10

When we got to the wharf at Telegraph
Creek and tied up - every person aboard
breathed a sigh of relief. We met the few
hundred friendly residents there who all
turned out with a multitude of kids and
dogs to greet the boat (big occasion) and
us "Pendleton Boys" which all of us were
later called becuase we were working for
the Pendleton Gold Mining Co. of Seattle,
Washington on a share basis. We were so
happy to get our freight off that treach-
erous Stikine River but little did we
realize the magnitude of the job ahead of us
before we reached our destination - McDame
Creek, Cassiar District - where Mrs, Wilms
and I still have our home today - and
where we are presently and finally digging
"gold" today!

Next day - we started unloading our
equipment and wagons —- one of our units
was a "C.L. Best 40 h.p. Tracklayer" -
first tractor into this country (but it
was not equiped with a bull-dozer those
days). We still have this machine at our
(Camp at Mile 66, Cassiar Road, and it was
the object of much picture taking during
our "Party", It is a true historic
"museum piece" and should be mounted on a
pedestal at Dease Lake Railroad Station -
when the first trains arrive as a tourist
point of "Special Interest" - as we had
to build the road to Dease Lake from
Telegraph Creek during the summer of 1923,
The B.C. Mines Dept. helped us build this
(by hand work) with 20 men added to our
crew of 10 to 12 men, but we did not get
to Dease Lake until October 3rd, with our
first load of freight. So we had to "Winter
there" in two old log cabins,

an.

; rer py int Je eh ee) Sie
bob and Violet Wilms with thetr 1918
Model C.L. Best Company 40 h.p. gasoline
operated Tracklayer, which helped to
build the road from Telegraph Creek to
Dease Lake in 1928,

We got the bright idea to freight over
the 28 mile Dease Lake on the ice that
winter but the winter was extremely mild
and not over a foot of ice on this lake -
and it was full of dangerous air-holes. So
we had to give up that idea after building
five large bob-sleds and then set-up our
sawmill on the shores of the lake and
saw enough lumber for two huge barges
and some smaller boats to take our freight
down the lake and down the Dease River in
the spring of 1924, This effort was
filled with many, many exciting exper-
fences but we finally made it - then had
to build 12 miles of road up the McDame
valley to our Gold Property which is now
known as Bob Wilms' Camp, Mile #66,
Cassiar Road,

One point of interest: When we unloaded
our Tractor at Telegraph Creek, the
people were most skeptical as to it's
efficiency. We heard many mumbled
comments such as "That thing will never
worki'"' - and by golly, it did get stuck,
right behind Calbraith's store on it's
first hill - then we heard "See, I told
you it won't work!" But when Bill
MacDonald tightened up the frictions and
all four cylinders roared up that hill
with a load of freight, everybody stared
with pop-eyes at this historic spectacle-
even us Pendleton Boys!

Unfortunately, I cannot tell our story
and the history of our many, many thrill-
ing experiences over these past fifty
years in a condensed form —- “time and
space is not available - it would take
many chapters in a big book form so I
have to skip over so much and get back to
our "Party of May 27th" - which progressed
beautifully and everyone seemed to fully
enjoy this unusual occasion and I have
some nice souvenirs to remember it by.

But I must add that one of the great
hi-lights of my most active life - and
the greatest development for the future
of this Cassiar District and our new
Cassiar Stewart-Vancouver Road - was in
1947 when we sold our "Placer Gold
Property" to Moccasin Mines Co. of
Sacramento, California.

One of the terms of our agreement
written in it was that I was to fredgnt
their testing equipment with my freight
boat from Lower Post, B.C. to McDame
Creek - up the Dease River (my River
Freighting experiences makes another big
story, 1942 and 1943), Then should the
tests prove adequate values (which they
did) they would then build a road from
Mile #648 on the Alaska Highway to