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The Cassiar Courier
-+-The Voice of Cassiar Country
Box 100, Cassiar B.C. VOC 1E0
Published monthly, with offices ]
in Cassiar, B.C.

ERE 5 ER PAR I PS TET
Managing Editor...Gerry Doran 778-7357
Editor...Jerry Rosman, Box 100

Business Manager...Arlene Lehmann Bx 100
Production Manager...Phil Dowdall, Bx100

EDITORIAL POLICY

We've been asked, "What's your editor-.
ial policy?" .

So, to get things straight at the
beginning, here's the editorial pol-
icy of the Cassiar Courier.

We believe the Cassiar Courrier is
a carrier of public discussion and in
formation, which will act on its free

Advertising Manager...John Inch, Bx 100
KKEKKKKKKKKEKKKRKKEKRERE
School & Social News - Cassiar -
| Esther Lee 778-7547
Sports & Recreation - Tom Penngre 5040

Watson Lake News - Chappy Chapman _ji¢9

Dease Lake News (unassigned) Editor
Quartz Creek News (unassigned) Editor
Iskut News(unassigned) Editor

Telegraph Creek News (unassigned) Editor
Good Hope Lake News - Gecrge Holman
Asbestos News (CAC) Frank Buckhey 5457

Hospital News- Eileen Rosman, Box 100
Church News - Vivian Cousins 778-7381

Ethnic Cookery -Vivian Cousins,5, 5349)

Local Union News - John Inch, Box 100
Local Mining News (unassigned) Editor

Births, Deaths, Marriages — Eile 2 400
>

Clubs and Organizations - Representa-

tives of organizations:
Photography - Paul Clark, Jack Camroux
EDITORIAL BOARD: Each staff member and
reporter of the Courier is a member of
the Editorial Board which meets twice a
month in the Courier offices.

ow », needed!

We need your help!

There's a lot to do in getting each
issue of the Courier out, and we're
looking for people who can give 3-5
hours a week to help, . .

You pick the type of work you'd like
to do. No experience is necessary.

We'd like to train a lot of people in
how to publish a newspaper. It's in-
teresting work, and it can be fun.

If you're interested, get in touch
with any member of the Courier staff.

It's your newspaper. Why not give
it a little of your time.

Asbestos doesn’t burn?

The U.S. Coast Guard recently made the
largest marijuana seizure in history,
confiscating °2,000 pound~ on a Pana-
manian ship nes” Florida.

The marijuana was tightly packaged
in bales labelled - ASBESTOS!

(They burned it!)

PHILLIP
ravel (Lt

Marvel Nitti

190 Zimmerman St.

| _ 778-7220

a A eS

SEE >

Travel Packages

® Hawail ® Caribbean
e Mexico eDisney]

ianNd,

rere = wey ere ES

(Low charter & excursions available
for Europe. Still some left!)
Hours: 10AM to 6PM - Closed Tuesday
and all day Sunday

dom to learn and report the facts.
MWe believe your enlightenment to

the truth is the forerunner of justice

and that the Courier must seek the

An empty oil truck gets a two from Jock
Rattray and his D-7 Cat across the Blue

truth as an essential part of your ri- River on the first road into the Cass-

ght to know the truth.
MWe believe these responsibilities
require the Courier staff to perform

with intelligence, objectivity, accur
acy and fairness, without yielding to

special-interest, political or self-
interest pressures.

mThe Courier will bring you current
information about people, without whic
you could not decide what to think, or

how to act.

mihe Courier will bring you concise
You wil

reports of events themselves.
read reports of human events across
Cassiar country through the eyes and

filters of those who report the events.
M Above all, we hope to bring you the

hopes, dreams, successess, failures,

opinions, attitudes and actions of the
people of Cassiar Country, from their
magnificcent courage to their incred-

ible meanness.

The Editorial Board
Cassiar Courier

A new historical marker describing the
Cassiar Gold Rush. You can see it on
the south side of Rt 37 just west of
Centreville.

@Road to Cassiar, Cont'd from pg.1

road, and I had to go out to Watson
and find one for them."
The road was started in late Oct-

ober 1947, and was completed through to

Bob's McDame claims by Christmas of
that year.
TWO MONTHS to build a 64 mile road.
"When the road was finished, they

didn't have an engineer to check the road
So, I had to find an en-

road, either.

gineer for them, too."' Bob chuckled.

. "Found a retired engineer named O'Grady,

retired from their own department!"
Thirteen railroad carloads of mach-
inery followed the roadmakers to Mc-
Dame that same winter and spring.
Mocassine Company dredges were built
and operating by June, 1948.
| the Mocassin Comp-
road up the McDame

T n | = \Fran
Later that year,

any put a bulldozer

V.assl1a

rough that..co! WI
"There's only one wa}

he recalled. ''Monotonous!

otonous!

a day, seveven days a week. We even

slept on them. Cooked our own meals

and camped out when we could."

to d

lescribe it"
Dearly Mon-
We sat on those cats 18 hours

aeaese ean sbaeaeese

iars from the Alaska Highway - 1948

Bob and Violet Wilms and "Shorty".

"We didn't have heaters on the Cats
in those days'', Jock added, "we had to
keep them running. We were afraid to
leave them for fear they'd stop, run
out of fuel, or blow up!"

Three D-8's and two D-7's Cats and
eleven men put in the 64 miles of road
Starting 14 miles west of Watson Lake.
The road started at that point on the
Alaskan Highway, because earlier fly-
Overs indicated it would be the quick-
est and easiest route.

"We weren't building a superhighway",
Jock explained. "It was an access road.
We picked our own route and kept going,
finding the easiest way, going around
swamps, staying on the sidehills so the
road would drain as much as possible."

Two or three men blazed trail ahead
of the Cats. George Edzerza, from Tel-
egraph Creek, but now living in Atlin,

a well known retired big game and out-
fitter, was one of the men blazing trail.

"Only problem was, they didn't under-
stand where a Cat could go'' Jock chuck-
led. “Sometimes they'd lead us into a
swamp or into all kinds of trouble."

"It was a tough job", Jockrecalled.
"When I got here I was so tired, dirty
and smelly, you couldn't get within a
nile of me."'

According to Jock, building the road
vas much easier than bringing the mach-
nery in later.

"The mud was so deep, there were Cats
itationed along the way to pull you out.
fud was up to your doors."

"I remember seeing guys paddling rub-
ver dinghys across huge water-holes in
he road'' he said. "You always needed
1 4x4 with a power winch, plenty of pat-
lence and time to make it to Watson Lake
in those days."

Jock, his wife/ Evelyn and their
8-month daughter, Barbara lived the sum-
mer of '48 in a 10x14' tent on a bluff
Overlooking the McDame.

"TI remember one night'', Jock recalled
the wind was whipping up the valley.
The ridgepole fell down on top of our

icy b bed ] thought it WaS a

1d and out of
ailed it down the trail.
Evelyn and the baby. #£

them sitting in the collapsed tent.

3
?

that tent
ana hign-t inen

Ee Tenenpered

left
I

came back and said to Ev, "What's the
matter with you?
baby out of there?" - Ha! -

Had some fine times in those days.

Why didn't you get the

®@ Continued on page 11