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One folder consisting of the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development commenting on a residential lease application as required under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act.

Caption Source: Anna Lindberg

Photographer: unknown

Milt Campbell's Audio Caption for photo: 73. The Thomas G. Murphy was the Indian Agent's boat. This is the one Dr. Truesdell used to go up to Fort Liard and up to [Fort] Providence and down to Wrigley.

Photographer: Milton J. Campbell

Caption on back of photo: "#73. - 1941 - After being imprisoned in the mountains for over 80 days, on Dec. 26th CF-AXM a Fairchild came in for us. Loading up. Bill Clark"

Caption Source: Bill Clark

Photographer: Carl Falcon, from copy negative

WDA's Comments, 2013 Jul 10: Carl Falcon notes, "They [pilots] didn't want to land on Mickey Lake because Mickey Lake has some underground warm springs and the ice is quite thin. Matter of fact, some areas there is no ice at all in Mickey Lake, even in the wintertime." Bill Clark notes in this caption to Photo 72 that they are delivering goods to Mickey Lake for plane shipment. In his interview, Carl Falcon actually describes one trip over to Landing [Seaplane] Lake to meet the plane, which failed to arrive. Photos 73 and 74 appear to be at Landing Lake because of the type of shoreline forest and the configuration of the background hills, thus suggesting that Falcon's version is correct. Therefore Clark's caption above appears to be in error and Falcon's version with them leaving from Landing Lake seems more reliable.

Charlie's photo description: That's Bud Alley's old store and dwelling house or whatever you
want to call it. You can maybe make the sign out over his door. That was taken in the moonlight
and strong northern lights and over the house there's a streak, it was a time exposure. It was real
cold night, one of these nights where you could hear the sizzling. It's a picture that old Joe took.
It's weird the way the shadows went.
Caption Source: Charlie Hansen interview.
Photographer: I don't know who Charlie is calling Old Joe. Normally he would mean Joe
Hope or, more likely, Old Joe Villeneuve. However could Charlie mean Joe Lineham? If this
photo really was taken at night by moonlight and northern lights, then Joe Lineham would be a
photographer with the knowledge to attempt it.
WDA's Comments, 2014 Feb 08: I seriously doubt that this is a night photo taken with
moonlight and northern lights. The details in shadows seem too good to me, having taken night
photos myself. That said there is some faint streaking in the sky on the right side of the photo.
The white dots look more like dust than stars which would be somewhat elongated in a time
exposure that would be required in the low ISO films of the 1930s. The sky details do suggest
that Joe Lineham made the photo.
See photo 73-2 for building identifications.

Caption Source: Anna Lindberg

Photographer: unknown

Milt Campbell's Audio Caption for photo: 74. You see me sitting on the bow of the boat. This is the crash boat that they had for picking people out of the river. I picked one out of the river with this boat. I don't know who that is on the left. And then we go to me and then Minnie Hoaglund. Then a lieutenant on the extreme right.

Photographer: taken on Milton J. Campbell's camera.

WDA's Comments, 2013 Sep 12: Milt was managing maintenance at Fort Simpson Airport in the early 1940s.The crash boat was an emergency vehicle in the event of a aircraft water accident. Minnie Hoaglund managed the CPA agency at the airport.

Caption on back of photo: "#74. - 1941 - Dec, 26th. Had to leave half of the pile, seen in this photo, on the ice. Too heavy a load. Bill Clark."

Caption Source: Bill Clark

Photographer: Carl Falcon, from copy negative

WDA's Comments, 2013 Jul 10: Carl Falcon notes, "They [pilots] didn't want to land on Mickey Lake because Mickey Lake has some underground warm springs and the ice is quite thin. Matter of fact, some areas there is no ice at all in Mickey Lake, even in the wintertime." Bill Clark notes in this caption to Photo 72 that they are delivering goods to Mickey Lake for plane shipment. In his interview, Carl Falcon actually describes one trip over to Landing [Seaplane] Lake to meet the plane, which failed to arrive. Photos 73 and 74 appear to be at Landing Lake because of the type of shoreline forest and the configuration of the background hills, thus suggesting that Falcon's version is correct. Therefore Clark's caption above appears to be in error and Falcon's version with them leaving from Landing Lake seems more reliable.

Charlie's photo description: It's an aerial view of Fort Simpson in the wintertime. That's after
the aircraft radio beacon station was put up down there because you see here in the, in the
foreground a road going across the picture, That's the road I built down into the station later on,
And right on the corner there's Ted's [Trindell] and there's Henry's and Lafferty's [Henry and
Jim] and then it goes on up to the doctor's. I recognize the whole shebang there when I see it but
nobody else probably would.
Caption Source: Charlie Hansen interview,
Photographer: unknown
WDA's Comments, 2014 Feb 08: See Photo 74-2 for feature identification. [Left to right: Ted Trindell's house, road to aircraft radio beacon station, Henry Lafferty's house, Jim Lafferty's house, Flynn Harris' house, Doctor's house and outbuildings, Roman Catholic Mission Complex. Background: Mackenzie River, Gros Cap, Liard River]

Charlie's photo description: This is the radio beacon station, That's the one the road went to,
yeah. That's where I buried all that wire. It seems to me it was twenty some miles of wire I put in
there. It's a five hundred foot radius and one strand of wire six inches down every degree on the
compass. That was the ground.
Caption Source: Charlie Hansen interview.
Photographer: unknown

Caption Source: Anna Lindberg

Photographer: Charlie Boostrom, Anna's step-father

WDA's Comments, 2014 Mar. 10: The child to the right of the moose head is Edward Boostrom, Anna Lindberg's half-brother. Emma Boostrom is against the cabin. Anna says the cabin may have been Harry Brown's but Anna is not positive. Apparently the Boostroms were living there though. There is both rabbit and moose meat drying on the rack above the smudge.

Milt Campbell's Audio Caption for photo: 75. Minnie Hoaglund was manager of the CPA Agency [Canadian Pacific Airlines] . The pilots stopped there overnight, the CP pilots. Minnie ran that with a fist of iron but she was a pretty nice lady. She had a husband that you couldn't hardly control at times so she took over.

Photographer: Milton J. Campbell

WDA's Comments, 2013 Sep 12: The CPA building seems to have been mainly a place for pilots to overnight when they had to stop in Fort Simpson.

One folder consisting of the Department of Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development commenting on a request for a switch from traditional land use to a commercial lease application as required under the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act.

Caption Source: Bill Addison because we ran out of tape & time (at 1 am) before Charlie could
describe it.
Photographer: likely Isidore Villeneuve judging from blurred photo edges.
WDA's Comments, 2014 Feb 09: Charlie bought this used tractor in Edmonton because
available firewood around F01t Simpson was getting too far away for his horses to pull it in. The
1939 epic journey, first by train from Edmonton to Grimshaw, AB, then about 650 km through
largely trailess bush to Hay River, NT on Great Slave Lake just as the spring melt is on makes
exciting reading. While waiting for the ice to go out of Great Slave, they sawed enough lumber
to make a forty foot scow to take the tractor. The scow was towed across this huge lake by a
canoe with a three horse motor and they then drifted, powerless down the Mackenzie to Fort
Providence where they stopped for several months doing construction work for the federal
government, by which time WW II had started. The journey is an odessey and a gripping read.
Charlie built the sleigh in the photo above from salvaged scrap materials. He has it rigged to haul
eight foot logs piled crossways.

Milt Campbell's Audio Caption for photo: 76. Is a group of women. From left to right: Mrs. Truesdell, Isabelle Crowell, [Her husband was in the Signals. He still is or maybe retired about now. He's Major Crowell now.]. I don't know who that is, third from the left. Isabelle Crowell's daughter is the fourth. Fifth is Mrs. Jimmy Cree. Her husband took over the old NT trading buildings anddid very well. Then he was CP Agent. He was Imperial Oil agent. He was everything at Fort Simpson. They've been retired in Victoria now for quite a number of years. Sixth is the policeman's wife Ruth and I can't remember her name. Her husband was in charge of the detachment, Corporal at Fort Simpson. Seventh and eighth, I don't know. Ninth is Svana [Campbell]. The photo was taken at the back of Cree's house. Billy Clark lived with them at the time too. The poor devil, he had no place to go and he had no money at that time. That's when he was talking about going to South America.Photographer: Milton J. CampbellWDA's Comments, 2013 Sep 12: to reiterate, l r: Mrs. Truesdell, Isabelle Crowell, unknown person, Isabelle Crowell's daughter, Mrs. Jimmy Cree, Ruth (policeman's wife). 2 unknown persons, Svana Campbell.

Caption Source: Anna Lindberg

Photographer: unknown

WDA's Comments, 2014 Mar. 10: Einar and Ole were partners in the early 1930s says Anna.

Charlie's photo description: Now there we're sawing wood. I can recognize them guys. I don't
know how come, but I got young Rufus Goodall on the saw there. His mother probably didn't
like it. That's me with the fur hat throwing the wood away. And Alfred Bernard is putting the
wood on the table. He's a Cree boy. There was only three of us that day.
Caption Source: Charlie Hansen interview.
Photographer: unknown
WDA's Comments, 2014 Feb 09: Some time in late 1940 or in 1941 Tiny (John) Gifford, who
was getting on in years, could not compete with Charlie in Fort Simpson's dray, firewood and ice
business, so he sold out to Charlie. This saw was his but came to Charlie as part of the deal. A
pulley on the back of the Cat 15 is driving a belt powering the saw. With this, Charlie was king
of the firewood business. He or his employees felled trees in the bush, made them into logs,
hauled the logs to Fort Simpson with the Cat 15 and then cut the logs into firewood lengths using
the Cat 15 and this saw. Between various businesses, government offices and private residences
there was a demand for hundreds of cords a year. The Royal Canadian Corps of Signals alone
took 60-80 cords a year. Never again was Charlie as poor as he had been on his an-ival when he
was pennyless and had almost no clothes. He took huge financial gambles on what he did, but he
paid for almost everything with cash. He borrowed money for shmt terms from friends and
acquaintances but he was a tremendous saver and paid off loans very quickly. His is an amazing
story. It is all in the interview.

Milt Campbell's Audio Caption for photo: 77. That's at Fort Simpson Airport. On the left we have M.J. Campbell and the other chap looked after the office work for me.

Photographer: unknown

WDA's Comments, 2013 Sep 12: The Americans built the airport and constructed the log buildings seen in the background to house the construction crews.

Caption Source: Anna Lindberg

Photographer: unknown

WDA's Comments, 2014 Mar. 10: Dave's surname could not be deciphered from the tape but it started with a B. The women are daughters of Bobby Babiche.

Charlie's photo description: That's the little Caterpillar 15 tractor. That's Pat's [Villeneuve]
bicycle sitting there. I paid for that. There was no bicycles around then. He wanted one in the
worst way, so he worked for me and I give him the bicycle, There's steel wheel wagons we got
from Eaton's. We were digging a basement under the old Hudson's Bay store. This is the old
store in the compound. So we dug down. Started outside and go in on a slope and we just run the
wagon down. Then I backed the tractor down and hook her into it and hauled the dirt out that
way. That's me sitting on it. You can see it's kind of battered a little bit from rolling over. Ca.
1940-41.
Caption Source: Charlie Hansen interview.
Photographer: likely Isidore Villeneuve judging from blurred photo edges.
WDA's Comments, 2014 Feb 09: Charlie worked constantly and he was creative. These
qualities soon had Charlie as the go-to guy whenever somebody wanted something altered or
constructed in Fort Simpson. Here he has jacked up the huge HBC store and is putting a
basement under it for them. He also bought a sawmill and used the Cat 15 pulley to power it.
Soon he was producing much of Fort Simpson's lumber. In effect, he was a contractor.

Milt Campbell's Audio Caption for photo: 78. Is a very blurred picture. This was in February '46 and we were selling wood. Everything was wood-burning; the Operations Room, the Radio Shops and look at all these cabins [see photos 83-85] so it was a lot of wood and these two boys here cut a lot of that wood. They took it on contract. They were sawing wood when someone said, "Look! What the heck's that coming?" It was coming from the direction of Fort Nelson, kind of southwest. We all stopped, looked. We sent up weather balloons every day pretty well but this is different. This was very dark coloured and it's coming towards us, which it shouldn't be. Well, maybe it got away from Fort Nelson. They had a bigger weather station at Fort Nelson than we had. Maybe it's drifted down from Nelson. By the time it come over the buildings, and this is late afternoon, it was getting quite low and we said, this is not a weather balloon. What on earth can it be? We had never heard of these Japanese fire balloons. It went on towards Fort Simpson. We had the jeep so Alex ran and got the jeep and I ran and got the camera and we got Williams who was in charge of the weather. He come along and that was good but I don't think we'd have come to any harm. Here was the thing snagged about three mile down the trail snagged on the top of that spruce tree. We jumped out of the jeep and ran in. Alex and I were just ahead of Williams. Just as he got to it, he caught on. We were starting to pull things around, investigate. He said whoa, back away, leave that alone. He said that's Japanese. He was born and raised in Japan. His father was a missionary over there. He said this writing is Japanese. We'd better back away from this. I think we'd heard whispers of these Japanese fire bombs. I took that picture but it was pretty near dark. And I didn't get a very good shot of it. Then we notified the Signals and the next day, late in the afternoon, a twin-engine something or another stopped and out come the brass. They gone and took a look at it. By this time, it had gradually collapsed and sure enough the demolition bomb was still on it. It was later detonated down on the river at Simpson. They took it into Fort Simpson. Put the thing out on the ice, took a shot at it and it made quite a boom. All of the other sandbags of course had gone. The bombs had been dropped. Where I don't know. But I had some of that balloon for a long time. I guess I must have...[WDA] What was the balloon made of?[MC] It was like a kind of a parchment. Maybe rice paper.[WDA] You mentioned sandbags and the fire bombs had dropped off. How were they arranged?[MC] I don't think I could even draw you a pictureof it. There was a big metal circle. It was a good three feet across, maybe a little more. It was sandbag and a bomb and a sandbag so that when it got below a certain level the sandbag would cut loose and up she'd go away. It was quite ingenious. The sandbags were all gone and the bombs were all gone. Now when they dropped a bomb I suppose it would go up but then it was constructed [to maintain] a certain height and it would gradually come back down. I think it was designed to stay at more or less at a certain level. How the deuce it was arranged I don't know. It had to have come from somewhere in Japan. And it got right to Fort Simpson. There was no danger of setting any fires, not in February. But there's something else that goes with that. These here old Army types and RCAF flew them in. Pick a special crew and demolition boys so they weren't going to stop overnight. They're going to take off right now. They got this all sorted out you know. So, on these airplanes they had a circular cover that slid right over the propeller hub and you closed it and that helped to hold the heat in there. These boys rushed to their airplane and the mechanics rushed to it and they all climbed in and then they bye-bye and took off down the runway. She just got nicely up into the air when we saw them make a very, very tight turn. Down he come, both engines red hot. They forgot to take the covers off. Was there ever trouble over that thing. That poor sergeant that was responsible…Photographer: Milton J. CampbellWDA's Comments, 2013 Sep 12: This one of only a few known fire balloon photos. A Google search turned up about ten photos and only two diagrams of the balloons.