1/

<.,;HA:-<LIE
OLSON I 'TErlvIEl- part 2
So th y wou d stay at th
do what th y n
th y

d -

d. not

'ould ne d. ( Wh r

go up to 9 mil
with th

smok hous s. YeS, th
mak

would

nough fish (smok d) as

would you pick berri s

mountain, w

<

) 1 would

had 2 plac s - aft r finishing

bush, aft r picking th

b rries, w 'd burn it off

ev ry 3-4 y ars w td go back, and burn the oth r on

off.

Boy , talk about b rry picking.
How did you pres rYe b rries?

(Q)

They hpd wooden racks ••• But 1st you hay

to boil th

b rri s and you hbd big thimbleb rrj 1 aves and you had a
big »scan » - is it? It's
mrk

th n you pour th

de upof thin stri~s of c dar

berries on th m , lay it on the

racks and 1 t it sun dry. Aft r that 1 done you can tak
p1 c

off and ~oak it and it's just lik

a

fresh. Ev rybody

did it, but mostly the Indians.
(Q)

How did you catch fish at Hagwilgyat Canyon?
You used a gaff or they had a big bask t. Th y would

leave the bask t r sting at the d

p st plac and I think

th y had pull ys to pull the basket out. Th y would pull
it out only if fish WEr

in it. Th y us d this m thod for

a long tim • ( Wh n wer

they not allow d to do this, anymore? )

In them days that'

all they had. ( Was this justr£or th

natives? ) Yeah th y could do what ver th y want d, I 'v
seen them catchGup to a 100 Ib • of fish, thet would be for
th

family ( r latives ) for th

whole year. Th y had to

do it with n ts aft r awhile, but not as much as I had s en
th m do before.

/

2/
(Q)

~hat condition wer
r"ve ee nit

th

roads in back th n ?

along, South town , oh yu 'd bog right down

(laughs) (Was it like an old cowtrail ? ) Yeah just a wagon
road. Th re was har~ly any cars just Ford- Model T and Model
Ats. ( were there any Taxi's?

) Yeah, • • • Jack Robinson,

he owned one. Allen Benson-' he was the that owned the first
one • He was the on

thatp~wn d the Triangle Motor~ - h

to borrow a car from the Nativ s, h

u~e~

would pay ~o much. From

Old Town to New Town it cost about 50 cent~.
(Q)

Was there a Church 1n New Town ?

.• .. Yes I think it 1S up by Tommy Carr's place. Is it
still there? ( I Dontt know)
(Q)

* Ye~ it is still there.

Was that loghouse there before, the one that i~ beside
the Chevron Gas Station?
Oh that one

Ye

it still ther

(yes)

( ho lived here ?)

I couldn't t 11 you, there was so smany people living hr.
(Q)

Wae the train station there, , in New Town?
yeah it was where the trailor is now. The trailor ••• y ah

it was ov r more.
(Q)

When did logging start?
••• Oh that was quite awhile ago.

(Q)

What about mining. did you mine?
Not here ( 9 mil mountain - Silver Standard ) I work d

at Red

os

mJ.ne. (What

were you mining for ? ) Tunge n.

I worked for •• th re for •• since 1940 for a couple years.
( During the war? ) Yes~ We moved down wh n the Hotel was
down bySimp~on Sears is now by the track~.

31
( ) What company wa~ in charg
CMNS, but I don't kno

of th

RED ROSE

INE?

what it is, stand for

Canadian Mining 80m thing ••• They opened that up after I
1 ft. Jack Jukal was my bos~ - foreman. W used to work from
6, (suppertim )til 2 in the mourning •.We worked in shifts - 2
shift~.

e'd blast, :then we'd muck things up. Put plates

down and cro.s bars up and putin about 20 holes, 8 foot rs.
( WERE there

any dang rs ?)

( Any cav -ins?

Oh Y ah, you had to b

) In plac s it's pretty bad,

put in sprag s at the same time, you hav
aft r w

left th

you have to

tm go on th

rai3

600 1 v 1. And chutes, you hqve to put th m

ln too. Th n stoff
up th

car ~ul.

th

hlast, th n th

n xt shift will build

equipment (holdings ) and chut ~. They'd draw it out

with cars ( RR ) they have a tram.

They would fill up a car's

bin and load up bucket~ on the tramline and add timber to even
th

load. I'v

e n on

thing let go and eOOF from the cable.

W

usee. to rid

up in the nbuck ts wh n we went to work.

Supposed to be about 11 miles from the bridg • (Skeena
crossing)

(did

th

mill at th

bas

and that's where th

ridg

tram go straight up?)

0, we had a

tram start d. A little

and ther 's steps to the mill from our camp. And th r 's

st ps to the mill from th
mouth of th

tunn 1.

c~bin by the mountain, at th

4/
(Q} Did you camp over night th re?

No,

we w re just working in 3hift~,

1 ~hift would

t

off the bla3t the other cleaned-up and 3 t up.
(Q)

Do you r m mber the flood?
Ye3 in '36(nod) ye~ a lot of hous 8 got wash d away. (~hat
about the Tot
pol s?) Th y had to move them too, they
mov d som and th y had 30me new ones put up. Tha~~ where
the old hall used to be.

(q) Hov did th Y move the Totem Poles?
Th

old custom way by hand and rope. Oh,

take th m down. Some fell down m th
(Q)

I~ev

r saw th m

ball ground.

What happened to Haz Iton wh n th

flood went throught?

W 11, there was a lot of wash out.

A lot of stor 3 w r

washed out. A building - a pool room ( OK Jo

was the owner

at t

own r

time?

) Yeah •• No, Jim Hauter was th

ot the poolroom. And then Ok Jo

bought it after and mad

a

re3taurant out of it(Did a whole 3tre t get wiped out?) No,
not really (Wh re did people g t on the ferry ? ) Down by the
8ew r plant. They had th ir tower3 up th r •
(Q)

SO wh n d~d th

highway gO through there ?

Oh that wa3 a long time ago. I don't know wh n.
«Q)

hat happ ned at the hal13? b side3 danc 8.
They had potlatch 8, th y'd sit against th

walls, no tables

back then. Th y had lloosehide and th y would cut this
up and give you a

trip for moccasins. Th y wouldn't

give aut a 25 cents ( for a haircut - laughs )
(1) Did they have a barb~

then?

Yeah it wr- old man B n30n tim

they had their cab. 1927.

lIen Benson'3 dad. Sam

\
5/
(Q)

s 0 wa~ Pro~titution limited to Two Mile or was it part
of Hazelton too?
No, just down h r

(in

Two Mile ). These guys ln Two Mile

must of had a pretty good time (laugh~).

** ED.NOTE **
Pro~titution wa~ an old practi~ , even before our peopl
became "pure"; It was in the down tiownof Hazelton, but that
was ruled out, due to the hinderance it gave the citizens.
ith that in mind, A de~ignated ar a was permitted to allow
for ~uch activitie~, this area was 2 mile~ out of Old and
N w Town. Later to be call d Two Mile. The point showen was
that justic

~erved it's purpo~e, and th

hi~tory of a

community was well served.
(Q)

Do you r memb r the 1st car~?
Oh yeah the Model A's, Old Ja~k Robins~ n hadone. Quite

a f w...

Itr slowly picked up. Like I say Benson used to r nt

cars for Taxi, He finallj got his own.
(Q)

When was the

Smith building made?

Gel

knJw ••• Their was ar staurant there, but it

don't

burned down. I don't know exactly what y ar it was.
(1) Did they have a Black~mith in town?
Yes.it was)wher
heavy s t man, and h

the copy of itti~ now. The ~uy was a
had a cabin at the back.

They had 8 hall right along the river and a couple of
hous 5, amd they had a hall where Neil Sterritt live~ •••

6/
( ) The hall on th res rv , did th Y mov
ballpark because of the flood?
, Th Y moved all th

polt~ up aft r th

pol s up to

t

flood, th

ball

ground~ w re all bru~h, th n th y ~tart d to build on it
and that'~ how th y 8$art d th
(Q)

How did th y start

ballpark.

1 ctricity ?

Oh that wa~n't tooo long ago. Th

H08pital had it'~

own electricity. The pow r plant wa~ right behind the
the old ;o8pital.
( ) How did they build th

Hagwil~at

Bridge?

They ~tart at one end, and th y put in c ment form~.
Th Y had to put up towers ••• How many cabl s I don't
~fa

r memb r ( How com

ther

c m nt form -down low r on th

cliff ? ) I think that was whwr

th

old bridg

wa~ long and thin bridge. I u~ d to work on th
th y put in th~ 8t

was. It
bridge b fore

1 g{ider~, boy in the wint r it wa~

pr tty hard.
(Q)

When wa~ the highway built?
Oh that was a long time ago, lik

I say it u~ed to tak

all day just to go to Smith re. Ju~t a wagon road. ( What
about the old road at th

Maurice Riv r ?)

I think I use d

that when I went firefighting

* W

~tart d talking about a picture that had a man sitting

in front of the Hagwilgyat bridg

ln the early days of it~~

bu&lding, this man was named Eddy Ol~on , H

had di dafter

swimming in the Bulkley R. , He caught d~ble

pn monia. Th re

i80Eddy Olson that b ar~ that name today.