Newsletter the Woodcock Airstrip
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Contents Newsletter The Woodcock Airstrip ............................... 1 When the Grizzly Bear turns out to be Black? ................................................... 2 March 2019 All you ever wanted to know about Sternwheeler Cordwood ............................ 2 The Guests of UNBC’s Adventure Tours .... 3 The Most Remote Bank in Canada ........... 4 The Usk Bunny ........................................... 4 The Alice Arm School house & the mystery of Ronnie’s coat rack! ................................. 5 This newsletter highlights some of the Northern BC Adventures its many associated stories. With five years of tours, we have lots of photos and stories to share so please enjoy the newsletter and feel free to forward it to anyone who may be interested. For more information about this year’s Northern BC Adventures, visit: www.unbc.ca/continuing-studies/courses/ tours 2019 Adventure Tours The Woodcock Airstrip UNBC Continuing Studies is entering Five Year Guest Facts its fifth year of offering experiential When driving along the Skeena River adventure tours in Northern BC. In 2015, 48% male/52 % female from Terrace to Kitwanga most people are the first year of the tours, we offered four unaware of the long paved airstrip just on tours and in 2019 we are up to eight. The Average Age – 62 yrs old the opposite side of the Skeena River. Near tours focus on unique, niche-based tours Median – 64 yrs old the town of Cedarvale on the north side of highlighting northern BC’s history, culture, Mode – 71 yrs old the river lies the Woodcock airstrip. The strip wildlife and amazing scenery. Oldest – 89 yrs old is believed to be named after William Henry Youngest – 26 yrs old Woodcock who established one of the first The 2019 lineup of tours consists of: trading stops at the mouth of the Skeena in 36% of guests from outside Northern BC 1870. The Airstrip was built during World • Ghost Towns of the East Line 64% of guests from within Northern BC War II by the Royal Canadian Air Force as a • Canneries of the North Coast relief landing field. It was used more recently • Northwest BC Grizzly Bear 6% of guests from outside of Canada by the local cadets as a base for their Discovery Tour operations but has now fell into disrepair • The Town That Got Lost - Anyox 25% of guests have taken more than one with trees and brush sprouting up through Exploration tour the pavement. This site is always a stop • Skeena River Historic Journey by on our Skeena River Journey as it is easily Jet Boat * One guest has taken every tour and she accessible from the river. • Kitsault & Alice Arm: Ultimate Ghost is also the oldest guest to join us Town Adventure • Fort George River Journey Northern BC Adventures 1 All you ever wanted to know about Sternwheeler Cordwood A big part of the history of enlisted to help with the loading of the Skeena River and Upper the cordwood at the supply points. When the Grizzly Fraser River involved the use of Some of the larger boats could hold Sternwheelers to transport people, up to ten cords of wood at one time. equipment, supplies, furs, and food It was the job of one crew member Bear turns out to up and down the rivers that served to continually feed the boilers with as main transportation routes. wood the entire time the boat was Almost all of the sternwheelers used moving. be Black? wood to feed the boilers, which in turn powered the large paddles at Ironically, sternwheelers faded into When planning and advertising a grizzly bear the rear of the boat. Wood was a obscurity between 1912 -1920 viewing tour our goal is always to find the bears readily available resource that grew as the railway replaced the need to watch, and photograph them in their natural adjacent to the river and could for ships and river transportation. environment. On a past tour we ventured out easily be cut and split into 3 to Before the end of sternwheelers, onto the ocean for an hour-and-15 minute boat 4-foot sections and piled into cords they assisted with goods and ride to an amazing inlet full of Lyngby sedge by local entrepreneurs. supplies to build the railway. On the which the grizzly bears love to eat for a couple Skeena River, the last sternwheeler, of months when coming out of hibernation. As The term cordwood became part the Inlander, completed its final trip we entered the sedge-filled estuary, a guest of everyday language, as it was a in 1912. What is interesting about spotted a bear eating the succulent sedges along necessity for every day travel. The the cordwood is there are still piles the shore. Upon closer inspection we realized it cordwood cutters received around of old cordwood lying along the was a black bear. Grizzlies usually do not tolerate $3 to $4 a cord for each one used banks of the river, never used and black bears, but luckily, for the black bear, there by the boats. They would cut it still remain after 100 years. In one were no grizzlies in sight. We edged up close and stack it next to the river at location visited on our Skeena River to the bear from the comfort and safety of the strategic points so that there was Historic Journey, there are six piles boat to get some amazing photos of the bear always an available supply along lying adjacent to the river that are who was totally uninterested in us. We the routes that they traveled. The in different stages of rot and decay photographed the bear for 20 minutes before sternwheelers burned 1 to 3 cords but still identifiable. The best way noticing another black bear about 500m up the an hour depending on how hard to view these historic cordwood shoreline. It did not take long for the bear we they ran the boat and the size of piles is to join us on our Skeena were watching to get the scent of the other the boilers. This, of course, was River Historic Journey by Jet Boat, bear and off it went in pursuit of the other for upstream navigation only, as a 5-day tour from Hazleton to Port unaware bear. After 20 minutes, the bear downstream navigation typically Edward. caught up to the other bear and after a quick used a fraction of the power needed sniff, they both disappeared in to the forest. because they were able to use the Even though they were not grizzly bears it current. Passengers were typically was still a magical experience in a remote untouched estuary! Northern BC Adventures 2 The Guests of UNBC Adventure Tours We have had some amazing guests over the past five years of tours. Many of them are repeat guests and all with a passion for adventure. Here are some photos from some of the groups we have had over the years. From top left counter-clockwise: Alice Arm & Kitsault Tour, August 2018 Ghost Towns of the East Line, May 2018 Fort George Historic River Journey, May 2017 Canneries of the North Coast, May 2017 Anyox Exploration, 2017 Skeena River Historic Tour, 2017 Northern BC Adventures 3 The Most Remote Bank in Canada In the small copper mining town of Anyox on the remote north coast of British Columbia, local residents had been using the 'company store' The Usk Bunny as a bank to cash their bi-monthly cheques. This was not an ideal Jet boating down the ‘River of Mists’, or situation for the 2500 residents as Skeena River as it is better known, the long lines and delays occurred on anticipation builds as we make our way payday. Accessible only by boat, around each bend in hopes of seeing the the town soon got its own bank resident rabbit of enormous proportions. in 1919. The Canadian Imperial The guests are told that the odds of seeing Bank of Commerce announced it are almost as sure as “death and taxes.” they would be opening a branch, Some guests can not contain themselves known as “the most remote bank in but then we round the corner near the Canada.” Work began immediately tiny town of Usk and there lies the “Giant and within a year, the distinctive red Bunny” towering over the river. Surprisingly it brick building in town was built. The takes many of the guests awhile to see this bank was built in the center of town massive bunny but once seen it is always at the junction of Main Street and easy to spot again. Our Skeena River the Old Mine Road. Historic Journey provides an opportunity to see this local legend. Visiting the town now, you will see the forest has taken over the buildings but the large pile of red bricks and the brick-lined vault walls provide the clues as to the purpose of this building. The first thing guests do when exploring the building is to scour the vault for forgotten or misplaced bags of money. Unfortunately, for our guests, none have walked away with anything suspicious or quit their jobs immediately after the tour. Northern BC Adventures 4 The Alice Arm School house & the mystery of Ronnie’s coat rack! The once thriving silver mining town of Alice Arm in the early 1900s was home to the Dolly Varden Silver Mine and a dozen or so cabins and homesteads. Alice Arm is one of our stops on the Kitsault & Alice Arm: The Ultimate Ghost Town Adventure. Every place we visit always has some interesting stories…and Alice Arm is no exception. The Alice Arm Schoolhouse is one of the original town structures that is still standing.