B.C, ED VAN DER LEELIE MANAGING EDITOR GORDON HAMILTON PRODUCTION 4 P.O, BOX 399, Yeech! Terrace is Terrific? Ha ha ha. This time the laugh’s on you. What would happen if someone told you that Terrace was only half as terrific as Cranbrook or Vernon? you'd probably fly into some kind of indignant rage ‘and rant and rave that the person who told you was mad, crazy and otherwise insane. If you take recreational facilities into consideration, that person is right. In a table found in the April 1970 edition of Trade and Commerce magazine, there appears a list of ten major communities of average size in B.C. Following is the list with their populations and facilities. Terrace figures second from the top in population and at the bottom in facilities. PRINCE GEORGE - population 56,500. [ce arena, 10 sheets curling ice, two swimming pools, one indoor and one outdoor, and several good skiing areas in the area. PRINCE RUPERT - population 17, 500. Ice arena under construction, six sheets curling ice, two swimming pools, one indoor and one outdoor, fiar skiing facilities nearby. DAWSON CREEK - population 13, 600. Ice arena, six sheets curling ice, one outdoor swimming pool, good skiing facilities nearby. KITIMAT - population 13,000. Ice arena, six sheets curling ice, two swimming pools, one indoor, one outdoor, smal! skiing rope tow, unreliable due to weather. WILLIAMS LAKE - ‘population 11,000. Ice arena, three sheets curling ice, fair skiing facilities nearby. NELSON - population 10,085. Ice arena, 10 sheets curling ice, one outdoor swimming pool, first class skiing facilities nearby. POWELL RIVER - population 12,578. Ice arena, one outdoor swimming pool, fair skiing facilities nearby. VERNON - population 12,250. Ice arena, five sheets curling ice, one indoor swimming pool, excellent skiing facilities nearby. CRANBROOK - population 11,900. Tee arena. Five sheets curling ice, one outdoor swimming pool, first class skiing facilities nearby. Now catch this... Be ' Tg : ES 1% £ Qe s the herald PUBLISHED BY NORTHWEST PUBLICATIONS LIMITED Published five days a week af 3112 Kalum Street; Terrace, A member of the Canadian Paily Newspaper Publisher’s Association and Varied circulation. Authorized as second class mail Registration number 1201. Postage paid in cash, return postage guaranteed, 3212 KALUM STREET TERRACE, B.C. TERRACE |S TERRIFIC? ~ "i e es as x A FEW YARDS OFF HIWAY . GEORGE T..ENGLISH ASSISTANT EDITOR MARY OLSEN ADVERTISING TERRACE - population 17,500. Three sheets curling ice, and a small skiing rope tow, unreliable due to weather. What happened to the arena, and the swimming pool? Why do we have only three sheets of curling ice when most other places have five or six.. Where is your spirit, Terrace? Further to that list is another list of other major towns and villages in the Pacific northwest. STEWART, with 1,060 has a covered ice arena. So does KITSAULT with a population of 450. And SMITHERS with 5,200 and HAZELTON with a population of 1,900 and an ice arena under construction. And BURNS LAKE with their 2,700 people. And FRASER LAKE with their 1,800 and Vanderhoof with their 3,400. Terrace can only be ashamed of itself when put up against these and many other smaller communities of B.C. But of course, the people of Terrace are too good, or whatever to be compared to thse other smaller place.. Of course there are millions of different reasons why Terrace does not have an arena, Or a swimming pool. Or a decent curling rink. Or decent’ skiing facilities. Or decent parks. Or decent any other kind of recreational facilities. Of course. One of the biggest reasons is lack of interest. Lack of support. One of the biggest reasons for the problem's the Terrace Arena Association is having. with their campaign is that there . seems to be a person or number of people who for one reason or another would rather not have the arena. When a people is up against this kind of insideous opposition, there is no way it will get to it’s objective. And it looks like this opposition is well on their way to not getting what they don’t want, namely, the arena. Please, people. When you come up against dissention, look at it, examine it. Don’t jump into it just because someone tells you that it is the right thing. With the facts and figures against Terrace, we cannot afford to drop this arena. We cannot afford to stop there, once we have it. Terrace will not be completely Terrific until it has all the things that it needs. Support your arena campaign. : oo tps ae PNT Fc aA f NADINE ASANTE IN MY VIEW Now that we're ali seilled back into our winter routines with the kids in school and our snow projects planned, we can view oursummier trips in detailed retrospect. We went north. | . The picture that stands out most vividly in my mind is the stark age and history of Dawson [i's in the Yukon. Once a city of 10,000, Dawson is now tumble-down and unpropped. The buildings are bow-legged, knock-kneed and sunken chested, yet somehow they remain mostly upright. They look as though a child’s hand would collapse then like card houses. In the run- down weoden-floored saloons one can almost hear the ribald remarks of the gold seekers as they reached out to paw the dancing girls. The ring of footseps on the board sidewalks mighl be the boot falls of Sam Magee from Tennessee or Skookum Jim - or any of the men who moiled for gold in those exciting dreadful days of the Klondike gold rush. Along the Kloridike River just outside Dawson are the mounds and mountains of rock which were heaped an‘ sieved and raked by money hungry men from every part of the world. . Looking at the faded claim stake posts we wondered if a fortune had been made or a heart broken or a life wasted. Each rock, each mound silently tells a story of joy or sorrow. . At a deserted Indian Village cailed Moosehide across the Yukon River from Dawson, a young New York couple came, saw, fell in love with, and stayed in an old log cabin with cast iron bolts on the door and grass growing on the thatched roof. They picked up supplies:in Whitehorse aver 300 miles distance and paddled a canoe back lo their newly acquired homestead. Old timers snickered their disbelief that the couple would survive their first winter but the ones who are laughing last are now stocking up for their second winter. i But no more about winter. We boarded the Swedish buili “Wickersham'’ in Prince Rupert and travelled north two days and a night stopping al Juneau, Sitca and other way points until we reaced Haines in Alaska. Then to Haines Junction through the clouds on mountain tops where we were back in Canada again. On August 28 there was still snow in the roadside gulleys. Then through the Yukon and along a winding road necklacing Kluane Lake the largest and certainly the most scenic lake in the Yukon. . -People warned us about the poor roads on the Canadian side of the Alaska Highway which changes from dirt lo paving at the Canadian-U.S. border, but we found the opposite to be true, Canadian roads all gravel and pol-holey bul one drives accordingly. The grading is excellent, : The American Alaska Highway is treacherous because il offers a false sense of security. Sixty miles an hour is indicaled ' by the appearance of the road surface but then without warning a dip or gully of three or four feet ina few yards turns ihe road into a bounding main, All four wheels of our car lefl the road simultaneously twice...we were flying low. Drove through Alaska to Anchorage which is a friendly, .. spacious average American city except more rain than most. -Earthquake park in Anchorage reserved for tourisl 'lobservation is a creepy reminder the violence of nature unieashed, Grotesque upheavals and fissures are evident ina large area ajacent to the ocean and J couldn't help thinking that B.C, might look the same after the Amchitka blast. Fairbanks a few hundred miles north has a wild west, last frantier, atmosphere and a dandy campsite on the outskirts of town behind the ballpark. Fairbanks with its huge military bases close by belies American peace propanganda. -Ml, McKinley, the tallest mountain on the continent has a_ campsite but the lodge is commercialed to the price of $38 for four for ane night. We didn’ stay, Sled dogs in harness give a display daily for tourists and a bark from our dog set them . howling like wolves with their neses upturned to the moon much to the chagrine of their trainer. oe , . ‘South again over the Fairbanks, Delta Junction and Tok road where the scenery is mouotcnous and verdent. “But the road from: Tetlin Junction just ouside Tok to the Yukori boarder is sheer beauty. The gravel secondary highway slays aloft on mountainstops and heaven: is’close. The bald mountain domes at close range take on a myriad of color. Lichen clings to naked rock in-a tenacious desire to survive. Bright orange, red, yellow and green leaves of this moutnain _ fauna makes the traveller’s work a multi-hued fairyland, It is just the right place for a claustrophobic. The unbelievably scintillating air, the freedom, the beauty of not be justified in mere words, There is nothing between people and Gad, ‘bul thought in such surroundings, © ts _ Down the mountains to the edge of the Yukon River where a jovial ferry captain beckons the traveller aboard his double DC Dawson City twenty-four hours‘a-day.:""” 6 powered ferryboat which plies the Yukon from the highway to Like I said, Dawson Cily is something else. Eleven of the * tumbledown buildings have been slated for restoration by lhe Federal Government. But they better hurry or they'll have nothing to restore! mo Mot We followed the trail of all tourists up the winding road above _ Dawson to the “dome” where every June 21 since’1896,‘the . .. townsfolk have gathered to pay homage to the midnight sun, — One day and the. next are punctuated only by the bright red orb whieh doesn’t set. IN De The highway fram Dawson City to Whitehorse is dotted with such romantic names as Pelley’s Crossliig and Carmacks anda ‘hot springs resort’ offers.a warm’ (even. hot). welcome to. the . cae dusty trdveller just nine miles west af Whitehorse. Whitehorse has no white horses like Terrace has terraces but is steeped in fiistory of the north. Miles Canyon mentioned by. Jack London with its suspension bridge which was built because somany animals and supplies were lost in the rushing waters of the gorge is just east of town. Riverboats in various stages of decay dyke the Yukon River at Whitehorse with names like Londike, and Caska. The Whitehorse airfield provies an arial arlery to Edmonton and Prince George and shunting cars of the narrew-guage White’ Pass Yukon Hailway provide a noisy chorus to the murmer of e town. The saddest sight in the north ih every townand wayside is the plight of the Indians, Little childrea in scarecrow clothing running barefoot at midnight; Old people with hopeless eyes idle on benches.and fences with.no sight of change ithe near futures: area blight and a crime. The northern whites blame 'the Indians * for lack of desire for impravement of their conditions and the Indians blame the whites for lack af acepetance, It’s a vicious cirele. Whitehorse is the northern terminal of the skyride narrow guage White Pass Yukon Railway, Canadian owned and finished In 1899. ’ . tricky; aa it was my wedding & wey TN Eightly-nine dollars and fifty cents saw us four, our car and — Abby the dog aboard the antique train for eight hours-of jerkily breathtaking ups and downs for mast of the way south lo Skagway in Alaska follows the Trail of ‘98. Haw man and beast survived the travails of such a journey on foot almosl a century ago is beyond comprehension of the train traveller who busily clicks his camera at nalure’s wonders of glaciers, chasms, mountain passes. and cascading waterfalls starting their journey up in the clouds. Crosses marked with granite on granite cliff faces immortalize the miner heroes whose dreams ended short of their fortune. Through valleys and peaks the overgrown Klondike Trail winds its hazardous historical way to the final reality that is captured in the stark lines of Robert * Service the bard of north. Skagway is the American tumbledown counterpart of Dawson where history is written in the peeling paint of ancient buildings but it hasn't the same cling to the future samehow. The town is tumbling down around its own ears and owes its survival to summer tourists although it was one of the original starting points of the gold rush trail. The Alaska Marine Highway with its fleet of sleek ships from Seattle to Prince Rupert and northern points transported our . family north and south {to the panhandle of Alaska from the Canadian port of Rupert. For the Volvo car, my husband, myself and the two children & and5, the journey north by ferry cost around $260 without meals. The trip south was a bit less because of less elaborate stateroom accommodation and less time afloat. American motel prices are high, averaging $25, a night for four af us with Canadian prices around $15 to $19, Food in the’ north is exhoribtantly priced. I paid $1.70 for six doughnuts and a quart of milk in Anchorage. . . . * although Prince Rupert isn't the ‘most appealing ‘city in Canada it certainly looked good to us after more than 2000 miles of a terrific holiday. We looked at each olher when we drove off ‘ theferry and said, ‘‘We’re home, we'’resafe. We're inCanada.”’ peo, FLO! YER N i CAME BACK : «the most interesting bass- & ~ eatch the first fish. Dalt was ‘engine. Total silence. Dead ’ and I thought my wile would be - an expert, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1971 @ ’ BILLSMILEY , {> “Anniversary Special ‘“sameone. who knows i "il, offered ali they wanted to the IT'S MARVELLOUS TOGETHER Vel AGAIN AFTERALL THIS TIME —! _snuck out. . 150 yards sou-sou-west.” I slung visiting friends. 1 tracked her - September ‘ls. bass weather, I and Jast Saturday I had one .of fishing jaunts]’veever enjoyed. = The situation was ‘a little amniversary and I thought & maybe-I should stick arcund. @ But the Old Battleaxe and I had 3% had a big fight the night before, and she had told me not to come , sucking around with a bunch of § roses.or anything ‘else to mark the occasion, or she'd throw @ them in my face. : Even so, I had the decency to tell her that Cap wanted me to § go fishing. "Go ahead!" she snarled, and bust into tears. Many a man would have been § unwrung, bul I steeled my heart, lip-toedaround gathering my gear, and .prepared- to { make’ a dash for the back door. She was weeping silently now, trying to make me feel like a heel. She failed. I hadn't been fishing all summer. “And don't bother coming back!” she fired at me as T Picked up the skipper who had a basket full of worms, and down to the dock. It was a beautiful, ‘sunny September day, and 1 was in good hands, those of a retired captain who had sailed fresh walter and salt for about fifty years. . We had a pleasant run up the bay about ten miles, and arrived, ‘See that little reef,” he said. ““We'll anchor about in the. anchor, doubting, as I always do when [ go out with the “spots”, that there would be a bass within five miles, © We had a quarter bet on who'd telling me how to tie my line and fiddling around filling and lighting his pipe. 1 tossed my bait overside and whacko, before he’d gol the pipe lit, I had a dandy, aboul 2'2 pounds, It was one of those days you remember, We sat in the sun and bartered lies about the days when we sailed the lakes. His: lies" were much more. picturesque than mine. Finally, we had our limit and . il was lime to go. The Captain turned the key te start the battery: ost I wish ‘I had a movie’ of ‘the’ various expressions of the Caplain’s face. There couldn't be a sound track with it, though, because he was blistering the paint right off the deck. We were only about 500 yards offshore, so we started to paddie. It was like paddling the Queen Mary. Two feet ahead and the wind would push us - three feet back. We were lucky. We could have sat there .all night, anchored, because the place rife with reefs. But there was one boat in sight, fishing just offshore. The only sign of human life in that vast bay. The skipper made a megaphone oul of a chart and hollered althem. They waved. We beckoned them. ‘They waved back, friendly as you could wanl. . The rest of the story is anti- climatic. They finally realized ‘we were introuble. The chap in the other boat wenl to his cottage for a booster battery. It didn’t boost. He towed us, ignominiously, to his dock, a 14 foot skiff towing a 30-foot queen. - Cap muttered all the. way in. The shame was almost unbearable. . ; We got home about 10 p.m. out of her mind with worry. She wasn’t. She was just aut, down and craftily brought a big - plastic bag with twelve bass in housewife, and she cleaned ‘the whole lot. . SF It was a grand day, but the moral is never go fishing with - BB WE'LL CELEBRATE, PET! I'LLOPEN BBUP A BOTTLE WHILE YOU KNOCK BUP SOME GRUB, THEN WE'LL = E NIGHT OUT REM :