placed in vertical stack incubators or Heath trays to complete their development. Haakon points out that the primary and secondary incubation are different for each species. John Willis, manager of the Snootli Hatchery since Russ Hilland retired, oversees a staff of 10 full-time hatchery employees and a dozen or so casual workers who do a wide range of seasonal jobs throughout the year like clipping and tagging, eggtake, filling sandbags, habitat restoration, hydraulic sampling and stock assessment. Willis says the Pacific Salmon Commission has funded a one-year program to allow for extended rearing of Atnarko chinook salmon, where half a million fry
Fisheries technician Haakon Hammer nets a sample of older smolts raised for a year in the Snootli Hatchery at Bella Coola.
Sage Birchwater photos
Haakon Hammer points out large gravel in the rearing channel at the Snootli Hatchery which is designed to provide shelter for eggs and young fish as they grow.
are reared to yearlings and then released. “The intent is to
boost production above the present two million sub-yearling smolts that
have been the mainstay of Snootli’s releases,” he says. “This is an
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experimental program undertaken to help increase the returns of
chinook to the Atnarko River.” The Snootli Hatchery is a community resource where several organizations have a stake in supporting a range of programs through the Community Involvement Program of DFO. Nuxalk First Nation funds the Bella Coola Sockeye program. Sports fishing lodges and the Wuikinuxv (Oweekeno) First Nation supply funding and on-the-ground technicians for the Wannock Chinook and Johnston Coho enhancement program. The Central Coast Fisherman’s Protective Association pays for the summer tour guides at the hatchery and the coho program. The hatchery also works with the Community Involvement Program to host the semiannual Coho Festival in September and assists with Oceans Day events (look for one next year).
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Out West
Clarence Hall survives life and death cougar attack Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 Clarence Hall turned 88 years old this June, and he still sports the felted hat with tooth marks in it that he was wearing 13 years ago when he was attacked by a cougar. “You won’t find too many winter hats with cougar tooth prints in it,” Clarence says casually over lunch in the Co-op cafe in downtown Bella Coola. It’s a miracle he is alive, and even more remarkable how well he has healed from the ordeal that required three hours of surgery, more than 100 stitches, and four days in hospital. Less than a kilometre away from the cafe is where he confronted the big cat on Jan. 24, 2000. It was 10 a.m. in the morning and game warden, Keith Rande, had asked for Clar-
ence’s help in tracking down a problem cougar that had killed a dog in the Nuxalk section of the townsite. Clarence is a hunter of some renown. Between 1984 and 2010, he and his son, David, have taken out 32 cougars from the Bella Coola Valley, and though he was 74 years old at the time, Rande knocked on Clarence’s door to ask for help tracking down the rogue animal. “David and I are under signed contract with the Ministry of Environment to work with the conservation officers and the police to protect the general public from attacks of wild animals,” Clarence says. It was minus four degrees Celsius on that January morning when Clarence made his way to the home of Cecilia Mack near Tatsquan Creek where her dog Kiko had been killed
by a cougar in the wee hours of the night before. “I followed her son Barry to the basement where he showed me his dog, killed by one canine tooth puncture to its skull.” He says Barry informed him that the attack occurred at 2 a.m. and that he had fired three shots at the cougar in the dark and thought he might have hit it. Then the cougar ran off into the bushes. “I now considered my options,” Clarence explains. “I felt it was best to leave my 30.06 rifle in my locked vehicle because I wasn’t hunting. I was waiting for Keith Rande, another hunter, John Willis, and my grandson, Ben Smart, with six hunting hound dogs to arrive. So I decided to scout out the best route for the hunting party to take.” Due to treacherous ice conditions on the
creek and open pockets of water, he decided it would be best not to have the dogs or hunting party cross the ice. As he surveyed the conditions Clarence turned his head and saw an adult cougar not more than 15 metres away at the base of a spruce tree. He quickly retraced his steps toward Cecilia Mack’s residence, and had decided to get in his vehicle and wait for the rest of the hunting party to arrive. “I was within 60 feet of my vehicle when something struck me on my neck below my left ear. It felt like being struck by a baseball bat. Within a split second I was pulled fully backwards onto my back. I didn’t know what hit me, but I felt a warm trickle of blood filling my left ear and running down my neck.” He says the four
large canine teeth of the cougar were fully embedded in the muscles of his neck. With his head pinned to the ground, he saw the cougar out of the corner of his left eye. Then the cougar proceeded to shake its head, which is the normal way for a predator to kill its prey. He says a voice spoke to him, “Clarence, this cougar is going to kill you.” Clarence credits the presence of the Holy Spirit within him for making all his mental faculties extremely sharp and alert. “I was reminded that the Holy Spirit is a billion times faster than a cougar.” Realizing that he had only seconds to live, Clarence was reminded what someone had told him if he was ever attacked by a dog. “If you place your hand behind the bottom canine teeth you will render the animal
helpless.” He immediately placed his right hand over the lower jaw of the cougar. “My thumb, forefinger, and index finger were behind the canine teeth. I very easily pushed downwards and released the bottom canine teeth from my neck. I pushed upwards, and released the upper canine teeth as well.” He envisioned the cougar’s front claws ripping his belly open, so with his right hand he pulled the animal’s head, neck and shoulder over his chest, rendering the front claws useless as he pinned them to his chest. “I instantly threw my left arm around the cougar’s neck and shoulder.” Throughout the fight Clarence kept calling for help, not knowing if anyone was within hearing distance. “I was very sur-
prised how I had managed to control both the teeth and front claws, however, my right hand was being chewed to pieces.” He came up with a strategy to release his right hand from the cougar’s mouth and put his right arm around the animal’s neck and turn its nose into the snow and apply all the pressure he could to its head until it quit breathing. But that didn’t happen. When he released pressure on the cougar’s lower jaw, it immediately began attacking the top of his head. After striking and biting Clarence’s head a couple of times, it seemed the cougar spoke to him in plain English: “You’re the toughest critter I’ve ever attacked during all my six years on Planet Earth!” See SCARS Page 55
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Bella Coola
Scars remain in hat and head
Continued from Page 54 Again he felt the cougar speak to him: “This is a life and death struggle and only one of us will survive!” “I answered, ‘I will survive.’ End of conversation.” At that moment Barry Mack came on the scene with his .22 calibre Hornet rifle. At a distance of 12 inches from Clarence’s head he fired four shots. The fourth shot struck the cougar in the spine and immediately Clarence felt it collapse. “I tried moving my head and the top right canine tooth was still stuck in the skin of my skull. Placing my hands on either side of the cougar’s face, I lifted the tooth out of my head.” At a distance of
eight inches from his face, Clarence says he looked into the face of the most beautiful animal in North America. “Momentarily I had a genuine sadness for this beautiful creature.” With blood dripping from his right hand, head and neck, Clarence made his way to his locked car, only to discover his keys had been lost in the snow during the struggle. He envisioned walking to the hospital several blocks away, when Chris King drove up with the passenger door of his pickup truck open, and told him to get in. At the hospital doctors spent three hours cleaning his wounds and sewing him up. “It took more than 100 stitches, both inside and outside for all the wounds to be
sewn up,” Clarence says. “I spent four days in the hospital and have to thank Dr. Ray McIlwain and the entire staff of the hospital for all their efforts, care and support.” On the second day of his hospital stay, Clarence says the hospital administrator, George Karaki, came in and told him he had just seen the female cougar that had attacked him, and said she had shiny, sharp teeth. “My reply was, of course she did. I had just polished them for her.” Thirteen years after his attack, Clarence’s wounds have healed and his scars are barely noticeable. Despite receiving serious damage to the knuckles of the middle finger of his right hand that were crushed by the cougar’s jaws,
Clarence is relieved that his finger has gained mobility. “I function normally even with these little impairments. I didn’t want to be left with a Trudeau salute.” He points to a collapsed blood vessel on his right forearm which he says dried up and disappeared due to the pressure he applied to the cougar’s neck in the attempt to choke it to death. Though the cougar that attacked him was young, it had porcupine quills in its mouth and paws. “The poor thing was starving to death. Due to numerous wolves that had moved into the valley, the deer population was very low. Deer are the cougar’s traditional food and the wolves had taken their toll.”
Sage Birchwater photo
Clarence Hall points to the cougar tooth marks on his winter felt hat that was partly responsible for saving his life.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 57
Bella Coola
From sky to the sea, retired pilot to set sail
Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 After piloting helicopters for 35 years, mostly in the Bella Coola Valley, Rob Skelly decided to hang up his rotor wings last September and retire. Now he’s focussed on a new passion, completing the 39-foot, steelhulled sailboat he’s been working on for 10 years, and heading to the open seas. Skelly had done a lot of travelling before he got accepted into helicopter flight training school at Canadore College in North Bay, Ontario in 1976. It’s not a job path for everyone as evidenced by the 750 people who applied to the program, only to have that number whittled down to 120 who were interviewed. Out of that number, only 15 people were selected for training, with the ex-
pectation that a further two or three would drop out. “You have to have a lot of self-confidence to be the one in charge at the pointy end of the stick,” Skelly says. At 29 years old, he was one of the oldest members in the pilot training class. He already had a degree in zoology from Massey University in New Zealand, and had worked for a year in Africa before attending the flight school. He says his job brought him to Bella Coola in 1979, where he started flying for Transwest Helicopters. In March of 1985 when Transwest went out of business, Skelly became the Bella Coola base manager for Vancouver Island Helicopters (VIH) for 15 years. In January 2001 he went to work as a line pilot for West Coast Helicopters until his retirement.
Over the years Skelly accumulated more than 15,000 hours flying time on a range of rotor-wing craft, including the Bell 47, Hughes 500, Bell 206 Jet-Ranger, and most recently the Eurocopter AStar. After a slight mishap back in 1978 with only 338 hours to his credit, Skelly flew accident-free for just shy of 15,000 hours. “I would have liked to have reached 15,000 hours. It would have been a nice goal.” However Skelly, who turned 66 this year, has learned not to push his luck. “In 35 years I haven’t hurt anybody, and I want to keep it that way.” Flying a helicopter in the precipitous terrain of the Central Coast was special for Skelly. “I love the grandeur of the mountains,” he says. “I see it like most people don’t. I get a thrill out of a pas-
senger going ‘Wow!’ It awakens me to appreciate this region on a world level. Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate how much this place stands out.” Skelly says one of the guides for Bella Coola Helisports, who has done ski and movie productions around the globe, and set up safety programs for the big camps in the Himalayas, claims the mountains of Bella Coola rival those anywhere in the world, including the Himalayas. “The spectacular views just 10 minutes from the Bella Coola airport are breath-taking and jawdropping,” Skelly says. “Summer and winter.” He chuckles over the great quote he received from a ski client he flew for Bella Coola Helisports. “Your office sucks!” See SPOILED, Page 58
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Rob Skelly puts the finishing touches on his 39-foot sailboat, the Pauline Claire, named in memory of his daughter.
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Bella Coola
Spoiled bottle of wine helps helicopter pilot save a life Contiuned From Page 57 While the scenery and landscape around Bella Coola is spectacular, Skelly humbly says the work is routine like a glorified taxi service. “You want to make sure your clients get to where they want to go.” In 35 years he can only remember 14 people getting sick. He attributes this to his own relaxed state of mind while operating the controls. “A relaxed pilot spreads the feeling of confidence to the people flying with him.” He says the hardest and most stressful work he has ever done while operating a helicopter, is the five years he flew heliskiers. “In routine forestry work where you take out people and sling trees you may have 10 or 15 landings,” Skelly says. On a busy day working on a fire you may have 30 or 40 landings. Heliskiing, anything below 40 landings is unusu-
al, and I’ve had as many as 80 landings. It’s elevator work.” What makes heliskiing tricky is encountering whiteout conditions as the rotor blades whip up the snow at the top of a ski run. Skelly says you need a visual sense of reference to make a landing in all-white conditions, delicately edging the helicopter to an exact location on a mountain top. “That’s the guide’s responsibility holding a pole to mark the spot and provide size and distantance reference,” Skelly says. “It’s a teamwork arrangement and very precise. It’s very repetitive but the tension keeps you going.” In 2001 when Skelly changed companies, leaving VIH (Vancouver Island Helicopters) and moving to West Coast Helicopters, he shifted from a management position where he was in charge of up to seven helicopters, to becoming a line pilot where he took shifts with another pilot,
four weeks on and two weeks off. Six weeks after changing jobs his only child, 18-year-old daughter, Pauline, came down with leukemia. On July 2, 2002, after a valiant struggle, Pauline, now 19, passed away. Skelly, understandably was devastated. His marriage to Pauline’s mother had ended before their daughter got sick, so he used his daughter’s death to inspire him to do what he loved. That’s when he took on the boat building project. “The boat came along as a saviour,” Skelly confesses. Now 10 years after beginning construction of his 39-foot steel-hulled yacht, not including the bowsprit, Skelly is approaching completion. It helps that he retired last September so he can dedicate his undivided time to the project. “I’m working on the plumbing but have no idea where I’m going to sail.”
He says the boat was designed by naval architect, Bruce Roberts. Being meticulous by nature, Skelly has over-built the craft with a thicker hull than necessary. The inside of the hull is sprayed with Styrofoam to reduce noise and condensation. He had 20,000 pounds of fabricated steel pieces trucked up from Vancouver with each piece identified with lasered parts numbers and alignment lines. “I just had to assemble all those bits,” he says. “The instruction lines were very simple: ‘Assemble the frames’.” He says it took a handyman with welding skills to put all the pieces together, and admits a major part of assembling the steel parts was winging it on your own. “I’d done some welding before I became a pilot and I knew I could go back to it.” He learned a whole lot about sailing during the winter season of 1977 when he worked as a crewman on a sailboat in
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Vancouver. Skelly has had his trials and tribulations during the construction phase. Five years ago he slipped off the back end, fell a dozen feet to the cement floor of the shop, and broke both legs. Already mounted on a specialized trailer that Skelly built himself to transport and launch the nearly completed yacht into the sea, she sits covered by a tarp weighted with paint cans full of rocks. Laying nearby are the mast and boom that Skelly had trucked from California after he shopped around for the best deal. Besides painting and other finishing touches such as applying the decktread, the end is in sight. When she hits the water, the Pauline Claire, named after his daughter, will be 34,000 pounds, or 17 tons. Skelly plans to live aboard once she is complete. Since he has a penchant for making things, the bow portion will be a workshop to sat-
isfy that desire once his days as a landlubber are done. Concluding our interview, Skelly shared an insightful flying story which he titles South African Wine. “Several years ago, a friend and I purchased four cases of South African wine at a good price and divided it between us. He drank his two cases quite quickly and I spaced out mine over a couple of years. One evening on my birthday I decided to open the second to last bottle. My wife cooked a nice dinner and I opened the wine and found that vinegar taste telling me the wine had gone off. I didn’t open the last bottle. “About 20 minutes later the phone rang and it was a fishing boat skipper off the coast northwest of Shearwater, with a crew member bleeding from his lungs and in desperate need of medical help. I called Emergency Medical Services and got approval to go with an at-
tendant. “Heather Ross from Bella Coola responded and after a very quick prep, we departed for the area, about 45 minutes away. As we got closer I called the boat on VHF marine 6, and had him launch a zodiac with the patient and crew to the closest beach where I could land. Darkness was fast approaching as I landed on the sand; the patient was quickly bundled into the back of the Jet Ranger with Heather, and I departed for Bella Bella Hospital. I landed in the school playgrounds opposite the hospital at 10 p.m. and the patient was transferred immediately. Heather spent the night there and I made the short flight to Shearwater for the night in the gloom. “The patient recovered with the help received at the hospital and to this day he doesn’t know he owes his life to the only bottle of bad South African wine out of four cases.”
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Bella Coola
Creekside studio welcomes visitors Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 You have to love Bella Coola. Everything is so tucked into the coastal rainforest there. Blink and you miss it. That’s how it is with Ernest and Jill Hall’s Creekside Studio Gallery and Guest Suite. If you are heading west on Highway 20 toward Bella Coola, it’s on the left hand side just past the Saloompt Road. It’s well identified by signs so it’s easy to find. Ernest and Jill are artists through and through. Not only have they created a beautiful gallery beneath the canopy of rainforest displaying their pottery and the work of other artists, they’ve crafted their whole two-acre property into an art form. There are trails, bridges and benches, accented by a rivulet that emerges from a spring at the base of the mountain behind their place that offers spawning and rearing habitat for coho salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout. Then there’s the studio gallery itself, divided into three separate sections. The showroom in front is ornately crafted with local firekilled and flood-fallen cedar, milled by Ernest’s brother, David. It smells divine and for the physically agile, there’s the spiral stairway to the loft. On display are unique, one-of-a-kind pottery pieces, paintings, books, cards, painted hand drums, masks and sculptures. Forming part of the railing at the entrance to the gallery is a welded metal sculpture that Ernest calls “Brad’s steel garden,” named for the artist who created it. Behind the showroom the pottery studio is equipped with wheels, kilns, work benches, buckets of glazes, and works-in-progress at various stages of completion. Outside the bright windows and glass doorway of the studio are raku firing pits and a deck on which to relax. The back third of the building couches the biggest surprise of
Ernest Hall demonstrates the atomizer he uses to blow glazes onto his ceramic pieces. He and his wife recently established an art studio and rental suite in Bella Coola.
Ernest works on assembling a clay sculpture of fish in preparation for the firing.
all, a tiny but comfortable guest suite overlooking the spring-fed coho stream meandering through cedars and spruce. It’s a great place to commune with nature and hang out with your inner artist. Ernest first came to Bella Coola with his family from the U.S. in 1966 during the dark days of the Vietnam War when he was 15 years old. He credits his high school teachers at Sir Alexander Mackenzie Secondary School for inspiring him to think. When he was 18 Ernest met his mentor, Porter M. Chaffee, then nearly 70, an American poet and activist who had divorced his wife of 37 years and followed the counter culture to Bella Coola. “He needed someone to dig his well, so I came up to give him a hand.” Ernest says Chaffee, who had left school after Grade 4 and went to work on sailing ships and became a Communist and labour activist
call his parents from Anahim Lake,” Jill says. “Five hours later we’d arrive in Bella Coola.” Jill always felt drawn to Bella Coola. “But there was no university there for Ernest to teach in, and we had our careers in the city. Then 36 years later we moved up.” Ernest had an epiphany in 2009 when he realized the time had come for him to retire. “I wanted to retire in Bella Coola before I turned 60,” he says. “And I was 59.” When he told Jill about his idea, she was in full agreement. She had retired a few years earlier as the senior occupational therapist working with spinal cord injuries at GF Strong. “I had a good career, but at 55, I had had enough.” Things fell into place fairly quickly once they made the decision in early November. Two weeks later they saw a place for sale in Bella Coola, and put an offer on it. “We made the deal
Sage Birchwater photo
during the Great Depression, carried volumes of English literature in his head. This inspired Ernest to relish words and rhythms of language and to love beauty. The two men stayed in touch for the rest of Chaffee’s life. In 1969, Ernest left Bella Coola for Simon Fraser University, populated by radical professors, and studied English poetry and philosophy, before transferring to UBC to major in creative writing. Chaffee left Bella Coola shortly after, relocating to the Kootenays, a hotbed of American draft dodgers and flower folks getting back to the land. Ernest met his wife, Jill, in Vancouver. She was an occupational therapist, and it was through her that he got interested in clay and pottery. “In my profession we used crafts to help retrain people to use their motor skills,” Jill explains. “I started working with clay as a therapeutic tool, and it was
something that stuck with me.” Shortly after meeting, the couple moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta, where Jill set up her own occupational therapy department and Ernest worked as a reporter and editor for the local daily newspaper. Medicine Hat is a centre for clay artistry and industry, and Ernest and Jill fell in love with clay and acquired a wheel and kiln. Returning to Vancouver, Ernest worked for a while in journalism and then began teaching English to foreign students at his Alma Mater, UBC. Jill pursued her career in OT at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre, and the two continued their passionate relationship with clay, working in small home studios wherever they were living. After a year in Greece, where Ernest taught English, and where their daughte, Sara, was born, Jill returned to work and Ernest played “stay-athome dad” and full-time
potter for a couple of years before returning to teach at UBC. Ernest eventually got his masters degree in second language acquisition at UBC. All the while in their spare time, the couple kept the potter’s wheel spinning and the slab roller pressing, eventually opening a ceramic/ pottery studio in White Rock. “We started offering hand-building workshops, creating tabletop waterfalls in clay,” Ernest says, adding that he taught wheel throwing for the Delta Arts Council and was a founding member of the North Delta Potters Guild. Pottery for them had become a full-time hobby. Of course, throughout their professional careers, they made regular trips back to Bella Coola where Ernest’s family lived. Jill remembers her first trip to the valley in 1974 when the road was gravel from the top of Sheep Creek Hill. “Ernest would always
on Nov. 30 and took possession on Jan. 1, 2010,” Ernest says. Jill moved up to Bella Coola in May, and Ernest finished the year teaching at UBC and moved up in July. “Our daughter, who was working on her PhD in sociology at Montreal’s McGill University, was outraged. She asked what we were running from.” Ernest and Jill figure it was more a matter of them running to Bella Coola, rather than running away from the city. Their vision was to build a little studio where they could sell mugs to tourists. Their Creekside Studio Gallery has become that and more. On the wall of the guest suite, hangs a quilt stitched by local quilter Wilma Hallam. “Welcome” is written across its face, and barely discernible, in each of the four corners is a pair of open hands – the welcoming gesture of the local Nuxalk First Nation.
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Bella Coola
Living their dream in Bella Coola Continued from Page 59 It’s an attempt at recognizing the fusion of cultures that Creekside represents, Ernest notes. Just after the studio/gallery opened in 2011, Wilma offered to create the quilt as a gift to the Halls and their special space. Her refusal to accept payment makes her art quilt even more special. Ernest stayed in touch with his mentor, Porter M. Chaffee, over the years. “We swapped poems back and forth, and saw one another from time to time. In 1979, when he was 79 years old, Chaffee left the Kootenays where he’d been hanging out with hippies way less than half his age, and went back to the redwoods of Northern California where his roots were. He remarried his wife after 10 years dabbling around,
and began putting his poetry on paper.” In 1989, on the drive back from Disneyland with his eight-yearold daughter, Sara, Ernest dropped in on the Chaffees at their little home in the Redwoods. By that time, the 88-year-old Chaffee was completely blind and his wife was taking the dictation of his poetry. In their conversation Chaffee spoke of their brief time together in Bella Coola 20 years earlier. He admitted he was too old to live in Bella Coola at that time, and Ernest was too young. “But you have roots there,” Chaffee told him. “Someday you might go back to Bella Coola and reclaim those roots. Then you’ll flourish.” Ernest figures he and Jill are doing that. In Bella Coola both
Ernest and Jill are active in the community. Ernest is applying his writing and organizing experience to promoting tourism and the arts through his volunteer work on the boards of Bella Coola Valley Tourism and the local arts council, and Jill is active in the arts council and the fall fair association. They are both avid gardeners and landscapers and love their “little bit of heaven” they call Creekside. The couple are promoting pottery by giving lessons in raku firing, offering customized workshops in hand-building clay sculptures, giving wheel lessons, and much more. “Raku is a traditional Japanese firing process,” Ernest explains. “You can do it in an hour. It’s very simple and beautiful.”
Pressing clay into a plaster salmon form he has devised, Ernest fashions several soft clay replications of fish into a river scene of spawning salmon. He modifies each fish into the shape and size he wants while the clay is still soft, then lets it dry. Once the scene is assembled Ernest glazes it and fires it – often as many as four separate times. “I often use an atomizer to apply the glazes,” he says, demonstrating the simple hand-held device, applying air pressure with his lips. “It’s the handiest gadget ever invented.” Philosophically Ernest says he and Jill aren’t living their dream because when they retired to Bella Coola they hadn’t imagined how fulfilling life in the valley would be. “We’re creating our dream by living it,” he says.
Sage Birchwater photo
Jill Hall with the salmon serving dish which she designed and sculpted by hand.
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Bella Coola
Bella Coola Archives a valuable research resource Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 While some aspects of life in Bella Coola Valley are diminishing with the economic slowdown and demise of resource industries like logging and fishing, the Bella Coola Archives is in expansion mode. The archives started out as an after-thought of the Bella Coola Museum, and was born out of necessity. There were valuable items in the museum that visitors instinctively wanted to pick up and handle, and some of these items needed to be kept under tighter wraps in a more secure environment, but there was nowhere else to store them. Then in 2000 the museum got a Millennium grant to establish a separate archives. This allowed the organization to rent a small space at the Bella Coola airport, purchase shelving and storage equipment, hire
an archivist to look after the collection, and pull the archival material out of the museum. For a few years Bella Coola Valley Museum hired archivist, Lorna Dishkin, and part of her job was to supervise summer students cataloguing the collection. When School District 49 closed Nusatsum Elementary School, the archives had the opportunity to move into a much larger space in one of the vacant classrooms. Today the Bella Coola Archives is strictly a volunteer organization under the umbrella of the Bella Coola Valley Museum, and Dishkin is still one of the valued volunteers. Rene Morton also volunteers in the archives. “I try and be there every Tuesday and Thursday between 10 a.m. and noon,” Morton says. “It helps put a face on the archives.” Martin Antoniuk, president of the Bella Coola Valley Museum
Sage Birchwater photo
Rene Morton (left), Peter Solhjell and Colin McMiltan look through old magazines in the Bella Coola Archives. Society, supervises the summer students hired to work in the museum and help out in the archives. “Having someone in the archives consistently and having Peter Solhjell available at the end of the phone and email gives us a presence in the community,” Morton adds.
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She says the organization has been fortunate to have consistent financial support from the Central Coast Regional District and the Williams Lake and District Credit Union. Though the museum and archives are part of the same organiza-
Since 1967
tion and are run by the same board, they have different catchment areas. The museum serves the Bella Coola Valley from the eastern boundary of Tweedsmuir Park to the inner coastal areas of Kimsquit, South Bentinck and Kwatna. The archives on the
other hand takes in the much larger area administered by the Central Coast Regional District. It includes all of the Bella Coola Valley watershed and extends to the outer coast communities of Owekeeno, Namu, Bella Bella, Shearwater, Klemtu and Ocean Falls. “We feel we’re alive and in business,” Morton says. “We’re in the process of acquiring the Ron Mayo collection of photographs, videos and slides. It’s a big donation of more than 1,500 slides of wildlife and flora, and photos Ron took on the front during the Second World War.” She says the Ron Mayo collection, which also includes seven diaries written during the war, needs to be catalogued. “It’s a big collection, but at least we have a safe holding area for it.” The archives is open by appointment only, and there are two ways to make contact, by
phone or by email. The telephone based at the archives (250-982-2130) is equipped with a message machine where people can leave their name and contact information, or you can call Martin Antoniuk, president of the society at 250-982-2746. Email messages can be sent to museum@belco. bc.ca. The Bella Coola Museum has a fabulous website www.bellacoolamuseum.ca with all kinds of useful information and insight into the collection. The museum, located in the Bella Coola townsite opposite Kopas Store, is open five days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Because the tourist activity in Bella Coola is centred around the Discovery Coast Ferry schedule, the five days the museum is open are Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. The museum is closed on Saturdays and Tuesdays.
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Bella Coola
A photographic window into Bella Coola’s past Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 In 2008 Peter Solhjell published the book Spuds Among the Stumps: Norwegian Immigrant Settlement Photos Bella Coola 1896-1897. Admittedly it’s a long and convoluted title, but it states exactly what the book is about. Solhjell dedicated his book to Simon Oleson Bangen, a gifted photographer who arrived in Bella Coola in February 1896, and only lived in the valley for a year-anda-half, before departing with his family back to the Norwegian enclave in Crookston, Minnesota in July, 1897. There he ran a successful photo studio for many years. Solhjell says his book project started with one photo by Bangen, then quickly morphed into a more comprehensive undertaking when someone sent him a whole batch of Bangen photos from Norway. During his 18 months in the valley, Bangen produced more than 100 known photographs documenting the people and the way of life in the Norwegian colony founded by Christian Saugstad in 1894. Spuds Among the Stumps is Bangen’s photographic record of the colony. One of the motivations prompting Solhjell to produce the book was to set the record straight, because many of Bangen’s photographs had been attributed to Iver Fougner who began photographing half a dozen years after Bangen left the country. Fougner was an excellent photographer in his own right, and is responsible for preserving many of Bangen’s photos by cropping his plate negatives into glass format for lantern slide presentation. “Many duplicates of Bangen’s photos have been archived in different locations, and mistakenly credited to Iver Fougner,” Solhjell says. “When Iver’s son, Milo Fougner, donated his father’s slide collection to the BC Provincial Archives, Fougner’s name was connected to Bangen’s images as the
original photographer.” Solhjell admits he strives for perfection when it comes to recording local history. This is a good trait for a history buff trying to accurately portray the past. Now he’s onto a new project that should be equally challenging. Solhjell wants to document the historic and photographic story of the two Old Bella Coola townsites, both the native and non-native settlements once located on the north side of the Bella Coola River at the mouth of Necleetsconnay River. Anyone familiar with the climatic variability in east-west mountain valleys like the Bella Coola, knows that the north side of the valley is always sunnier than the shadowy south side, especially in winter. It is no small wonder then that people were drawn to live on the north side. Prior to European contact, the Nuxalk First Nation lived in half a dozen separate villages near the mouth of the Bella Coola River, and 10 more villages along the river to the base of the Hill near Stuie. After the great smallpox epidemic of 1862 the Nuxalk population was decimated from thousands of inhabitants to 300 survivors. The scattered remnants of the population were relocated to the village of Q’umk’wts near the mouth of the Bella Coola River. A dozen or more old-style longhouse lodges formed the nucleus of Q’umk’wts on the south shore of the river, when the Norwegian colonists led by Reverend Christian Saugstad arrived from Minnesota in 1894. On the north side of the Bella Coola River a new native village had recently been established, with European-style lumberframe buildings congregating around a Methodist church. “The Methodists had built a church there,” Solhjell says. “But the village had the Nuxalk name, Alhq’laxlhh, which meant ‘fortified village.’ Lumber for the homes was rafted up from Rivers Inlet where a sawmill had been established at Victoria Cannery.
The old cannery in Bella Coola on the south side of North Bentinck Arm.
Peter Solhjell collection
The old Bella Coola townsite on the north side of the river. The Nuxalk community on the north shore had 15 homes with gardens and orchards, and by 1912 there were 30 houses of two and three stories in a long row, fronted by a raised boardwalk. The town grew to include a community hall, store, school and new larger church. In 1904 a village for non-aboriginal people was established on the north side of the Bella Coola River as well. Most of the Norwegians had settled further up the Bella Coola Valley at Hagensborg and beyond that to Firvale and Stuie. It had been 10 years since the colony got established, and the settlers
wanted a better road to the waterfront with a larger wharf. That’s how the townsite got started with 120 lots getting surveyed just north of the Nuxalk settlement alongside the Necleetsconnay River. A bridge was constructed across the Bella Coola River at Four-Mile, and a road was built to the new townsite. In 1903 a deep water dock was put in place along the north mountain and a mile-long pier connecting it to the new townsite was completed in 1904. Solhjell says the colony held a contest to name the new town and came up with MacKenzie, but Victoria rejected it because that name had
already been claimed by another community in the province, so Bella Coola became the official address. As the lots came up for sale, Brynild Brynildsen and Adolph Christensen were among the first to purchase property and build stores and homes. Over the next 15 years one hotel was established, along with a couple of boarding houses, a post office, hospital, jewellery shop, community hall, bank, pool hall, police station, jail, Indian agent office, steam-powered sawmill, newspaper office, and a one-room school. Along the road between the Necleetsconnay and the wharf, two more hotels, Sutherland’s bath house, a bakery and blacksmith shop were established. A number of family homes of varying sizes and dimensions were built. One bachelor by the name of John Creswell lived up along the Necleetsconnay River with a herd of goats that followed him on his every trip into town. Across the Necleetsconnay Bridge, a short distance up the road, a large farm owned by the Carlsen family provided fresh dairy products for the town. By 1905 the main employer was the cannery on the south side of North
Bentinck Arm, complete with its own fishing fleet of sailboats. In 1917 the Tallheo Cannery was built on the north side of the inlet, providing more opportunities for employment. A steamship arrived weekly with freight and passengers and departed with thousands of dollars of canned salmon from the canneries. In season tons of potatoes, fresh fruit and vegetables grown in the valley were shipped to the outer coast canneries and pulpmill town of Ocean Falls. The two new towns on the sunny side of the Bella Coola River were ideal in many ways, but they had one serious drawback – they couldn’t contend with the propensity of flooding that regularly occurred there. After two decades of devastating floods that washed out buildings, roads and bridges and cut off access to the wharf and the rest of the valley, people finally had enough. In 1925 the government purchased most of the old Clayton property on the south side of the river, which at the time was owned by Pacific and Hudson Bay Railway promoters, and moved the town to its present location in 1926. Lots on the north side were exchanged for lots in the new settlement. In 1937 the Nuxalk
Peter Solhjell collection
community followed suit, dismantling buildings on the north side and reconstructing them in the K’umk’wts village south of the river. One of the more celebrated moves was dragging the recently constructed Emmanuel United Church across the Bella Coola River from the north side, and setting it up on Burke Avenue. With its steeple removed and two crawler tractors towing it, the church was floated across the river with the Nuxalk brass band sitting inside playing Onward Christian Soldiers the whole way. Solhjell is creating a map of the two Old Town villages, identifying the old buildings, roads and bridges from old photographs he has collected from the handful of individuals left who are part of that time. He has put the word out asking other people to send him photographs, old diaries, and any other historic memorabilia pertaining to this forgotten time in Bella Coola history. Solhjell hopes to produce a book documenting the Old Town Bella Coola settlement similar to his Spuds Among the Stumps publication. Collected memorabilia, if donated, will safely end up in the Bella Coola Archives if families have no further use for the material. If not, copies can be made and the originals returned.
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People
Greg Sabatino photo
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Doctors relocating from the U.S. enjoy family life and careers in the lakecity LeRae Haynes Casual Country 2013 One of Williams Lake’s additions in the past few years is the Brown family, doctors Asa and Tracy Brown, their two young daughters with a baby on the way this summer. Dr. Tracy Brown, optometrist with Cariboo Eye Care Clinic, said that they met in a restaurant in Colorado while she was working on her externship in optometry. They got married in Texas, moved to Alberta and then to Williams Lake. He works as a professor teaching psychology at Thompson Rivers University in Williams Lake and is an academic supervisor at Royal Roads University. Besides serving as an author for the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, Asa is a speaker on the power of positive thinking, a counsellor and author of the book Waiting to Live. “Every time I turn around he’s doing something new. I’m so proud of him,” Tracy says. “He’s a very positive writer and an engaging speaker and a wonderful dad. In the classroom he has expectations of his students and high standards. “He loves to play and dance with his kids. He’s a great cook, and our oldest daughter, Delilah, already knows how to cook most of the family meals,” Tracy adds. “His current writing project is a cookbook.” Asa also knows what it’s like to face challenges and keep going. In the past year he has undergone four surgeries. He lives with osteomyelitis re-
Gaeil Farrar photos
Doctors Asa and Tracy Brown enjoying the Stampede Street Party in 2012 with their daughters Delilah and Esperanza. Asa was in a wheelchair after having operations on both of his ankles at the same time. sulting from a childhood incident. When he was a child he cut his foot while in a lake in Oklahoma. He explains that he began suffering from a high temperature which became a systemic issue affecting his kidneys, bones, heart, and lungs; basically a systemic shutdown that required him to live in the hospital for approximately nine months. “For many years, I went through recovery and training to walk and cope with my medical issues; I continue to struggle with asthma, arthritis, kidney issues, and a heart murmur, but I see these issues as mere challenges,” Asa says. “For me, all of my health issues are only
obstacles with which I choose to go around. I do not believe in allowing such issues to hinder me, or to become my personal excuse, why I can’t do or accomplish something in life. “Life is about growth and I have always found that greatest growth occurs through various obstacles we face. “Whether we are being opposed, challenged, treated hostile or are being bullied, life has its challenges. I have always believed that, in spite of my health matters, life is worth living.” He thoroughly enjoys working with others, whether teaching, counselling, consulting or training. “It is so very satisfying to have an op-
portunity to watch another human being grow, mature, and have an opportunity to flourish. “It is a real treat to watch other’s mature in their own person,” Asa explains. “In my life I have served politicians; marched in the United States Olympic Band; authored and coauthored various works; been honoured to become a Canadian — holding dual citizenship with the U.S.; but my most rewarding role has been to be a father,” he continues. “As a father you learn the true meaning of unconditional love, acceptance, appreciation, approval, and forgiveness. “I sincerely believe that if I had no other role in life, I would
prefer to be a father,” he adds. “My daughters and my spouse are my life.” He says the most important thing he has learned from his children is the need to live a life like a child, not to be confused with being childish, rather to be childlike. “A childlike person is free, they are free to think, live, and be beyond the problems or opinions of this life. “As a child, I am most concerned about living day-to-day. “As a child, if I fall I will dust myself off and return to whatever I was pursuing,” Asa explains. “My children are such a rich blessing, and the greatest thing they have taught me is to live daily.”
Gaeil Farrar photos
Dr. Asa Brown with a copy of his book Waiting to Live.
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People
Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin charts LORAN-C history Glen Burrill Casual Country 2013 In October 2011, the LORAN-C tower in Riske Creek was quietly dismantled, taking away the red beacon that could be seen around nearly the entire region near Wil-
liams Lake at night. It had been a landmark for residents and travellers since 1977. Navigating by radio wave transmission replaced celestial navigation in the early 20th century. It is akin to the echolocation system
Established in 1977, the 625-foot LORAN-C tower at Riske Creek, whose light could be seen for many miles around, was quietly dismantled in 2011.
used by bats, but with some enhancements. Unlike bats, craft carrying the long range navigation system (LO RAN) would collect, or receive, radio wave transmissions from stations in the distance. It would use the broadcasted positions of three or more stations in order to place itself in relation to them. Several iterations of this kind of navigation system were tried during the mid-20th century, and they played an important part during the Second World War. It was particularly in the Pacific theatre that long-range navigation became critical to refueling Allied aircraft and ships throughout the vast Pacific Ocean. In the lead up to the Americans entering the war, the British shared this technology with the U.S. and it was discovered that an even longer range than the original was required. The technology was developed as the war progressed and eventually the LORAN-C had a daytime ground wave range of 2,250 miles. This was reached by pulsing the signal at the low frequency of 100 kHz. The war-time stations were called SWS: Special Wireless Stations. Often they also carried equipment for gathering intelligence. These were radio and recording systems that captured transmissions from foreign radio broadcasts. The station near Riske Creek — located near the dome — was only a navigation station. The original wartime LORAN stations had crews of 12 or 15 people. The stations had to be self-sufficient and had to provide their own medical and food services. Later, those near towns, like the one at Riske Creek, had smaller crews of four. And these crewmen were strictly techni-
Photos submitted
Jim Galogerakos and Merve Combs kept the home fires burning and equipment operating at the LORAN-C station when it was still operating at Riske Creek in more recent years. cians; their primary functions were not as cooks or doctors. Eventually, the crews would only be called out to the station to attend problems. They were not posted at the station but resided in nearby communities. Despite having been a secret technology at its creation, once knowledge of the LORAN systems became worldwide, it was feared that the stations would become potential targets of long range missile attacks during the Cold War, and later, by acts of terrorism. It was in 1977 that a joint venture of the Canadian and American Coast Guards put up the station with its 625-foot tower near Riske Creek, locally known as “the LORAN-C.” This particular station was a superstar. It was a master-station for a series of stations, called a chain, which extended from Alaska to Washington State. There were other smaller stations on the
Alaskan Panhandle and Vancouver Island. The crew, which would eventually be led by local Merv Combs, was highly trained. As an isolated group that had to maintain a system that was critical to the air and sea traffic on the coast, they had to keep the equipment working and to be able to fix any problem that might arise. They looked after an intricate system that had its own layers of self-monitoring equipment. And the human crew had to operate and maintain the equipment that monitored other equipment. It might happen, for example, that an airconditioner may malfunction and cause a fire-alarm to go off. It may take precious time to discover and fix the air conditioner that is malfunctioning, but only after it has been determined that there is no problem with the equipment that first appears to be failing! As mentioned, the station was both a superstar and a master. It
was a master because it was the main station for the coast of B.C. and Washington (Its secondary station being near Mount St. Helens, Washington). It was a superstar because of the training and dedication of the crew. The Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin now exhibits the plaques which once hung in a hallway at the station; the plaques show the many accolades the crew received. For instance, it was the only station that could boast that it had a stretch of two years in which there was not a single minute of nontransmission—almost no down-time. This is an impressive record when one considers the possible equipment failures due to the myriad circumstances that could and did occur. The station’s equipment was susceptible to the weather conditions of a high flat area at the latitude of Riske Creek. Most notable was the electrical fields that came in the form
of dry lightning in July and August, as well as the static electrical fields that were present during a particularly cold winter. In fact, there was so much energy in the station, there were sections of it in which someone could hold a fluorescent bulb in his hand and the bulb would illuminate. There were areas where certain equipment functioned and gave off x-rays. So the crew was exposed to a couple of different kinds of radiation. In recent years, governments around the world have decommissioned LORANC stations in order to save money using GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) technology. However, the LORAN-C was an arguably more secure system than GPS, having a greater integrity against electronic espionage. Nevertheless, the closing of the Riske Creek station and the dismantling of the tower signaled the end of an era.
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People TRU develops blended learning program
Diana French Casual Country 2013 If you don’t know Jay Goddard as an actor
and musician, or from his community work - he is currently chair of the Social Planning Council – you might
know him as a teacher and lead instructor for the Human Services Program at TRU North (Thompson Rivers
Gaeil Farrar photo
The Goddard family enjoys art in all its forms. Here Jay (who also acts in and directs plays) and his daughter, Chelsea, (who sings, acts and dances) entertain at the 2012 Seedy Saturday event.
University’s Williams Lake Campus). He recently added a new task to his agenda, he is working on introducing blended learning to TRU’s agenda. This relatively new concept combines the wonders of technology with traditional classroom teaching. “The web is a powerful tool and using it to full advantage means the student isn’t required to sit in the classroom all day listening to people talk,” Goddard says. “By combining the internet and classroom you get the best of both worlds. “The student has access to the world on the internet plus interaction with an instructor and fellow students in the classroom.” Using the internet as a means of instructing students is nothing new. For years online programs for grades K
to 12 have been available. Post secondary students have been earning certificates and university degrees online through Open Learning programs, and teachers at all levels have been using digital materials to supplement traditional classroom instruction. Blended learning is different in that it combines traditional classroom methods with c o m p u t e r- m e d i a t e d activities and uses the best aspects of both to form an integrated instructional approach. There are a number of advantages to this new concept. With the delivery and content on line, students could spend as little as one day a week in the classroom. “They could be given one assignment a week and then discuss it in class,” Goddard says. “The opportunities
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are endless, there is the potential to alter the relationship between the learner and the instructor in a large scale interactive participation and open access.” The blend of face-toface and online materials will vary depending on the content, the needs of the students, and the preferences of the instructor. There are no rules as to what the ideal blend might be, and creating new approaches in instruction can present considerable challenges. Along with developing the right programs and methods for TRU, Goddard has to introduce the new concept to both students and faculty. A number of U.S universities offer blended programs and it is becoming a trend in Canadian universities. Royal Roads University programs are delivered online with a
short stay at the Victoria campus. The nursing program at TRU does bits and pieces of blended learning, and Goddard is working on a child/ youth care program and an agriculture specialty to be ready by September. Goddard was raised in Vancouver, and came to Williams Lake in 1989. He has a background in therapeutic counselling with a BA from UBC and his master’s degree from UNBC. He taught the work skills program for adults with disabilities prior to his current position. Goddard and his wife, Stephanie, who teaches at Nesika, have three children. “Williams Lake has been a good fit,” Goddard says, adding he has a good job, and the family enjoys the William Lake lifestyle, especially the outdoors.
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Thompson Rivers University grows with the Cariboo Diana French Casual Country 2013 Could Williams Lake become a university town? Could the city’s logo be Welcome to Williams Lake, the Education Centre of the Cariboo? Why not? Universities have been a boon to many cities, and are major employers in both Prince George and Kamloops. St. Francis Xavier is the main employer in Antgonish, Nova Scotia. The city would not be starting from scratch. The ingredients are here. The Williams Lake campus of Thompson Rivers University (TRU), also known as TRU North, is a handsome, well-appointed state-of -the- art facility. It has great computer labs, a diverse library, an excellent trades facility, and a unique First Nations Gathering Place. TRU offers a wide variety of programs and courses, including university
Dr. Ray Sanders
Along with his experience as an educator and administrator, he has a background in economic development. Shortly after he arrived at the university, Dr. Sanders held an aca-
demic planning session where faculty and staff came up with ideas for TRU’s future. Participation was robust, and the list of suggestions was a long one that included courses and programs, campus activities, facilities, and services that would entice students to chose TRU as their university destination. Some ideas were easy to implement, others for the future. The university has a high-powered support group, TRU Grit, headed by local businessman Brian Garland, which is dedicated to moving TRU forward. To date
the group has sponsored two gala events that raised some $60,000 for scholarships and bursaries. Garland is an enthusiastic proponent of Williams Lake becoming an education centre. The area has agriculture, forestry and mining, “we need an academic balance,” Garland says. Garland sees TRU developing niche programs that would attract out-of-town and foreign students. What is needed, he says, is an interest from the community-at-large to get things moving.
the students and the school, there was no way to provide them with the on-campus experience.” In March, 2005, UCC became Thompson Rivers University (TRU). The Cariboo-Chilcotin School District had closed the Anne Stevenson Junior Secondary School. TRU bought the building and began an $8 million renovation which transformed the building into a handsome, wellappointed state-of-the art facility. The campus opened officially in December, 2006. After the years in the wilderness, moving into the new facility was the high point in Simpson’s career. For one thing it gave students the campus life they expected for post secondary studies. The whole point of having a local post-secondary facility is to keep students in their home area as long as possible. Simpson notes the leap from a small town to a big city like Vancouver
can be overwhelming to students. At TRU, she says, “We try to make the adjustment easier and provide assistance whenever they need it.” TRU has an extremely passionate faculty, dedicated staff and quality programming. Convocation is a truly special event for the students and everyone at the campus. But the trials were not all over. Between 2006 and 2010, the Williams Lake campus had four temporary or acting directors (one of them being Simpson herself). Some commuted from Kamloops. There was no sense of continuity under those circumstances and the Williams Lake campus was sometimes a second thought. That changed in July, 2010, when Dr. Ray Sanders was appointed as the university’s executive director. He has made his home in the lakecity and it has been onward and upward since then.
Simpson loves her job, which is literally running the campus and includes a lot of trouble shooting. She is a people person and is known by her colleagues for never losing her cool, no matter what the emergency. She says, with a smile, “You can’t deal with problems if you don’t keep your head.” “Every day is different,” she adds, and the job is demanding. She values her private time, she relaxes in the garden and she loves to shop. She also spends time exploring and fishing, which is a natural as her husband, Jack, owns Sandpiper Fly Fishing. Jack is an expert on the sport, and it is believed he knows every good fishing spot in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. The Simpsons, who moved here from Prince George in 1979, have two adult children, son, Jamie, who is with Safeway in Trail, and daughter, Heather, who lives in Vancouver.
Gaeil Farrar (inset) and Monica Lamb-Yorski photos
The First Nations Gathering Place is a unique and special addition to the Thompson Rivers University campus in Williams Lake. Inset: Randy Sam, a social work student, carved the doors for the gathering place. transfers, certificate and diploma programs, health and safety certification, trades and technology, and university and career preparation. Classes are a comfortable size. The fac-
ulty and staff are topnotch. And there is room to expand. For instance, the campus would be an ideal place for a theatre/convention centre. TRU’s Executive
Director Dr. Ray Sanders holds both doctorate and master’s degrees in Occupational Adult Education, as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Trade and Industrial Education.
Grace Simpson a rock behind the university development
Diana French Casual Country 2013 Mrs. TRU? If anyone has the right to that title it is Grace Simpson. Her official title of campus co-ordinator covers a lot of ground. Grace is the “go to” person at TRU. She looks after the day to day administration of the university. In other words, she runs the place. She began her career in post secondary education in Williams Lake in 1980 as the receptionist at Cariboo College. The college, a satellite of the newly established Cariboo College in Kamloops, was in its fledgling days when she joined the office staff. The staff and faculty has tripled since then, and the student body has grown from 60 to 70 students to 200 full-time students in credit programs and around 2000 in continuing studies. The college was located in the Avco build-
ing, on 197 North Second Avenue. It offered a handful of upgrading and continuing education courses, with mechanic/ welding taught at an industrial site near the lake. Simpson has worked with a number of directors over the years, served as interim director herself at one point, and she has seen the Williams Lake campus through three major moves. She has received the university’s Distinguished Service Award twice, in 1990 and again in 2007, and her name is on the Pioneer Wall at TRU in Kamloops. The lack of a proper building of its own didn’t stop the college from growing, but there was no campus life as such, Simpson notes, until January 1986 when the college moved into what had been a waterbed factory on Hodgson Road. The building was renovated and the college had a home. In 1989 Cariboo College became the University College of
Grace Simpson the Cariboo (UCC), and in 1992 the building was upgraded. All was well until 1996 when it was discovered the ground beneath the building was shifting, and the facility was condemned. The college had to move, but there was nowhere to move to, so classes were held in rented office, in schools, wherever space could be found. In spite of the inconvenience, UCC con-
tinued to grow as programs and courses continued to be added as the needs were identified. “We’ve trained a lot of students,” Simpson says. UCC had no home for 10 years. Simpson does not recall those years with joy. “Everyone looked after their own classroom, she says, “but there was no sense of belonging, being split into so many different places divided
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People
Tenacity pays off for logger/rancher -- famed bridge builder LeRae Haynes Casual Country 2013 Long-time Cariboo logger and rancher Rudy Johnson says he got the surprise of his life when his phone rang a few months ago at 6 a.m. That call was to inform him that he had won the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. “I almost fell out of my chair. I couldn’t believe it,” Rudy says. “A couple of hours later the Cattlemen’s Association office in Kamloops phoned me and told me I would be presented with the award on Jan. 30. ‘We want you to be there and we want your family and good friends to be there,’” they said. “Four guys were going to get this medal. We had three tables with 30 ‘Johnsons’ at the banquet and award ceremony.” Besides working in the logging industry for many years and working as a rancher, and serving as president of both BC Livestock and the Cattleman’s Association, Rudy Johnson bridged a gulf between communities and paved the way for local loggers and ranchers to move their products effectively when he masterminded the bridge across the Fraser River at Soda Creek. Born on the border of Sweden and Lapland, Rudy says his family immigrated from Sweden to Canada in stages; his dad was in Canada for 20 years before the rest of the family arrived. There were three boys and one girl, and he was second-oldest. “My dad left Sweden in 1926 — he made three trips home during that time and every time there was another baby,” Johnson says. The family moved to the Cariboo from Aldergrove, which is where his mom and the kids landed when they immigrated. “It took three years to convince her; the language was a real barrier to her. We travelled from Sweden on a deluxe passenger ship, and it took seven days and seven
nights. It was a beautiful trip. “When we arrived in Halifax there was an immigration train with three or four box cars that took us to Vancouver. Inside the cars there were plain benches along each side. We ate and slept in that boxcar all the way across the country,” Rudy explains. “My mother was so sick on the boat, she never stood up once. Once she got on the train, she was happy.” Rudy went to school for a year and a half before he says the school sent him home. “In about Grade 4 or 5. They said I’d be better off at home because I couldn’t master the English,” he notes. “I was pretty disappointed.” Adjusting to life in Canada wasn’t difficult in some ways, he adds. His family was from a farming background, and Canada was much like northern Sweden — the cold and snow were nothing new. In 1960, after working many years in the logging industry and raising six children of their own, Rudy and his wife, Helen, bought the Buckskin Ranch on the west side of Soda Creek. There were quite a few ranches in the area, but no bridge to cross the Fraser River. “We either had to cross at the ferry or go all the way to the Chilcotin Bridge 51 miles away,” Rudy says “I said to myself, ‘I have to figure out something.’” He sometimes jokes that the main reason he built the bridge was because Helen fell in the river once during a ferry crossing. Rudy found a bridge for sale in Alaska and started asking around to see who’d be interested in putting some money together to put in a bridge. “I called a meeting and went to the sawmill and asked if they wanted to go in with me to put in a bridge. Some of them laughed at me and said, ‘Oh, you can’t put a bridge there.’ I said, ‘Never mind, are you in or not?’”
Black Press photos
Pioneering families from across the Cariboo-Chilcotin gathered at the Williams Lake Senior’s Centre in February to celebrate the 69th wedding anniversary of Rudy and Helen Johnson and also Rudy’s 90th birthday. Bob Johnson, one of Helen and Rudy’s six children, said his mom and dad operated a dairy farm at Matsqui before finding their way to the Williams Lake area in 1946, where Rudy built and ran several sawmills beginning at Soda Creek in 1946, then the 153 Mile area, followed by the Beaver Valley area. In 1960 they settled at the Buckskin Ranch at Soda Creek. “A big part of them said ‘Sure’ but some of them said ‘It’s impossible.’” Rudy travelled to Vancouver with the drawing of the bridge on a piece of paper, written in pencil, showing everything he planned to do.
“I spoke to Alex Fraser, the Minister of Highways; he said to me, ‘Well that’s quite an idea – do you have any experience in this?’” “Alex said that Highways had an old engineer in Vancouver that I should go see, so I did. The engineer said, ‘Mr.
Johnson, I hear you’re going to build a bridge across the Fraser. How do you plan to do it?’ I rolled my drawing out on his desk and showed him. ‘Young fellow, I need to have my staff look at this,’ he said. ‘Can I have this drawing?’”
Before building the Rudy Johnson Bridge at Soda Creek (above) Rudy flew his plane to search for the best place to cross the Fraser River then flew to Alaska where he found a bridge no longer in use. He bought the bridge, and disassembled it piece by piece, being careful to number each piece, and put it on a train bound for Williams Lake.
“’No, you can’t have the drawing,’ I said. ‘You can have it for a couple of hours and I’ll pick it up tomorrow morning.’ When I went to pick it up, he said it was too much of a job for me to take on. “’Well, that’s your idea,’ I said. He asked me when was the last time I had a medical, I said ‘I don’t think I need one,’ and I rolled up my map and walked out.” The provincial government phoned Johnson and told him he had to send a letter to the federal government because there was a river involved. “You have to provide a rough drawing of what you’re going to do. I simply applied for a permit to cross the river, and they said that would be all right, but they wanted to test it after I got it across. I had no problem with that,” he said. “You do have to have an engineer for the abutments to sign off on the project. I got this young logging engineer from Victoria who I’d known for about 10 years. He looked at the project and said he didn’t see anything wrong with it, as long as I had the safety stuff built into it. He made a few trips up to have a look. He brought his wife and kids up and they all stayed on the ranch.” On the day Rudy took the bridge across he didn’t want to tell anybody about it. “The engineer came out to the job that morning. It was a fall day in 1968, and I’d been up since 5 a.m. getting everything ready, and when I was ready I blew the whistle. It went so smooth across there; there wasn’t anything to it. I had to drop it down on six pins in the concrete,” he continued. “I had a good night’s sleep that night!” He said that he used a slack-line donkey, a winch with a 150 horsepower Cummins diesel engine, with three drums so you could work three cables at the same time. “The winch was attached to two ‘dead men’ on either side of
the river — a full load of logs bundled together. I tied my straps on them and they never moved a bit,” he explains. “There were a lot of people who said, ‘I can’t believe you did that.’ The day the structure landed over there, you should have seen the people who wanted to buy shares: they went crazy. I said, ‘Too bad.’” He also noted that the next morning one of the mill guys who’d turned him down when asked if he wanted to buy in with Johnson, called and said he wanted to buy some shares. “‘I guess you do,’ I said.” The bridge itself arrived in 3,300 pieces from Alaska on a short railroad with a locomotive and three cars, Johnson says. “We loaded them up, took them to the coast and pushed them onto the railroad ferry and took them down to Prince Rupert. They went by rail from Rupert to Prince George, and then to Williams Lake, where we trucked all the pieces to the river,” Rudy explains. “Our little company was called Fraser River Ventures Ltd. and Conrad Pinette was vicepresident and I was president. Conrad’s father, Gabe, was one of the first people to put money into the bridge. “Six people put in $20,000 each, and we ended up with 12 to 15 shareholders altogether,” Rudy continues. “The logging companies were the only ones who paid a toll on the bridge – everybody else crossed the bridge free.” When asked where his tenacity and determination came from Rudy says it was a result of his background in logging. “I can tell you one thing, and that is that a real logger never gets stuck. “It doesn’t matter how bad things are, they’ll find a way out. And that was me,” he states. “That’s always been my theory. “If I can see something that needs to be done I’ll find a way to do it.”
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Retired teachers enjoy the arts
Ann Walsh Casual Country 2013 We missed the village the first time we arrived in Williams Lake. It was an early evening in January, 1964. My husband and I were so recently married our suitcases leaked confetti and everything we owned was loaded onto the back seat of our 1949 Ford Prefect. We had come to Williams Lake so that John could take a suddenly available job teaching French. We city dwellers looked doubtfully at the handful of lights that was Oliver Street and decided that we weren’t there yet, so we turned at Mackenzie and wandered out to Glendale. Our first night, in the Slumber Lodge Motel, was interrupted by a peeping Tom – a regular, no one to be afraid of, just draw the curtains, said the owner when we
reported the incident. In spite of this, we stayed. John taught French at the high school, the only one at that time, and I worked as a secretary for the “Corporation of the Village of Williams Lake” in a building that had once been the hospital, where the city hall sits today. Behind my office was a tiny chapel. I was to learn that this was once the morgue, and its first official occupant was Cyclone Smith, the only cowboy ever killed during the Williams Lake Stampede. After two years in Vancouver, taking turns going to university and working to support ourselves, we returned to Willie’s Puddle in 1966. John was excited about his job at the brand new school, Columneetza, but I was nervous about teaching my first multi-grade class in the
small rural school of Chilcotin Road. But as my job came with a fully furnished teacherage for $40. a month including heat and light, I agreed we would come back ‘for a few years.’ John loved Columneetza and taught there until he retired in 1998. We had learned a few things about the Cariboo in 1964, but we still had much to discover. I was surprised when many of my Grade 1 students preferred the bathroom to the classroom, until I learned that, for some of them, this was their first experience with running water. Or school. There was no public Kindergarten in 1966. I was taken aback at the gaseous releases from students during hunting season and made squeamish by the regular classroom infestations of lice. We learned to shop
from the SimpsonsSear’s and Eaton’s catalogues or at MacKenzie’s. Delainey’s was a wonderful place to find things not offered in Vancouver stores — Aladdin lamps, wood cook stoves, ice augurs and excellent service. Tony’s Leather Goods sold me a briefcase for my husband’s birthday, on credit. “Oh, you’re the new teachers, no problem, pay me at the end of the month,” Tony said when I asked if he could put it aside until I could afford it. If the catalogues didn’t have the clothes you needed, there was always Lee’s Ladies Wear, very elegant. I spent two years at Chilcotin Road School, leaving teaching only to have my first baby in 1968. We bought a house on acreage. See ANN, Page 71
Photo submitted
John Walsh is a longtime member of the Williams Lake Studio Theatre and specialist in lighting.
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Ann Walsh: all in good time
Continued From Page 70 Not a wise move as we were still city folk, clueless about country life. The house was framed-in, had Cariboo twin-seal (two layers of plastic) for windows and tarpaper for siding and on the roof. “It just needs a bit of finishing,” we innocently thought, but, by the time we had a well drilled, the septic tank and field installed and the two connected, we were broke and it was winter. The heating oil gelled in the outdoor tank; the pump always seemed to develop problems when the well was covered with snow and the temperature was well below zero Fahrenheit; the car wouldn’t start, caught on fire, sank up to its hubcaps in mud. We couldn’t have survived our first few years as rural homeowners without the help of our neighbours, Dave and Ethel
Winger, who were always there to lend a hand. Our house still isn’t finished, but that’s how Cariboo homes used to be. You framed up your place, moved in, and finished it when you could. I remember that many homes on the old Chilcotin Highway, now Hodgson Road, had front doors but no steps leading up to them. Our second child, arrived in 1971 and a few years later I went back to work part time. I was the first ‘Remedial Reading’ teacher at Mountview School, then returned to Chilcotin Road School to do the same job. I stayed at Chilcotin Road for five years, then moved on to Cariboo College where I taught English as a Second Language, Adult Literacy and eventually Communications English for the Early Childhood Education program. In 1981 I took a
short writing course in Wells at Island Mountain Arts. The instructor was Robin Skelton, a well known B.C. poet and author. Two years later my first book, Your Time, My Time, was published and a fledgling reporter, Gaeil Farrar, interviewed me for the Tribune. The gold rush and the Cariboo area continued to be inspirational for me, and the first of the Barkerville Mystery Series, Moses, Me and Murder! was published in 1988. A book about a young Sikh boy playing minor hockey and another about a twoyear-old ghost at Soda Creek followed, as did others. Over the years, both John and I have been involved with Studio Theatre. I acted in many plays, and John designs lighting and helps out wherever he can. Through Sandra Hawkins I became interested in Restorative
An engaging and informative exploration in of our working forests by local authors Ann Walsh and Kathleen Cook Waldron. Available at bookstores and online
Justice, and a few years ago I took the training and became a facilitator. My new book, Whatever (coming out this fall) deals with the topic of community justice. This book owes much to Sandra. I’m not sure our house is finished yet, but it grew as we added a basement, then an extension. Our children also grew and moved away: one daughter teaches in Prince Rupert and the other is a nurse in Quesnel. We have seven of the best grandchildren in the world, and are immensely proud of them and their parents. Those ‘few years’ John and I first thought we’d spend in Williams Lake somehow stretched into a lifetime spent in the Cariboo. You can learn more about Ann’s books at http://annwalsh.ca/
Photos submitted
Theatre, the great outdoors and community spirit have kept retired teachers Ann and John Walsh in Williams Lake.
Ann and John Walsh moved to Williams Lake as newlyweds for work and with the confetti of their wedding day still spilling out of their suitcases. They planned to stay just a few years but ended up making the community their home and raising their two daughters here.
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Muriel Lee a spirited horse woman Diana French Casual Country 2013 She was a striking woman, almost six feet tall with long, coppery red hair. She was known as Cariboo Red. Her name was Muriel Lee and her specialty was horses. She could ride every kind of horse, and along with raising them and training them, she was a winner in many local horse racing meets. Muriel was born in Victoria. Her mother, Ida Batho (nee Hamilton) was a descendent of Hudson’s Bay fur factor Gavin Hamilton. Her father was Hugh Lee, a member of the English gentry who had been a Northwest Mounted policeman. Ida inherited property through Hudson Bay Company land grants but Lee was no businessman and through one scheme or another, he managed to lose it all. The family moved all over the place, from Rocky Mountain House in Alberta to the 59 Mile House and 100 Mile areas. Muriel went to residential schools in Mission, Kamloops and Alberta. The family was living in Sweetwater, near Dawson Creek, when Muriel married James Keener. They had one son, George. When Hugh died in 1935, the family, including Muriel’s half-brother Harry Batho came to the Williams Lake area. Harry, a skilled cowboy, was known as the “bowleggest cowboy” anyone had ever seen. When Harry got a job with a local cattleman, Muriel was hired along with him. Old-timers remember the two bringing cattle down from the hills into the local stockyards. Cattle buyer George Dawson often hired Muriel to help run the cattle sales and she also worked at Stampedes. She was an excellent cook and was camp cook for some of the big ranches, including Chilco, Bell, and Sky
ranches. Her son George remembers going with her on a beef drive from ClessPocket Ranch in Anahim Lake in the 1940s. George was the horse wrangler. It took 36 days to get the cattle to town. Muriel was paid $75, George, who started out with a pack horse and a kitchen horse, was paid $20. They left Anahim with 35 head of cattle. When they got to Towdystan, another rancher joined the drive with 40 head and a mean bull. As they went along, more cattle and riders joined the drive and by the time they arrived in Williams Lake, the drive had 1,500 head of cattle, 25 head of horses, and Muriel was cooking over a campfire to feed 15 people. Muriel and Harry first had a place on the flats where the Riverside Mill is located now. In 1939 they bought property on Slater Mountain. The place had been vacant for years because the previous owner had given up looking for an adequate water source. Muriel and Harry were chasing a wild mare when it fell in a hole, and its hind legs discovered a dandy water source. The two raised Percheron and Belgian workhorses and Kentucky thoroughbreds on what they called the Wild Horse Ranch. They had 80 head of registered stock at one point. A sideline was catching wild horses (hence the name of the ranch) sometimes 50 or more, training them and selling them. Along with the horses, Muriel and Harry raised cattle and goats and they sold dairy products. Oldtimers always associated Muriel with horses. She could and did ride any kind of horse and along with winning many flat races in the Cariboo she was one of the few women, along with Hazel Exshaw, who competed in the Williams Lake Stampede’s famous Mountain Race. She rode in every
Photos submitted
In her youth Muriel Lee had copper red hair and a fiery, indomitable spirit to match. She trained and rode every kind of horse and won many local horse races. She was one of the few women to compete in Williams Lake Stampede’s Mountain Race. Stampede parade for many years on a white horse she called Dollar. When she rode to town she usually had a young colt with her. One of her horses died only a few years ago; it was 40 years old. Muriel had a good eye for “horse flesh” and George remembers her being fooled only once, with a pair of English Thoroughbreds.
They were good looking but miserable beasts that would only run when the weather was hot. They wouldn’t move if it was cool, and they refused to budge after a false start. Both Muriel and Harry worked for what was then the Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association at the outdoor sales at the stockyards, and they were always on hand to
work behind the scenes at Stampedes. They also provided bucking stock for the Stampede. Their bucking horses weren’t mean, they just wouldn’t let anyone ride them. During the Second World War, Muriel was a member of the volunteer range riders. The government feared a Japanese inva-
sion and the riders would check the countryside on horseback looking for any signs something was happening. In many ways Muriel fit the “old west” idea of lady ranchers. Probably from the influence of Hugh Lee, she liked English food and customs. Christmas was a big thing for her. She made a ceremony of setting up the tree and decorated the house with greenery everywhere and steamers on the ceiling. Muriel wasn’t afraid of anything. When she was alone at the ranch, and strangers came, she’d come out to talk to them with a 303 Savage on her arm. It was obvious she knew how to use it. Grandson Gordon Keener remembers her as set in her ways and strict, she wanted things done “right,” but she was kind. She was always ready to help, but she wouldn’t put up with any guff from anyone. Among her other talents she had a working knowledge of both the Shuswap and Chilcotin languages, and she painted in water colours. She was also fond of cats, and she always had a good collection of them, which caused some to call her the Cat Woman. In her later years, Muriel would recall the
dances at the Elks Hall when people would drive in from the outlying communities to join the festivities. She remembered one time when it rained so hard the streets turned into mud traps and even the trucks sank in it. It took the public works crews all the next day to pull them out. Muriel rode saddle horse until about a year before she was felled with a stoke that put her in Cariboo Lodge. She spent her last few years in a nursing home in Vancouver. Funeral services were held for her in November, 1989, at Sacred Heart Church in Williams Lake. Her son, George Keener, and grandson, Gordon, now live on the Slater Mountain farm. George spent a lot of time at the stockyards as a child when his mom worked there and he himself worked there for almost 60 years. An injury put him four days short of that record. He married Bonnie Thomas and the couple had three children, Gordon, Harry and Janet. George is the long time president of the Cariboo Friendship Centre. Gordon, who is treaty manager for the Xat’sull First Nation, and his wife, Terry, farm at Slater Mountain.
After her husband, James Keener, passed away in Sweetwater near Dawson Creek, Muriel moved to Williams Lake with her son, George, and half-brother Harry Batho. All three worked for many years at the Williams Lake stockyards and helped out behind the scenes at many Stampedes.
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Athletes find each other in lakecity
Greg Sabatino Casual Country 2013 Somehow, some way, there might be a big, imaginary wooden archery target hovering directly above Williams Lake. Aim directly above Glendale elementary and you’ll likely find the bull’s-eye. It is, after all, the spot longtime Williams Lake residents Al and Raeleen Campsall met. It would also, several years later, turn out to be the spot Al was principal at for 14 years. Both school teachers — Al was born in Calgary, Alta. and Raeleen was born in Saskatoon, Sask. — it was a chance meeting at Glendale elementary that brought the two together. They didn’t know at the time they’d end up falling in love with not only each other, but also with the city and its people. Fast forward 32 years and the Campsalls have worked, volunteered, coached, played and raised a family in Williams Lake. Both athletically gifted — Al is a ninetime Canadian national archery champion and Raeleen is a former female athlete of the year at the University of Saskatchewan in track and field and gymnastics — they’ve given a tremendous amount of their skills and knowledge back to the community in the form of volunteering. “We met at Glendale
school in 1982,” Al says. “Raeleen was conducting a gymnastics workshop — she was a gymnast in university as well as a track star — and I was on the University of British Columbia gymnastics team, as well, but nowhere near the calibre of gymnast Raeleen was. “So, I went to this gymnastics workshop in the Glendale gym and that’s where we met. It’s pretty funny I ended up being the principal there for 14 years.” Prior to coming to Williams Lake Al had lived in 24 different cities for more than a year. His dad was in the military, and he later joined the military, himself, so he was always on the move. Al has lived in Calgary, Goose Bay, Labrador, Metz, France, Cold Lake, Alta., Whitehorse, Nova Scotia, Winnipeg, Comox, Chilliwack and Portage la Prairie, Man. “I was a weather man in the airforce, and I trained as a pilot, as well,” Al says. “But after pilot training didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped — I was great in the ground school but being in the air was not my forte — I got out and was a weatherman for the atmospheric environment service in the ministry of transportation on the distant early warning line up in the arctic and I did that for
Greg Sabatino photo
Williams Lake residents Al and Raeleen Campsall, both retired school teachers, have been active members in the community since they moved here in the early 1980s. Al was the principal at Glendale elementary for 14 years while Raeleen spent the majority of her teaching years at 150 Mile elementary. a number of months.” Being so far away from family and friends, however, began to take its toll and Al decided to go back to school in 1978 to become a teacher. His first teaching job was a Grade 6 class in Lillooet. His second year teaching he landed a job at Nesika elemen-
tary. “I taught grades 6-7 there for six years, then I went to Anne Stevenson and taught grades 8-10 for six more years and then moved to Anahim Lake as the principal there and taught K to 10. Raeleen taught there, too, for two years on the GROW program.”
Raeleen, meanwhile, began her teaching career in Burnaby as a substitute. “Then on my way to visit my brother who lived in Kleena Kleene at the time I stopped in and had interviews here in Williams Lake and managed to get a job teaching phys-ed at Williams Lake Ju-
nior Secondary School in 1978,” Raeleen says. “I didn’t think I was coming to stay. I thought I’d at least get some job experience.” Raeleen later took a position at Crescent Heights elementary (where Maranatha Christian School is now) to teach a grade 3-4 class before teach-
ing at Anahim Lake, Kwaleen elementary and 150 Mile elementary. She also did a year teaching exchange in Sydney, Australia. “That’s where I stayed [150 Mile elementary],” she says. “I was there for a long, long stretch.” See ARTS, Page 74
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Arts and archery anchor activities for retired teachers Continued From Page 73
Neither Al nor Raeleen had intentions of settling down in Williams Lake, however, both said they started to develop a fond attachment to the area the longer they stayed. And it was the people they met that helped shape it. “It’s the people you meet and that was the big thing,” Raeleen says. “We met some really fine, fine people and as a result 35 years later we’re still here.” Al echoed Raeleen’s sentiments. “Of the 24 places I’ve lived for more than a year in my life Williams Lake is the one I’ve really taken a
hold of,” Al says. “It’s a great place to live and it’s a great place to volunteer and do things.” The couple had a daughter, Marina, now 22, in 1991. Growing up she was heavily involved in sports, which is right around the time Al and Raeleen both began volunteering their time in the community. “From Kindergarten to Grade 7 Marina played every sport that school [Kwaleen] had,” Al says. “Raeleen coached her in every single one of them and I coached her rep soccer team and Raeleen was her manager. It wasn’t until Grade 8 she actually had a coach that wasn’t her parents.
Raeleen coached five, six teams a year at 150 Mile elementary and I coached about seven or eight teams a year at Glendale from that time on.” Meanwhile, as principal at Glendale elementary, Al got involved with the elementary school wrestling program in the school district. “It was started by Byron Kemp, the previous principal, who’d started it about 12 to 15 years before I took it over,” Al says. “I took it over my first year at Glendale in 1996 and then Rick Bryan came on board to help me about six years later and the two of us
Photo submitted
Al Campsall is a nine-time Canadian national archery champion. He’ll be travelling to Sardinia, Italy this October to compete at the 2013 World Archery Championships as a member of Team Canada.
basically ran the school district programs for those 14 years. “Our elementary tournament was fantastic and we had a number of kids who went on to be provincial and Canadian champions. “Overall, just working at the school and working with the kids there, and the parents at Glendale were so supporting, it was fantastic.” Meanwhile Marina had began taking voice lessons and was a participant in the Cariboo Festival every year under the tutelage of Georgina Lazzarotto, her singing instructor. Since that time Raeleen has become the awards chair for the music festival. “During the time Marina was taking voice lessons I wasn’t actively involved in it,” Raeleen says. “It’s really only since she no longer is taking voice lessons and is part of the music festival that I’ve become involved. Both of us felt like it was such a good organization and really helped mould the type of person Marina is, so I thought it was a really worthwhile thing to volunteer for. It’s a committee I enjoy sitting on, it’s a great group of people and we just seem to work well together.” Raeleen was also the regional director for 20 years for the Northern B.C. Winter Games up until 2001. “And while she was doing that I was competing in most of the games whether it was archery, or indoor soccer, or basketball or coaching basketball,” Al says. But it wasn’t until 2000 that Al found his passion. “It was 2000 and I started archery to bow hunt,” Al says. “The very first night I went up to the archery club I was hooked. From then on I just shot and turned it into a bit of a science
Gaeil Farrar photo
Raeleen Campsall (left) is an active volunteer and director with the Cariboo Festival Society. Here she presents an award during the Honours Concert this spring to piano teacher Heather Froese who accepted the award on behalf of her student Olivia Harrison. for me.” Al has since won nine Canadian national ‘3D’ archery championships on top of 14 provincial championships. He competed at the world championships two years ago and plans to attend the 2013 World Archery Championships this coming October in Sardinia, Italy. “I’m not like most of the guys I shoot with who enjoy archery,” Al says. “I do, too, but I take it to a different level because I’m a little more serious than they are. I’m striving all the time to improve — even in small increments — and it’s paid off over the years.” Al is also the treasurer of the Cariboo Archers, a board member of the Williams Lake Sportsmen’s Association and an archery instructor with Ed Oliver for the Junior Olympic Archery program. Not to be outdone, Raeleen’s also volunteered her time as an organizer for some of the first Williams Lake Re-
lay for Life events and has helped raise funds for cancer research annually as a member of the Ladies of the Loon’s annual camping trip for the past 35 years. “It’s one of the reasons we get along so well,” Al says. “I generally break people up in my mind into givers and takers, not that that’s a bad thing. There are people who give for others in a community — the people who coach, etc. — and then there are the takers. At the expense of sounding negative we give so the takers can take, which is fine. “A lot of people lack the confidence in their own knowledge to step in and Raeleen and I have been very fortunate athletically to be able to do that.” Reflecting on their time spent in the community over the years, the Campsalls say it’s the people they’ve worked with and the friends they’ve made who stand out the most. “When I first moved here I made a good
friend my first couple of weeks teaching at Nesika,” Al says. “He moved to Anne Stevenson and five years later I went there. His friendship, the friendship of my principal at the time, were paramount for us to settle into the community here. “I’ve never, ever wanted to leave since then. I love it here. I love the outdoor activities, I love the community, I love the people here. “This place, it grows on you. It’s a great place to raise your family and a great place to just be yourself. My daughter grew up here, I met my wife here, my oldest daughter, Becky, comes to visit.” “For me, the fact I was born and raised in Saskatchewan was another factor I stayed here,” Raeleen adds. “Williams Lake was similar weather to what I grew up with — I really enjoy having all four seasons and moving from one season to the next.”
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Childhood pen pals meet after more than 50 years Linda Purjue Casual Country 2013 It all started at a picnic. No, actually, it started about 50 years before that, when I was in Grade 4. My teacher had a friend who had just returned from a year of exchange teaching in New Zealand. She had brought back with her the names and addresses of some of the children she had taught who were about the same age as us. Our teacher had us each draw a name out of a box, upon which we proceeded to learn the proper way to write a letter and address an envelope. The resulting epistles were duly posted, and mostly forgotten. A couple of months later, answers to a few of the letters began to trickle in. Can you imagine the utter delight I felt when
I received an answer to my little composition? There, in the mail was a letter addressed to me, little nine-year-old nothing, written on special overseas paper in a special overseas envelope, with an exotic stamp from New Zealand, the other side of the world, from a girl named Irene. It was an adventure coming right to my doorstep. I don’t remember what was said in those first letters (how I wish I had kept them, and all the others that followed!), but they were the beginning of a wonderful, long-distance friendship. During the following years, we sent several letters each year back and forth, as well as Christmas cards and small, usually souvenir type gifts. This was at a time when regular mail took about six weeks by ship to travel between our countries. Airmail cost too much
Photo submitted
The Shanks clan gathered for a picture with Irene’s Canadian pen-pal Linda Purjue. Pictured are Charles (back left) holding granddaughter Charly, Irene’s mom Rita, son CJ, Irene, Linda Purjue, daughter Tammi; sister Maggy (front left) and grandchildren Annika and Coby. for our frugal families to even consider for anything as unimportant as childish correspondence. Patience was expected, but it was well rewarded. As we grew up, married and started our families, we became busy with our own lives and
our letters dropped off to maybe one a year, or not, but they never completely stopped. Now, we are both grandmothers, and have both been “electrified,” we utilize the almost instantaneous convenience of e-mail to frequently regale each other with
the most recent exploits of our children and grandchildren. I miss the excitement of receiving a paper letter in the mail with an unusual stamp from the other side of our little blue planet, but I do enjoy keeping up with my pen pal’s (or should I say
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keyboard-pal’s?) daily family doings. Now back to the picnic. It was September, 2011. I had taken a picnic lunch down to share with my friend, Delberta Dufresne, during her lunch hour from work. I had packed a luncheon cloth Irene had sent me decades ago that had a map of New Zealand on it. Curious, Del asked me about it. I told her the story of my pen-pal and how we had been writing for 50 years and never met face to face. Delberta said quite forthrightly, “Well, let’s go!” Thus began our little adventure. I am not financially fluid enough to just pick up and go on an overseas journey. Once the trip was decided upon, I knew it would take a couple of years for me to stash enough money to make the trip. I started putting away what I could, and even picked cans and bottles
whenever possible to augment my special savings. My New Zealand fund got a big boost when I entered a writing contest put on by Our Canada magazine. I won first prize for the poetry section and received a cheque for $1,500. Then for my 60th birthday, Delberta threw a surprise party for me, where she encouraged people to give money towards the trip rather than presents. That added over $500 to the fund. Another $500 was given to me by my sister and her husband. Dandelion Living, a local store, had several of my handwoven items for sale, and when one of the blankets sold at Christmas, Mary Forbes, the proprietor, did not take her usual commission from the proceeds, but added them to my New Zealand Or Bust savings account. See WEAVER, Page 76
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Weaver and spinner enjoys writing and miniatures Continued From Page 75 A real surprise was when Bob and Lynn Blatchford stopped in one day with another $200 for me. It seems that they were so taken with the poem that I had written (which had been inspired by Bob and my husband, Levi) that they had taken up a collection at a community do at Alexis Creek. The money part was being solved in ways that dumbfounded and humbled me. If it weren’t for the generosity of so many people, my trip to New Zealand to meet Irene would still be in the planning stage. I cannot thank everyone enough for making this trip of a lifetime possible. As the financial problems seemed to be solving themselves, we got busy and started booking airline tickets, a car and B&Bs.
We were set. On March 6, 2013 we boarded a plane for New Zealand. We spent the first week touring the North Island: Wellington, Hamilton, Hobbiton, Bay of Plenty, Totorua, Napier, and back to Wellington, marvelling at how similar to British Columbia the scenery was until you took a good look at the types of trees that were growing. It took us two days to cruise down the South Island to Invercargill, right at the south end of New Zealand, where my pen-pal, Irene Shanks, and her husband, Charles, live. Our first meeting was all I could have hoped for. Instead of meeting someone I had never met in person before, it was like meeting someone very dear to me who I had last seen only a couple of years ago.
Gaeil Farrar photo
Linda Purjue is an avid spinner, weaver and miniaturist. This miniature took first place at the Williams Lake Spinners, Weavers and Fibre Artists Guild spring spin-in this year. The annual event draws participants from all over the province. their respective famiWe gave each other flesh. Irene is the centre of lies, Irene’s mother huge hugs, tears of joy flowed, and we imme- a large and very loving Rita, as well as various diately started babbling extended family who aunts, uncles, nieces, readily drew me into nephews, and diverse about our families. other peripheral relaWe were instantly their folds. Her husband, tives all greeted me comfortable with each other and utterly thrilled Charles, their children with joy and warmth, to be meeting in the Tammy and CJ and and instantly became
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part of a comfortable circle of friends. Irene and Charles were the embodiment of perfect hosts. They guided Delberta and me all over the southern parts of the South Island, taking us to Te Anau and Milford Sound (the Homer Tunnel, a single lane though the heart of a solid granite mountain was an adventure all in itself!), Chaslands, and many smaller places along the way. Irene also took us to Kingston, Queenstown, where we rode a gondola up the mountain, to Arrowtown, Gore, Bluff, and of course, on a tour through Invercargill. A major highlight of the trip was the fabulous family dinner they put on at the local rugby club, where about 20 of the closest relatives all came to welcome the Canadian adventurers.
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We ate foods common to both our countries and foods unique to New Zealand, shared stories and visited for several hours. When it came time for us to leave, Irene rode with us back to Christchurch (stopping to visit a couple of family members along the way), coming to the airport to see us off before flying back to Invercargill herself. It was a lengthy, tearful goodbye, punctuated with promises for Irene and Charles to come visit us in B.C. in the not-too-distant future, promises that are already jelling into something more substantial than dreams. It was a trip of a lifetime, the most important item in my bucket list, and it has cemented a friendship begun all those years ago by dipping my hand into a box full of names.
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Marilyn Martin 250-855-7127
Tanya Warttig 250-302-1146
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Winter or summer outdoor adventure awaits LeRae Haynes photo
Greg Sabatino photo
Greg Sabatino photo
From top left: Bull Mountain Cross Country Ski Area, Cariboo Draft Horse and Driving Association sleigh rides, Mt. Timothy snow boarder, Mt. Timothy skiers.
Oliver Berger photo
Bottom from left: Williams Lake Golf and Tennis Club, Paddlefest on the Quesnel River in Likely, wake boarding and water skiing on Chimney Lake and mountain biking opportunities galore.
Greg Sabatino photo
Greg Sabatino photo
Greg Sabatino photo
Greg Sabatino photo
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Cariboo Potters Guild steeped in ancient art of Japanese Raku
Gaeil Farrar photos
Cariboo Potters Guild members regularly get together to fire pots in the ancient decorative Japanese firing technique of Raku. Pictured running the kilns here are Cat Prevette, Buff Carnes, Christine Schiller, Lesley Lloyd, and Joan Beck. The Raku technique is frought with danger but produces some beautiful results in the special pots created above right.
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Sustainable agriculture at Slater Mountain Farm Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 When Gord Keener grew up on Slater Mountain back in the 1960s and 70s with his parents, George and Bonnie, grandmother, Muriel Lee, and two siblings, Jan and Harry, he had no idea he’d return to his roots 40 years later with his gumboots on, sleeves rolled up, and looking after a menagerie of farm animals. Gord and his wife, Terry, both have stressgenerating jobs in Williams Lake and Soda Creek. Terry works with foster parents and the Canadian Mental Health Association in Williams Lake and is studying for her Bachelor of Social Work degree. Gord is the treaty manager and negotiator for the Soda Creek First Nation, and also works part time as a child protection mediator for the Attorney General’s office.
So slopping pigs, caring for hundreds of meat birds, and keeping an eye on their three dogs, handful of cattle, horses, flock of laying chickens, and one donkey, all accented by four vociferous peacocks, helps mellow them out. “It’s nice to come home and zone out here,” Gord says. When he was 18 years old, Gord left Williams Lake and joined the army. Eighteen years later, after a nine-year career in the armed services and a number of entrepreneurial jobs in Victoria, Gord returned to his hometown. Shortly after that he met Terry. “We met in 1998 and have been together since 2005,” Terry says. When they got married in 2010, Terry’s sister and brother gave them a pregnant “wedding cow,” and they started their herd. Gord worked out a deal with his dad, George
Keener, to start using the family property on the top of Slater Mountain, just north of Williams Lake. George, now in his early 80s, still lives across the meadow. Gord and Terry started slowly, seven years ago, fixing up an old trailer to live in. “When we moved up here it was October, and that’s when the adventure began,” says Terry. There wasn’t any water or sewer so Gord says his first project was to get an outhouse going. “The following year we got a sewer and septic system and dug our own waterline.” Gord refers to their place as the homestead project. Terry refers to it as the tin tent project. As they could afford to add on, they built an addition to the old mobile home, and have now made it quite comfortable. See FARM, Page 80
Sage Birchwater photo
Gord Keener with an outdoor pen full of meat chickens feeding on green grass. The cages are moved around the field regularly to keep a steady supply of grass for the birds, which are raised slower and more naturally than most commercial meat chickens.
Carmens Restaurant • Pub Conferencing Facility • Cold Beer & Wine Store Complimentary “Served” Hot Breakfast Complimentary High Speed Internet (all rooms) Choice of LAN or Wireless 250-392-3321 or 1-800-663-6898 • 1118 Lakeview Crescent www.ramadawilliamslake.ca • reservations@ramadawilliamslake.ca
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Farm work a welcome retreat from stressful jobs Continued From Page 79 “Once we are finished, you won’t know there’s an old ‘tin tent’ tucked away inside,” Gord says. Besides the pregnant cow, their early acquisi-
tions included a flock of heritage turkeys. They were a combination of Bourbon Reds and Broad Breasted Bronze, with names like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Thomas and Wishbone. Despite the best of inten-
tions they never made it to the holiday platter. “The plan was to get a couple of turkeys, save the eggs and raise our own brood,” Terry says. But it didn’t work out that way. The eggs were infertile, largely due to
Gord and Terry Keener and two of their dogs survey their barnyard and chicken pens. Both have stressful day jobs and find raising farm animals a relaxing enterprise in their off hours.
years of breeding to create bigger and meatier birds. In the process it rendered the turkeys incapable of procreating on their own. Five or six years later most of those original turkeys are still around, patrolling the barnyard like sentries. They evaded the guillotine and are now considered too old and tough for the table. Besides achieving elder status, they are considered pets alongside a handful of laying fowl long past their prime. “I have no idea if they are still laying,” Terry says. “But I’m not too worried about it.” The older brood provides company to the large battalion of freerange laying chickens actively filling the nesting boxes with eggs. In an old barn nearby, five juvenile pigs snort happily when Gord walks up to give them a pat. “They’re social animals and love affection,” he says. Last year they raised
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ten hogs but had trouble marketing all the meat, so this year they are raising five. Most of the pork is already spoken for. Gord is in the process of moving them outside onto green pasture enclosed by electric fencing. That’s how they raise all their animals. Gord and Terry call it sustainable agriculture. The most demanding side of their operation is the raising of meat birds. Again they do it sustainably on green forage from the first week of April to the end of September. Much of Terry and Gord’s horticultural work has been learn as you go. Sustainable agriculture has to work for the farmer too, as well as for the animals. And there’s always more than meets the eye when you start out on something. Raising meat birds is precision work. Timing is paramount. Chickens and turkeys take a little longer to reach butcher weight when they are
Sage Birchwater photos
Heritage turkeys and chickens run free at Slater Mountain Farm. raised outdoors and not force-fed. At the same time you don’t want to wait too long or they will get too big. The first year raising turkeys, they followed the book and ended up with birds that dressed out to 45 or 50 pounds. No one wanted to buy a turkey that big, so they had to cut them into roasts, which was ideal for the catering business
Terry and Gord were involved in at the time. “We were trying to do all sorts of things,” Gord chuckles. The ideal butcher weight of the chickens is seven or eight pounds live weight. This takes 11 or 12 weeks using the sustainable agriculture method in portable outdoor pens. See CHICKENS, Page 81
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Chickens, pigs, turkeys raised in green pastures Continued From Page 80 “The ‘quota’ chickens bought in stores and raised inside barns by commercial growers, only take eight weeks to reach butcher weight. They’re fed around the clock.” The Keeners buy dayold chicks in batches of 100 starting the first week in April. The birds progress through a series of habitat stages as they mature. Their first home is a brooding shed where they spend their first three weeks warmed by heat lamps. Then they go to a more spacious secondary brooder, still warmed by heat lights. Once they have grown their feathers they are moved into outside pens on green grass with a covered shelter area equipped with heat lamps for comfort and survival. Every week the pens are moved onto fresh green grass. Gord checks his Smart phone for his schedule.
He says the tricky part is scheduling the slaughtering and butchering with only a couple of abattoirs in the region licensed to process birds. There’s Walk-In Acres at Dragon Lake about 120 km north up Highway 97, or there’s Chilcotin Harvest at Redstone, 150 km west along Highway 20. The facilities have to be government inspected and both facilities are booked solid right through to September. That’s where it gets tricky because Gord and Terry order their batches of 100 day-old chicks three weeks apart until the second week of July. They have to have a spot secured in an abattoir for butchering when they reach 11 weeks old to make it all work. Last year they raised 500 chickens. This year they are aiming for 650. So everything has to go like clockwork. To complicate matters further, Wilma and Keith Watkin, the owners of the
Sage Birchwater photo
Gord Keener checks his hogs, who he says are quite smart and crave a little human affection and pasture time. Dragon Lake abattoir, want to retire. When it’s time to take the chickens to slaughter, Terry and Gord rent poultry shipping crates from Beaver Valley Feeds. Again it took them a while to figure out the routine. Chickens have to be caught at night while it’s still dark or you can expect a poultry ro-
deo show. The Keeners learned this the hard way. “The first time we waited until first light because we thought we’d need to see what we were doing. We were wrong. It was impossible to catch them and we had to wait until it was dark the next night,” Terry says. Though they’ve been on Slater Mountain for
nearly seven years, Terry and Gord are still experiencing a steep learning curve when it comes to figuring out what they can do there. They’ve planted a handful of fruit trees and berry bushes to see what species do best at that particular location in the Cariboo. “Our long range plans are to get into greenhous-
ing,” Gord says. “We’re going to have bees next year, and in another couple of years we want to get into beef.” After Gord’s nine years in the military, he got into a domestic cleaning business and maid service in Victoria. When he came back to Williams Lake he joined the local Legion, Branch 139 and served seven years on the executive board, and two of those years as president. He also served on the board of the Knucwentwecw Society, and is currently on the board of directors for the Growers Cooperative of the Cariboo Chilcotin. Besides running Slater Mountain Farm with Terry, Gord is taking classes toward a university degree. Like most farming operations, Slater Mountain Farm is seasonal. With the meat birds and hogs they follow the growth of the green grass to remain consistent with the
whole-harvest theory. For six months they are flat out from the beginning of April to the end of September. “Then we clean up for the year and get ready for next spring,” Terry says, sporting her Slater Mountain Farm T-shirt with the logo Where Quality Grows. “By the time September is over we’re really tired of it. But when spring rolls around, we’re looking forward to it again.” Slater Mountain Farm pastured chickens can be purchased at the Growers Co-op at 327 Oliver Street, open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Pastured turkey, chicken, eggs and pork can also be purchased directly from Terry and Gord. Contact them by email: slatermtn.farms@ xplornet.ca, or catch up to them at some of the craft fairs in the fall where they will also have an assortment of jams and preserves.
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THANK YOU, WILLIAMS LAKE, FOR OVER FORTY YEARS OF SUPPORT Princess Sue: Great granddaughter of Norman Lee, founder of Lee’s corner: cowpuncher, stampede princess, landlord, athlete, a great mother, a loving daughter, a sweet sister and a day-dream believer. Sue plans on becoming a naturopath when she grows up, but she might change her mind cuz she’s still kinda young. Rylee Smiley AKA Ry Smy is our thirteen year old guitar playing, horse and dog owning, animal loving, smart, sweet, respectful, pretty pretty, A student, martial artist and Laketown executive who may one day become a vetrinarian… but she might change her mind cuz she’s still kinda young.
Bob Singh Sunner A.K.A. Bobby loves Bob Singh Day, and invites everyone to visit him any day of the year because everyday is Bob Singh Day at Laketown Furnishings. Remember, if you see Bak Singh, let him know that Bob Singh is looking for him and plans on kicking his donkey with the help of his new buddy the Maytag Repair Man. Cole “Heavy Metal” Hegg comprises one of the most talented and hard working members of the organization. From delivering the heaviest refrigerators to executing the most delicate appliance repairs our heavy metal specialist makes light work out of any task.
William Edward “Fast Fix” Detchkoff: Many clients comment on how watching Ed work is like watching a well choreographed ballet lightly sprinkled with… inaudible curses. His lips move, but clients hear nothing until a bright smile, and a packing up of his tools signals the successful resolution of yet another appliance repair problem.
Tejeinder Singh - this speedy Singh works in our showroom from sun-up to sundown, and never stops smiling. Fast, friendly and often kind of funny.
Avtar Inderjit Singh Sunner guarantees nothing but resolves almost everything subject to his understanding that a greater power than that exercised by mice and men rules the universe. That’s why he believes it’s his fate to eat the sweet. Just what the world needs.. a philosophical appliance repair tech with a mean sweet tooth. Currently, Rolf is visiting his homeland in Switzerland. Rolf lives in the Big Lake area and loves the outdoors, hunting and the thrill of the chase. We think all non-related females in Western Europe should be warned of his arrival because it sounds like he plans on doing a lot of hunting and chasing.
Kurtis “Skinny” Samra is an interesting fellow who loves to debate the definition of chaos, and whistle. Kurtis shows great potential. Al “Gunner” Golub our doctor of appliance repairs fired cannons for Marshall Tito in Yugoslavia but now comes in on call as an appliance repair specialist.
Dazzling Dayna will be working during her summer vacation in between some well-deserved holiday time.
Thomas - our clients’ first contact when they experience difficulties with their appliances, Thomas pours his smooth voice onto the stormy seas of our clients’ frayed nerves and resolves even the most complex parts and service issues.
4 Floors and 20,000 square feet of Canadian-Made Living Room Furniture, Beds & Bedroom Suites, Dining Room Furniture, Futons, Appliances & Decor Pieces To Help You Decorate.
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Arthur James “Bond” Melnychuk a 007 secret agent who works part time wherever and whenever we need him.
AKETOWN FURNISHINGS Ltd. Savings, Service and Satisfaction since 1971
Carina The Traveler works part time when she is not wandering the world.
Tall, Darko and handsome. Newly arrived from Eastern Europe, Darko believes that our highest priority should be organizing the warehouse. When he wears his Russian mafia adidas track suit he looks a little menacing... so we all agree with him a lot.
Sasha “Systems Specialist” Pavlovic strives to turn the chaos known as Laketown Furnishings into a semblance of structure. Jeremy “The Jet” Roberts moves like a lean mean machine whether it’s on the basketball court, the showroom floor or in clients’ homes. He is Jeremy the Jet.
250-392-6933
99 North Second Avenue TOLL FREE 1-800-371-8711 www.laketownfurnishings.com
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Gaeil Farrar photo
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Tuba John and the Cariboo Pant Leg Polka
LeRae Haynes Casual Country 2013 One of the musicians I have admired most in my life is John Sykes, or ‘Tuba John.’ It was more than about his musical skill and expertise – it was at least as much about him as a person. As well as being musically talented, he was passionately dedicated to mentoring kids to love music and reach their highest potential. During my years doing ‘Borderline’ in Williams Lake, a kids’ singing group accompanied by a country/rock band, I had my first opportunity to play music with Tuba John. We learned a song by the Arrogant Worms called Canada’s Really Big and I thought it would be fun to have a tuba player join us on that tune. I’d heard John Sykes play in various brass ensembles and in school
bands and musical theatre and called him to see if he was game to try something very different. He was. He ‘YouTubed’ the song and thought it was hilarious, and although he’d never played with 25 singers, bass, acoustic and lead guitars, piano and drums, he said he’d love to join us. Then he asked me for the music. “Sure,” I said. “I’ll email it to you all charted with the lyrics, intro, leads, stops and starts, and so on.” There was a long pause. “OK, you mean the sheet music?” he asked. And in that instant I realized that we were speaking musical ‘languages’ from opposite sides of the globe. He only read notes and I only played by ear, and I truly mean ‘only.’ We both started laughing at the same time and said, “We’ll figure this out.”
And we did. He ended up not just playing that one song with us for the whole year, he learned all our songs, came to every rehearsal and joined us on stage for every performance. The kids loved him. The parents and the audiences loved him, and the guys in the band thought it was so cool to play with him. He gleefully learned Keith Urban, Great Big Sea, Hillary Duff, Blue Rodeo, Bryan Adams, Sheryl Crow and Creedence Clearwater Revival. He played country, pop, reggae, classic rock and folk. On the tuba. Sometimes with kids on kazoos. By the time I invited a bagpiper to join us on a couple of songs, Tuba John was an old hand. I got the pipes and the tuba to play a duet for a Blue Rodeo intro, borrowing a couple of sax riffs. “Go like this starting on low F, la, la, la LA!” See BY, Page 85
Gaeil Farrar photo
Tuba John Sykes was a leader in providing Christmas music for the community. Here he performs with the Williams Lake Community Band at the 2011 Tuba John Christmas event held at St. Andrew’s United Church. The annual event also includes performances by the Seniors’ Choir, Quintet Plus choir and Cariboo Men’s Choir.
TOUR DE CARIBOO - SEPTEMBER 7TH Set your next fitness challenge on the Tour de Cariboo, a 76km bike ride from Williams Lake to Gavin Lake.
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ounging on the beach, fishing in Quesnel Lake, or visiting Cedar City Museum, a trip to Likely is a treasured experience for travellers who are lucky enough to find their way there. If you arrive on the May long weekend you will be able to take in the world’s shortest but most enthusiastic parade. In summer, the locals get together with teams from all around the region for a popular competitive fun ball tournament. Of course there are endless opportunities for fishing, camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking and other outdoor sports. Situated where the west arm of Quesnel Lake empties into the Quesnel River, Likely is one of the few remaining gold rush settlements. That early history is reflected in the decor of the famous Likely Deacon Hotel - affectionately called the Likely Hilton by locals. Quesnel Lake is the largest lake in the Cariboo and the deepest fjord lake in the world, with more than 500 km of scenic shoreline. One spot in the lake is over 610 metres deep. Likely, at the west end of the lake, was originally called Quesnel Dam. The name was changed to honour John A. Likely of the Bullion Pit Mine. He was affectionately called Plato for his tendency to philosophize. In 1898 the Quesnel River was dammed near Likely to enable downriver areas to be explored for gold. During the last week of October in 1922, more than 697 ounces of gold were recovered at the Cedar Creek Mine. In 1935 the Bullion Pit became the site of the largest hydraulic monitors ever
76km a bit much for you?
installed in North America. It operated from 1892 to 1942, constructing over 64 kilometres of canals to draw water from nearby lakes and creeks to feed the hydraulic nozzles. In fact, Morehead Lake was created to supply water to the Bullion mine. Today, the Bullion Pit attracts many tourists. It stands as an astonishing man-made canyon which can be viewed from the road to Likely or a trail above. Plan a visit to Likely in late August and watch thousands of salmon migrate up the Quesnel River to their spawning grounds in the Horsefly and Mitchell Rivers. Cedar Point, now a park and campground has mining artifacts and displays positioned throughout. You will not want to miss the historic mining museum located at Cedar Point. For more information on what to do in Likely, call 250-790-2323 or call the Williams Lake Visitor Centre at 1-877-967-5253 or locally at 392-5025.
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By written note and ear, musicians find their way Continued From, Page 84 I’d yell, and he’d nail it perfectly, to the delight of the whole band. He was fearless and creative and a huge inspiration to the kids. A few years later my singing partner Cindy Lightfoot and I were headed into the studio to record our first Perfect Match CD, and I had another opportunity to cross musical paths with him. I decided that it would be perfect to have Tuba John play on my original song, Cariboo Pant Leg Polka, and I gave him a call. He said yes with no hesitation whatsoever. He had never been recorded in a studio before and our studio master technician had never had a tuba player in his studio before, but it went like clockwork. John showed up with sheet music he created on his computer, based on an audio file of me
singing the song with my keyboard that I sent him by text message. He added so much to the song and we were all delighted. Along with the other guest studio musicians who played on Stop on the Bridge, Tuba John joined us on stage for our CD release party and fundraiser for DESEA Peru. It was that night that he told us that he had been diagnosed with cancer. When the community rallied to hold a musical celebration fundraiser for his family a few months later, 500 people showed up at the Elks Hall to show their support and love. There were high school band students he had played with and mentored, fellow musicians from Cariboo Gold, friends from the community band and the Cariboo Men’s Choir and many more. When I walked in the hall that afternoon, the
first thing I saw stopped me dead in my tracks. The centrepieces on the tables were wound with copies of his tuba music for Cariboo Pant Leg Polka. I was so moved and astonished. I was struck with the thought that, of all the ‘real’ pieces of sheet music he’d played over the years, all the songs he’d played with ‘proper’ musical notation, here was an original tune he played with an illiterate amateur who simply thought he was wonderful, and invited him on a musical escapade. It was an honour beyond belief and I instantly choked up and couldn’t speak. When I attended his celebration of life, by far the liveliest event of that sort you could ever imagine, I was still reeling from the thought of those centrepieces. For all my life I will remember the great satisfaction and fun we had playing music with
him, and will never forget that barriers are really only what you make them out to be. When you have music in your heart and find a project you love, it doesn’t matter how you usually play, what musical ‘language’ you speak, or what other instruments you’re used to playing with. The joy of playing, trying something new and maybe inspiring someone along the way, melts barriers away and lets the music ring. Thank you, Tuba John. Rest in peace. Whether it was Stampede, Cariboo Festival or other community events John Sykes and his wife, Debbie, were there on the front lines lending their help and enthusiasm to the cause. Debbie carried on his legacy at Cariboo Festival this spring by presenting the Tuba John bursaries for promising music students on his behalf.
LeRae Haynes photo
A song written by ear is given notes on a sheet music page for the tuba by the late “Tuba” John Sykes.
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Tourism’s wild ride west of the Fraser River Sage Birchwater Casual Country 2013 Tourism is the biggest industry in the world, says Petrus Rykes, a partner in Eagle’s Nest Resort on Anahim Lake, and past president of the West Chilcotin Tourism Association. “Everyone’s a tourist at one time or other,” Rykes says. In changing times, he says the industry’s ability to diversify and be flexible is key to its survival. “The world has changed and you have to be a jack of all trades to live out here,” Rykes says, reflecting on the Chilcotin work ethic and lifestyle. “Working nine to five is not an option in this country. If a client calls you at midnight because they’re stuck on the road somewhere, you have to respond.” At the same time, one operator can’t be everything to everybody, he
adds. So co-operation amongst lodge owners, horse packing outfits, air charter operators and eating establishments has become the new normal. “There are challenges here in the West Chilcotin, so working together benefits everybody,” Petrus insists. Despite the need to diversify and be more things to more people, each operator has a specialty or certain attribute they excel in, a particular clientele they cater to or appeal to, and some things they do better than others. To give your guests the supernatural experience they are looking for, often means spreading the wealth. And there are definite benefits to that. For instance Eagle’s Nest Resort specializes in fancy dining. Other operators like Bill and Darlene Van Es of Escott Bay Resort offer horse packing trips. Duncan Stewart of Stewart’s Re-
Sage Birchwater photo
Darlene and Bill Van Es in their Escott Bay Resort on Anahim Lake. sort on Nimpo Lake runs Tweedsmuir Air charter service. Donn Irwin of The Dean on Nimpo is marketing his four-star resort as a retreat centre. If a guest wants to take a floatplane excur-
sion into the mountains, Petrus will send them to Tweedsmuir Air at Stewart’s Lodge, or if they want to go horseback riding he will set them up with Bill Van Es or Rainbow Mountain Outfitters.
Likewise if guests at the other lodges want a fine dining experience, they might arrange something for them at Eagle’s Nest for that special touch. “Not many years ago the lodge owners be-
tween Nimpo and Anahim Lake were fighting it out,” Petrus says. “Now we’re working together a lot more.” That probably explains his 12 passionate years as president of the West Chilcotin Tourism Association (WCTA) and involvement with the provincial Council of Tourism Associations (COTA). Now he has handed the WCTA torch to Bill Van Es. Tourism operators are in agreement about one thing: the region’s untouched wilderness is its number one asset. “The highway past our place is still gravel,” Rykes boasts. His place is the last outpost past Anahim Lake before Highway 20 climbs to the summit of Heckman Pass in Tweedsmuir Park and descends through the Coast Mountains to the Bella Coola Valley. “There are still horses and cattle on the high-
way,” Rykes continues. “There’s no cell phone service out here, and there’s spectacular wilderness scenery and wildlife. The Chilcotin pace of life is totally different.” Bill Van Es agrees. He and his wife, Darlene, have owned Escott Bay Resort on Anahim Lake since 1982, and have operated it as a fishing resort since 1986. “All we really have here is wilderness. There aren’t too many wineries or golf courses.” Bill and Darlene have watched the tourism industry change over the three decades they’ve been in the business. “People used to just come to go fishing,” Bill says. “Back in the 1980s there were three or four flying outfits. Now we are down to one or two. In the old days we’d just sit here and the resort would fill up.” See TODAY’S, Page 87
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Today’s visitors want it all -- wilderness, flightseeing -- showers Continued From Page 86 There were many more fishing lodges then too. But the era of the old-time fisherman has passed. People still fish. But now they like to do other things like flight-seeing, hiking in the mountains, canoeing, horseback riding, and then expect the amenities like showers and indoor plumbing. Twenty years ago Bill and Darlene began offering horseback trips. “We do four-day packtrips,” he says. “I go to the Itchas and Ilgatchuz. This requires we have a commercial recreation license, park use permit, and liability insurance.” He says they pay $6,000 in taxes, $9,000 for insurance, and $3,000 in fees. All this contributes to the overhead of operating a resort, but Bill says that is the price of doing business. “I’m not complaining because it’s the lifestyle we’ve chosen.” One of the biggest challenges is connecting with the psyche of the ever-changing tourism clientele. “We’ve got to get young people engaged. “Young people aren’t connecting to the wilderness like they once did. We get kids here totally bored. They’re lost without a cell phone at the end of their hand.” At the same time the lodges are changing with the times. Most of them have Wi-Fi connections for their guests. Bill says the West Chilcotin experience is an important contribution to the well-being of society. “You get somebody up in the mountains, they get exhilarated and have a good sleep,” Bill says. “It just grounds you. But to have a thriving tourism business in this region, we need people.” Tracing the history of the West Chilcotin Tourism Association, he says it evolved out of the Chilcotin Survival Coalition. Thirty years ago a group of lodge and resort owners banded together with trappers, guide outfitters, First Nations and local citizens to oppose clearcut logging. “We were very protective of our landbase,” Bill says. “We started re-
Sage Birchwater photo
Don Irwin (left), Bill Van Es, Petrus Rykes, Gerald Kirby, Heidy Lenz and Julie McMann are on the executive of the West Chilcotin Tourism Association which is pulling together to provide more and varied adventure opportunities for people visiting the region. alizing that the massive logging plans proposed to address the mountain pine beetle epidemic were a threat to our viewscapes, quality of fishing, riparian zones, wildlife survival, and our livelihoods.” What emerged out of that was the Anahim Round Table (ART) where the different sectors with a stake in the landbase, sat down together with government agencies and negotiated how things should be done. Each sector explained to the others at the table what their needs and priorities were, and a land use document was eventually drawn up which each sector signed off on. It took a long time. One of the measures to protect the lakes and rivers was to create noharvest zones around them. A similar process took place regionally, following the lead of the Anahim Round Table. The CORE process in Williams Lake took several years to develop, and the historic the Cariboo Chilcotin Land Use Plan (CCLUP) was the result. The ART was incorporated into the CCLUP as the official subregion-
Sage Birchwater photo
Dave Chamberlain repairs boat motors at Escott Bay Resort. al plan, and remains in force today, guiding all logging operations. Bill says the tourism sector at the Anahim
Round Table ran under the banner, West Chilcotin Sports Fishing Association. Later the group adopted the name West
Chilcotin Tourism Association. Regionally the WCTA forms part of the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast Tourism Association
(CCCTA). Heidy Lenz of Atnarko Lodge on Charlotte Lake, has been the program co-ordinator for the WCTA since June of 2008. When she started there were 30 members, now there are 47 and the membership is growing. The organization serves the geographic area from Tatla Lake to Tweedsmuir Park, but there are exceptions. “We’ve got one member from Puntzi Lake and just had someone join from Bella Coola,” Heidy says. One of Heidy’s biggest contributions has been her work to create a social media presence on the internet to market the region. This past year she added a German language component to the website. Petrus Rykes credits Heidy for being so proactive. “The secondmost hits on the website after English, came from German speaking people,” he says. Heidy and her partner Daniel, built their lodge on property settled in the 1950s on Charlotte Lake. With their business located several kilometres off Highway 20, Heidy is well aware that a significant number of op-
erators in the West Chilcotin are located off the beaten track. “What makes the Chilcotin what it really is, are the mom and pop businesses like ours,” she says. Another operator off the beaten track is the Skinner Creek ESL Summer Camp run by Julie McMann of Tatlayoko Valley. “She organizes two summer camps for kids from all over the world,” Heidy says. “It’s something unique and she works hard to give kids from Asia, Europe and Mexico the opportunity to become Chilcotin cowboys and cowgirls and learn English at the same time.” Heidy built an impressive Facebook site for the WCTA that keeps you up-to-date with what’s happenings with members and the organization. One example is a recent posting by the new owners of Nuk Tessli, the wilderness mountain retreat started by author, Chris Czajkowski, three decades ago in the Charlotte Alplands. The new owners, father and son, Doron Erel and Sela Bucovetsky, have taken Chris’s alpine hiking exploration retreat to a new level. They are both experienced mountaineers and ecotourism enthusiasts. On Facebook they brand their business couched in the alpine along the western fringe of Tweedsmuir Park, as being on the edge of the Great Bear Rainforest. Now that’s seeing the region from a broad perspective. Heidy says the pair want to develop a hutto-hut wilderness hiking experience, similar to that found in Europe. “The difference is that in Europe you are constantly running into other parties. In the West Chilcotin you are often the only one out there.” The West Chilcotin Tourism Association is a volunteer organization and Heidy manages communication between the board and its members. The WCTA website is www.visitthewestchilcotin.com. Its Facebook page can be found by typing in West Chilcotin.
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The Blanketing debuts in lakecity
Skye Raffard photo
William Belleau reunites with his former forestry instructor, Peter Opie.
Trevor Mack with organizer Krista Liebe, who made no-bake treats for the gala that was held in the Gibraltar Room.
Gaeil Farrar photos
The Blanketing starred several noted professional First Nations actors as well as first time local actors Don Wise (left) chatting with Chris Hicks, and Preston Moe (above left) with Sheila Mack and long-time professional actor William Belleau of Alkali Lake.
Xatsull Heritage Village Welcome to our traditional Heritage Village Located next to the majestic Fraser River, Xatsull Heritage Village offers guided tours and educational workshops, traditional meals and authentic accommodation in a teepee or pithouse.
Thanks to the efforts of Williams Lake Film Club organizer Krista Liebe, student filmmaker Trevor Mack (above centre) launched his poignant short film The Blanketing this spring with all the fanfare of a Hollywood premiere. Pictured above gathered at the memory wall are cousins Jessica Mack, Rebecca Mack, Dakota Singh, Trevor Mack, Kristan Harvey, Travis Singh, Karlene Harvey, Nicole Mack, and Steven Laurie. Prior to showing The Blanketing, Mack talked about and presented several of his early films, starting with recording some dangerous trampoline stunts, and moving to more recent award-winning short films.
Williams Lake Daybreak Rotary Club “Service Above Self”
Rotary Gazebo at Serenity Garden in Williams Lake Cemetary.
the Daybreak Rotary donated two benches to the new Dog Park in Boi tanio Park.
For reservations 250.989.2311 www.xatsullheritagevillage.com
ing cleaning Club Members spent a Saturday morn ue between their ‘Adopt-a-Block’ street - 1st Aven Yorston and Comer.
Full service hair salon & esthetics
Amber & Jody
778-412-2006 • 131 - 2nd Ave. N.
2013 Stampede Queen Contestant, Miss Daybreak Rotary Rachel Abrahams e and President Lori Macala.
Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka and Daybreak Rotary President Lori Macala. Lori was one of 8 Club Presidents chosen to have lunch with RI President Tanaka in Vancouver.
Daybreak Rotary’s Stampede Parade float filled with BC Rotary Exchange Students from around the world.
Daybreak Rotary meets every Tuesday morning at 7:00 a.m. at The Hearth Restaurant - 99 South 3rd Ave.
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Only in the Cariboo Chilcotin Horsefly all abuzz at follies time
Gaeil Farrar Casual Country 2013 What do you do in Horsefly in winter when the snow is as high as an elephant’s eye and eating out boils down to a hot dog or slice of pizza at the local service station or corner store? Well if you are among locals who love to act and sing, you make your own entertainment thinking up, writing and producing silly skits for a spring tradition called The Horsefly Follies. The follies, as they were dubbed by their late and beloved founder Blue Wright, have been a fundraising tradition in Horsefly for 29 years this year. “Well, we’re all rehearsed, we won’t blow our lines, and we’re sure not nervous because, of the thrill that’ll getcha, when
we get our picture, on the cover of the Horsefly Buzz (or Tribune Weekend) or the Tribune!” the troupe wrote for one of the songs in this year’s follies titled After Hours. The follies were directed this year by local artist and western town bed and breakfast owner Christina Mary. Mary says they pretty much work on the follies all year, researching ideas for skits and jokes on the internet. “What happens After Hours? We used our imaginations!” Mary says. One of the hilarious scenes incorporated into the follies this year were plans for a very unusual instrument. At first it looked like the trench coat, fedora wearing cast was bringing on a scene from the Godfather where everyone would lay dying at the end.
Then all of a sudden the actors sauntered to the front of the stage, flung open their coats and out popped frying pans attached to ladles, attached to strings inside the coats that made the ladles pop up and bang the frying pans in some musical mayhem. Some strings broke forcing the actors to play by hand and adding more hilarity to the scene. Horsefly Follies is a non-profit group that raises funds to support the operation of the Horsefly Community Hall and community programs such as the children’s swim lessons on the shores of Horsefly Lake each summer. There’s a toned down night for the kids and a more raunchy version of the follies on adult night, which includes a live auction, door prizes and a bar.
Jeff Jenner (left), Paul Redford, Dawn Bigg, and Ernie Gruhs in the somewhat unorthodox musical instrument scene. Gruhs has acted in 22 of the 29 follies. “I enjoy the camaraderie and the practices. I think there is as much fun over the four months we practice as doing the show,” Gruhs says. “There are always new faces and returning faces. It’s always fun.” The cast and crew of the 2013 follies After Hours (at left) are Kathy Veninga (back left), Dawn Bigg, Walter Hlookoff, Chris Gruhs; Mariska Redford (middle left), Paul Redford, Sandy Tugnum, Pauline Williams, Ernie Gruhs; Jeff Jenner (front left) and Christina Mary. Right (centre) Ernie Gruhs as his female persona Ernestine the barmaid.
Gaeil Farrar photos
In this skit from the 2013 Horsefly Follies After Hours an overtired wife is expected to host a late night visit by her husband’s boss but just can’t seem to stay awake.
Working behind the scenes Michelle Khong helped with the make-up for the actors. Here she makes Dawn Bigg into a child who will sit at the knee of the follies narrator Christina Mary.
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A SoloS Production — all about a balance Greg Sabatino Casual Country 2013 Palindrome: A word, phrase, number or other sequence of symbols or elements, whose meaning may be interpreted the same way in either forward or reverse direction. Mitch Cheek, however, isn’t moving in reverse. The Williams Lake native is quickly skyrocketing his career and his company, SoloS Productions, to heights he’d never dreamed of, all the while incorporating the palindrome and its balance into his life and his company. Growing up in Chimney Valley in the early 1980s Cheek, now 33, was always spending time outdoors messing around with his three brothers or with friends. Reflecting back, Cheek says it’s probably what helped shaped him and his future profession. He’s since put together an impressive body of work, having been hired to do adventure and outdoor film work by such companies as The Discovery Channel, Red Bull and NBC. He’s filmed for the world-famous Kranked mountain biking video series, The Discovery Channel’s Highway Through Hell — a documentary series about the dangers of the Coquihalla Highway in the winter time — and the Red Bull Supernatural snowboarding competition. “I grew up on the farm at the end of Chimney Valley,” Cheek says. “I had a lot of space to run around and go fishing in the creek down there when I was a kid — building tree forts and that kind of stuff. My two older brothers would always try to get me to do things, and I was their test dummy.” Building things, digging bike jumps and being outside — Cheek quickly discovered a playground with unlimited potential, right in his back yard. While finishing up his high school education at Williams Lake Junior Secondary and then Columneetza Senior Secondary, Cheek
was hired by a fledgling businessman, Mark Savard, who had just recently opened a mountain biking shop in Williams Lake called Red Shred’s Bike and Board Shed. During that time a passion for riding, building and all things mountain biking would begin to take shape. “Basically I just loved being outside,” Cheek says. “A big thing I started was trail building, so I built a bunch of trails around town and built a bunch of trails around Kamloops. Basically every time I got injured riding I would build a trail. All my friends at the time were professional riders and they really liked the trails that I built.” His first “break” came when one of his good friends, Williams Lake pro rider James Doerfling, was chosen to be featured in Kranked 6, a video series showcasing extreme freeride mountain biking. Cheek wanted to build the section of the trail Doerfling would ride in the video. “Kranked came out and it was the first time they’d ever come to a shoot where in six days they got the whole edit, and it was his favourite edit of that whole video,” Cheek says. “At the same time I was kind of doing some behindthe-scenes photography. He’s like, ‘Man, you’ve got the eye.’ He said, ‘I’ve got an extra camera, how about you come on for Kranked 7 and you can go out and do all the set design and then just start running with the camera, just
Photos submitted
Williams Lake’s Mitch Cheek hangs out of a helicopter doing film work for The Discovery Channel’s Highway Through Hell. playing with the camera.’” From there Cheek began doing film work and photography work for almost all of the mountain biking companies he’d built trails for, making contacts and connections along the way. His very first film shoot came the following year at Kranked 7 in Switzerland. “They were just starting to do some trail building in the area but they didn’t really understand how to build quite yet,” he says. “I got real-
ly big into building and ended up building a major contest in Chantelle, France, which became comparable to Crankworx. It was the second biggest competition in all of mountain biking, which was amazing.” It wasn’t until after Kranked 7, however, that Cheek decided to launch his own company. “Finally I was like, OK, I’m making everybody else money, so maybe I should think about making my own company and start
Mitch Cheek follows behind Kamloops pro rider Matt Hunter during a film shoot in Chile.
making money for myself and it’s going good now, two years in business.” Trying to think up a name, Cheek quickly ran into several stumbling blocks. “Every time I did a Google search for any name it would always be taken,” he says. “So I decided I needed to make up a word and I wanted to do a palindrome, something with symmetry. I really wanted to work with the letter S — it kind of looks like ski turns, and then
the second word I came up with was solos. I was like, man, this is who I am.” He’d been an individual working for every company out there but was now breaking free. “And the reason why I’m breaking free is because of all my friends that are in the professional world,” he says. “Basically it’s a whole bunch of individuals coming together to make my company as plural individuals.” From there SoloS Productions was born. Cheek’s done commercial work in Croatia, Slovenia and Austria for a rock fall fence company and he’s filmed mountain biking videos in Chile. More recently he’s started to film ski and snowboard videos, including having worked with one of the best freeskiers in the world, Tanner Hall, and worked the past two years as part of the film crew for The Discovery Channel’s Highway Through Hell. “That was pretty wild,” he says of the experience. “Basically they hired me to be an action photographer. They wanted someone who could be in a helicopter and just get out there and not complain about being in the elements.” His job was to film accidents and weather sequences along some of the more dangerous sections of the Coquihalla Highway for the show, which highlights how treacherous the highway can be for truck drivers in the winter. “A lot of the job
Mitch Cheek sets up a camera for a mountain biking film shoot.
was to go to the Great Bear Snow Shed and just wait for accidents,” he says. “I would park right at the snow shed and then I would just hike up and down the hill. As it would snow there would be like a five-minute window before the snow plows started coming through so that five minutes I’d be on alert. They needed crashing, spinning out, kind of everything.” A scary moment occurred one day during filming during an interview Cheek was conducting with one of the snow plow drivers. “I was in the plow truck interviewing the driver for the show and an avalanche came down and actually smoked us out,” he says. “We were getting hit with shrapnel. They shut down the whole highway. I was the only guy on the hill at the time so half of that TV show was just my filming.” Cheek now calls Kamloops home base, but it’s not often he spends time there. When he gets the chance to come back to Williams Lake, he says that’s the biggest treat of them all. “I’ve been at this for 10 years now,” he says. “Kamloops is home base, but I’m never there. I live on the road. I rented a house in November and I’ve been there 11 days since. My film work just takes me everywhere. “I travel all over the world with my job but every time I come back to Williams Lake it’s like one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. I can’t say enough to all the people I see everywhere. “It’s the most diverse and beautiful place I’ve been, and the scene there is just great. I’m thankful to Mark Savard and all those guys, they started something amazing here, and it shows. “The bike scene, people kayaking — it’s really active. When you get away from it a bit you always appreciate it when you get back to it.” To check out some of Cheek’s work visit www. solosproductions.com.
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Only in the Cariboo Chilcotin A vineyard of dreams along the Fraser
Monica Lamb-Yorski Casual Country 2013
He’s built it so he hopes they will come. This September Kim Barrowman’s vineyard along the West Fraser River Road will be ready for its first U-Pick season. Originally from Colorado, Barrowman has lived in the Cariboo for five years. A mining engineer, who has worked all over the world, he arrived in the region to work at Gibraltar Mines five years ago and retired three years ago. Initially he lived in Williams Lake in a company house, but really wanted to live by the water. He’d seen the property advertised yet wasn’t aware of the Rudy Johnson bridge, until one day while exploring, he accidentally discovered a “bloody bridge.” Immediately he contacted a real estate agent, visited the property, and noticed how wonderful the garden on the property was. “They’d been picking and there were fivegallon buckets filled with everything,” Barrowman recalls. He walked down to the river, saw there was a little beach, came back up and said he wanted to buy it. With a bull dozer he cleared more of the hillside on the property because a vineyard is supposed to be on a slope. His foray into developing a vineyard was unintentional. Four years ago he saw some grapevines at Canadian Tire and bought four to see if they would work. “Sure enough, they lasted the winter so I bought some more,” Barrowman says. “It gets really hot out here though. It’s a banana belt. We have lots of sun. In the winter we don’t get as much but in the summer it’s hot.” There are 2,500 plants growing now and normally it takes four years before the first grapes are ready to harvest. He planted a “bunch”
Monica Lamb-Yorski photos
Barrowman Vineyard along the West Fraser Road is in a “banana belt,” says owner Kim Barrowman. Four years ago he began developing the vineyard and will be ready to open a U-Pick in September 2013. last year and has been “pleasantly surprised” that in their second year they are going to yield some grapes. “Weed is a four letter word,” he admits. “There’s a lot of weeding. I have a neighbour who helps me out four hours a week, but she’s going to put in more time now.” There is no shortcut. “You have to get on your hands and knees and pull them out.” Through trial and error he has learned the most important thing is pruning as he shows off some vines. “You have to cut them down every year to the bottom wire, they’ve grown a foot in a couple of weeks,” he explains. “Eventually the stocks will get big and I’m not a hundred per cent sure how to get them to spread out, but I’ll get it figured out.” When asked if it’s been suggested he couldn’t establish a vineyard in the Cariboo region, Barrowman hints instead he has a lot of people watching him. “It’s been a lot of work, putting in all the irrigation, the drips, I’m very lucky I have a spring across the road so all my water is gravity fed. I have a timer on a post.” Plants shouldn’t be watered when their
young though, he warns. “You want the roots to go deep. I’ve planted about a foot down and they will go as far as three feet.” Last summer he had a metal roof put on his house and ended up getting a deal on a dump truck load of used asphalt shingles to place along the rows of vines. They keep the heat in and the weeds out. His soil is really good, he adds. “There’s not a rock
out there. It’s sandy, loamy soil. You’ll never see the rain run off the surface, it just goes down. It’s sandy too and it depends who you talk to, they like sandy for sure, but some say the more gravel you’ve got the better it is for the grapes.” He’s also installed a geothermal system to replace wood heat in his house and he has a wind turbine for electricity. Since starting the venture, he’s read whatever he can, and has vis-
ited various vineyards in the Kelowna area where his daughter Mia lives, and asked “a lot of dumb questions.” Emma, his other daughter is a ballerina with the Munich Ballet. She attended school at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet through her teenage years. Both girls visit regularly and love the place, their dad says. “They come out and help, get down and dirty, run the tractor and the bulldozer.”
Retired mining engineer Kim Barrowman says he’s learned that pruning and weeding are crucial in cultivating a vineyard. Birds, bears, and deer like grapes he’s discovered, and will usually wait for the grapes to sweeten. He has been buying grapes from Gatineau, Que. “You get a bare root that arrives in the mail. It’s basically a cane with a couple of buds on it and a few roots on the bottom.” The type of grapes he is growing are Frontenacs, developed by a Swede at the University of Minnesota to survive cold climates.
By May 26 grapes are emerging on the vines at Kim Barrowman’s Vineyard along the West Fraser Road, and will be ready for picking in September.
“There was a good article in McLean’s a few weeks ago and they mentioned Frontenac twice as being a hardy grape that makes very good wines.” When he received his first crates of vines, his brother sent him a bottle of wine made from the Frontenac grapes. Barrowman called him on the phone and asked him if he had a cork screw handy. “He was at his cottage on the lake. He cracked open his bottle and I cracked open mine and we tasted it together,” he recalls. At one point he considered adding more terraces and expanding, but realized it’s a hell of a lot of work, and way more for one person, and gave up on the idea. Last year he planted 1,000 plants and several neighbours helped him. He’s given away cuttings galore and the more he gets into it he envisions more vineyards emerging. “My chiropractor has an acreage out by the Sheep Creek bridge and he’s haying right now, but I gave him a bunch of vines,” he says. Barrowman anticipates 2013 will be a good year. “I hope it’s not too dry, because I got evacuated twice the summer of all fires,” he says.
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Likely research centre draws scientists from around the world Gaeil Farrar Casual Country 2013 The Quesnel River Research Centre in Likely draws researchers and science students from around the globe. The centre is part of the University of Northern B.C. in Prince George and, as might be expected of a former fish hatchery, much of the research happening there has to do with salmon and salmon habitat. People come from all over the world to do research at the centre or take the full credit course in limnology offered by UNBC. Limnology is the study of lakes and Quesnel Lake is special among lakes in B.C., if not the world. “We sit on one of the most interesting lakes in B.C.,” says research centre manager Sam Albers. “It is like taking an art student to see the Sistine Chapel. In some ways the lake behaves more like an ocean and then, of course, it is also of interest as an important salmon rearing system.” He says the two-week intensive limnology course takes place at the centre in late April and early May, after regular university courses are finished and early enough for students to still find summer jobs. The timing of the course also coincides with an interesting time of temperature change in the lake between winter and summer, Albers says. The research centre has a dorm and communal kitchen to accommodate up to 14 visiting researchers for several months at a time. Last year he says three masters students from the University of Utrecht in Holland and a student from Plymouth University in England worked at the centre for the entire summer. He says the students from Holland were studying river behaviour and different aspects of tracing sediment in rivers. The student from England is working as a research assistant on several projects and finding out what it is like to work as a field scientist. Albers says Laszlo Enyedy, the research cen-
tre’s maintenance supervisor, is a valuable asset for researchers with his knowledge about how to build things that are needed for experiments being conducted there. “So much research is really done out of the hardware store so a person like Laz, who is creative mechanically, is essential,” Albers says. Albers was hired as the research centre’s full-time manager last August. Albers was quite familiar with the centre’s operations having worked as a research assistant for four summers while completing his masters degree in environmental science at UNBC. He earned his bachelor of science at the University of Victoria. Albers and his wife, Brooke, moved to Likely full-time last August as newly weds and are expecting their first baby in July. Brooke is a teaching assistant at Likely school and spent part of the winter working on a musical with the students. She also enjoys art and is working with the Cariboo Potters Guild. In addition to co-ordinating, organizing, and administrative work at the research centre, Albers is assisting Dr. Ellen Petticrew and Dr. Phil Owens, the Endowed Chairs of Landscape Ecology at UNBC, with their research projects. Part of Albers’ work also involves seeking out grants and partnerships to further research at the centre. “The research station is best viewed as a resource for expertise and collaboration,” Albers says. “It is funded through a provincial endowment, but we are also trying to figure out ways to branch out and have meaningful relationships with communities. We need to see where partnerships might be formed, identify who will do the work and where funding will come from to do the work.” One of Albers’ first steps toward community collaboration taken last fall was to co-host with Dr. Petticrew and Dr. Owens science town hall meetings with the Horsefly River Roundtable in Horsefly and with the Scout Island Nature Centre at Thompson Rivers
Photos submitted
Rob Little of Plymouth University in England (left) and Sam Albers don’t actually get their feet wet while surveying the channel bed in the Horsefly River spawning channel. University in Williams Lake. “These meetings were a chance for community members who work, live, and/or recreate in the Quesnel River Watershed to discuss land use issues with the research centre faculty and staff,” Albers says. For the past few years he says people have been very concerned about a marked decline in the numbers of salmon returning to spawn in the Quesnel Lake/River watershed, which includes the Horsefly River and spawning channels. Even among scientist Albers says it is not well understood what contributes to a dominant spawning year for salmon. This fall is supposed to be the first dominant year for salmon returns to
Sam Albers and Peng Wu (UNBC) operate a continuous flow centrifuge on the Horsefly River to remove suspended sediments from the river for subsequent analysis. The sediments, an important component of the freshwater ecosystem, were being analyzed for the presence of marine derived salmon nutrients to help draw a better picture of the role of salmon in interior watersheds. the Quesnel Lake/River watershed since the 2009 sockeye salmon collapse. “Many people will be looking the Quesnel sys-
tem to see if it experiences a bounce back year,” Albers says. Albers says much of his research has focused
on the impact that decaying salmon has on water quality in spawning rivers for the next generations of salmon. Based on research conducted out of the centre, Albers says there is no indication that an overabundance of decaying salmon in the river is responsible for the decline in salmon stocks. Many of the dead or dying salmon are dragged out of the river after they spawn by bears and other predators to be eaten. Uneaten remains also provide nutrients for the forests along the river. But there is more to this commonly told story. Research at the QRRC has focused more the stream itself, Albers says. Decaying fish nutrients can bind with sediment and algae in the water
Laszlo Enyedy (left) and Sam Albers reel in scientific instrumentation on Quesnel Lake in the hopes of catching a big scientific discovery.
column enhancing settling onto the stream-bed providing an in-stream ecosystem “boost.” This boost is ultimately transferred up the food web to juvenile salmon. “Successive projects done out of the QRRC has identified some key mechanisms regulating the timing and magnitude of this boost,” says Albers. “I’d like to emphasize that this is definitely one of our areas of expertise.” He says researcher, Alex Koiter, is also developing research methods outside of the fisheries context for tracing sediment through water. Part of that research involves collecting sediment in the Beaver Valley lakes chain and setting up artificial test rivers using troughs and flumes from the old hatchery to simulate and trace the way sediment runs through water. The studies have applications in the research around methods for maintaining clean rivers and groundwater supplies. “Climate change is obviously a big issue for everyone and has an effect on the entire landscape,” Albers says. In the long term Albers will also be reviewing research studies that have been done at the centre to produce summary documents that might guide future research. He says representatives from ranching, mining, forestry, First Nations, provincial and federal government officials and other stakeholders were invited to participate in the workshops last fall and to offer suggestions on future research. While the centre works primarily in the study of landscape ecology, he says they don’t necessarily have boundaries on what is studied there. If they can’t help, he says they may be able to refer people to organizations or researchers who can help. “Some things are out of our budget or scope but some things are not,” Albers says. You don’t have to be an expert to notice changes in your environment.” Albers can be contacted at 250-790-2031 or by e-mail at samuel.albers@ unbc.ca.
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CASUAL COUNTRY 2013 - 93
Humble pine provides springtime sweets
Megan Dilbone Casual Country 2013 The nutritious springtime candy of First Peoples in British Columbia comes from the lodgepole pine cambium. Stick a muck-a-muck, a Chinook term roughly meaning, “that one can eat wood,” was used by G.M. Dawson in June 1876 to describe the consumption of lodgepole pine cambium in the Chilcotin region. However, Dawson characterized this traditional food terribly wrong. Eating pine cambium in the spring is far from eating anything made of wood. In the spring, when the vascular tissues are prime for harvesting, tree cambium scrapes off the woody pith in long, white, translucent ribbons which are extremely sweet, tender, and palatable. Consumed as a sweet treat, medicine and trail food, lodgepole pine cambium was once so
popular among First Peoples of Interior B.C., Canada and surrounding states of the U.S. that it was considered a universal food. However, harvesting decreased in practice in the early 1900s due to the introduction of processed sugar and economic interests of forestry in the area. Today, the mountain pine beetle poses similar challenges. Lodgepole pine cambium is prime to harvest every spring, from healthy trees, in late May or early June when the vascular cambium is reactivated in temperate environments by warming temperatures, increased photoperiod, and a flush of the hormone indoleacetic acid from the apex of the tree. Environmental indicators of ripening include pollen cones releasing pollen, new needles emerging, and outer bark, which is easily stripped from the tree. See LODGEPOLE, Page 95
Photo submitted
Megan Dilbone with a sliver of lodgepole pine cambium which is a traditional First Nations sweet and nutritious springtime treat. As a master’s student in the department of environmental studies at the University of Victoria Megan focused her research on the nutrition and use of lodgepole pine cambium by Chilcotin people. Megan is currently a PhD candidate at McGill University focusing on informal seed systems and food security in semiarid Kenya. She often day dreams of the large expanse past Williams Lake, where the Chilcotin Plateau meets the Coast Mountains.
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Lodgepole pine candy a sweet trail food
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The thin slivers of lodgepole pine cambium are soft and easy to chew.
Continued From Page 93 The best trees have medium girth and smooth outer bark. Lodgepole pine cambium is not only a sweet treat but is nutritious. Perhaps reflecting its traditional use as a trail food, the cambium has a similar sugar concentration and array of minerals as a sports drink or electrolyte supplement. Based on nutritional profiling lodgepole pine cambium contains almost equal amounts of sugar and protein as well as notable concentrations of potassium, magnesium, and phosphorous with lesser amounts of calcium, manganese, aluminum, niacin, and vitamin C. While this may seem like a tradition rooted in the past, the knowledge needed to connect with wild resources should be an urgent issue of present and
future times. Shared environmental and cultural knowledge cannot be more important than times like today when voices combine to make decisions of land and resource use which have lasting effects on people and the environment. Breathing life into old knowledge not only situates that knowledge in 21st century lifestyles but empowers cultural ownership and overlooked voices to stand for the value of what sustains life and the people of the West Chilcotin. Author’s Note: I am very grateful to the Tsilhqot’in people, who have shared knowledge with me about lodgepole pine cambium. I am an evolving learner and forever seeing the indispensable value of knowledge which can not be contained by a book or classroom. Sechanalyagh.
The outer bark of the lodgepole pine tree is carefully removed to expose the delicate cambium layer that is eaten in springtime.
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