Red Lake is a Gold Mining Town

This is the new Cochenour headframe. It is being built over top of the old shaft closed in the 1970's. They are filling the old shaft then re-drilling it to a much bigger size. This is a huge project bringing contractors and companies into town. There is no room to rent or no house to buy in the area.
Drilling has begun for a high speed tram which will travel from the Campbell Mine and meet Cochenour at the 5400 ft level. The new Red Lake Mine shaft, known as Shaft #3, goes to a depth of 6500 ft. Recently they have found gold at these lower depths. My daughter, Gwyneth took a tour last month, and they showed her a newly blasted area where you could see gold everywhere you looked.
In the foreground is the new camp: a place for out of town miners to stay. This is the new reality of mining in Canada. Men pick a town to live and raise their families and then travel for work, often working 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off. Shaft #1 goes down about 2000 ft. It is the old shaft for the Red Lake mine (formerly called the Dickenson Mine)and is still in use. Dickenson Mine ran right next door to the Campbell Mine for many years. Now both mines are owned and operated by Gold Corp. Recently the party wall has been breeched and you can get from one mine to the other through underground tunnels.
This is the Campbell Mine. The older Campbell shaft is on the right. It goes down 4000 ft. The newer shaft on the left is known as the Reid Shaft. The cage takes miners down 6000 ft at a rate of 1800 ft/min. Yikes! If the power goes out suddenly, guys can end up with broken legs and head injuries as the cage stops and boomerangs up and down on its cable. My son works at the bottom of this shaft as a heavy duty mechanic.

Friday Night in Red Lake

The nights may be long, the days may be cold and stormy, but on Friday night, we get together at the Legion for the Meat Draw. Money is raised each month for a community cause...This month it is for the Breakfast Program at school. (Royal Canadian Legion Halls are found all across Canada in the smallest of communities. They are our VFWs. A place to meet, a place for a dance, a supper or a wedding party.)

An Hour or two with Friends, a Drink
and a Good Laugh is good for the Soul.

Wayne Bik and his son Dane - and Charles Nelms visited Craig and Roseanne at the Chicgo O'Hare Show yesterday. Wayne has been coming for 40 years. Dane was introduced to McInnes at 12 years old. He now has a son, 10 years old, that he wants to bring up.
Craig tells me that the O'Hare Sports Show has been spruced up and is now back to a happening place with special shows and new exhibitors. Good news for us.

Rhian and her Deer

Hugh has 6, sometimes 7, deer coming to feed just outside my office window. My grandaughter, Rhian, likes to feed them. She wonders where they sleep at night. and where they get their water. Just so much fun to be a Gramma.

Note: At 3:30, it begins to get dark, but each day now the sun stays a bit later. E

Lee and Glory Romano came to visit Craig and Roseanne at the Chicago Show. They have booked their spot -- at South McInnes opening week in May. King McInnes and Glory are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary there. Glory has lived with McInnes Lake and the annual fishing trip her entire married life!










Lee first came to fish Optic Lake with some buddies.... a fun bunch of young guys, always getting into some kind of trouble. Then he checked out Telescope and then moved north to McInnes when we bought those camps. Once he found South Camp on McInnes, he was hooked....for good. He is the self proclaimed King of McInnes Lake. Don't mess with his fishing spots (if you can find them)

"2011 will be a special year
on McInnes for me.
35 years with Viking Outposts and 25 of marriage.
All Good. A Guy can count himself very lucky
to have such a great fishing partner ... as my Wife!"
Lee Romano

Cold cold cold but we can't stay inside

Hugh decided to feed the deer and now we have 5 deer who visit daily. Two bucks rule the yard and will only allow the 2 fawns and the doe to eat when they are done.

Our grandaughter, Rhian, is always ready to help out around the place and here she is feeding the deer even though the temperature is about -40 (no wind chill calculated in) Oops she missed her pail...oh well...grandpa's got lots of corn.

An Ojibway Name

This is the story of Migizi Nini (Patrick) and his eagle feather.

Patrick Beatty came up north and was trapped at Viking Island for the summer. Many young people cannot take the 24 7 nature of this job. There is no getting away and the work is long hours, hard labour and very social. Patrick excelled here.

He got along very well with the Ojibway staff at camp; Mary Jane Paishk, Joe Keewasin, Peter Paishk and Jean Keesic. He embraced the opportunity to learn their language and culture and they took him in. He liked their calm, their easy laughter and their ability to live and let live. Soon he was adopted by Jean Keesic. In her culture, a person can have many parents. This doesn’t diminish the role of birth parents but gives a person additional serious support of elders. She went about giving him a name complete with tasks as he needed to earn it. He had been feeding the eagles daily and they had come to recognize him in his boat. He was sent to collect something that would, in some way, be presented to him in nature. He returned with an eagle feather, not an ordinary one, a talking feather! Jean and Mary Jane were amazed and named him Migizi Nini (Eagleman). His feather had great significance and he was instructed to use the feather to talk things out, to communicate in difficult times, to help others and to help in prayer.

Jean went on to ask her band council if Patrick could live on the reserve for a while and go out onto the trapline this winter. This permission was granted and is very rare in this part of the country.

Patrick died on January 11, 2011 in his hometown of Barrie. Jean asked that his feather be buried with him allowing him to “fly with the eagles”.

P.S. My native name is GaaGaaGi, which translates to Raven.

Apparently I talk too much. Kaa Kaa Kaa. Strange though...I have had connections with this bird. Enid

Skidooing on Water

Boys must be boys.

Billy took the portage, Mike took the Narrows.

Patrick Beatty

Patrick Beatty came to Viking Island last spring to work. He was the young guy with the muscles that I needed. As the summer went by, he was much more than that and we tried to keep him here for the winter. My grandaughter called him Patches, Lisa, our young cook, called him Pataro, and Florence, at 96 years enjoyed his company. He got to know all our guests and enjoyed all their stories and knowledge. Jean Keesic and Mary Jane Paishk taught him their Ojibway language, adopted him and honoured him with his own name, Eagleman.

He died this week after being hit by a transpor

t truck near his home in Barrie. He may have done this on purpose and I can't get my head around that. He seemed a boy beyond his years and just struggling through the normal growing up stuff. He considered staying up here in Red Lake for the winter because he felt so comfortable up north. It suited him.

I'm having trouble concentrating and doing normal stuff as I just try to imagine Viking Island next year without Mary Jane and Patrick. I know life goes on....but just not so quickly, please.

P.S. there is another post from when he left for school. Click here if you wish to see it: Patrick is headed back to school

Mumma Moose and Calf at Crossland

Moose and caribou like to calf on islands away from predators like bears and wolves. It always amazes me, though, how soon the mothers get bored with the island head for shore. The calves are only 3 weeks old and they are expected to swim!! Troy and Teresa Westrum come to Crossland in the middle of June....the perfect time to witness this journey. This is their little video from last summer.

A Lone Wolf...

Billy came upon this fellow as he and Vito skidooed up Red Lake. He was limping and is no doubt a lone wolf apart from the packs trying to eek out a living on his own.
I hear there are more wolves around these days. I expect that the increase in deer numbers is the reason. My first thought is how will the woodland caribou cope with this new threat? They will be an incidental casualty. They are protected from hunting and forestry plans consider their needs, but they are still just hanging on as a population in this area.

Westrum Family and Crossland Lake

"Here's a pic, I thought you might like. Micah caught this off the dock at Crossland (45" and 25 lbs.) " Westrum party 2005

Troy and Teresa Westrum call Crossland, their place. After about 15 years of fishing, they know the spots! They have seen the strange colours and spots on the large northern, sometimes mistaken for muskie.

They know it was the winter stomping grounds for the Strang family. Jimmie Strang, a long time employee of Viking Island, was taken there to escape residential school. That Ojibwe family unit is long gone now, but Jimmie taught us something about the plants to eat during the winter and the habits of the beaver here.

Teresa Says, "Who Says Girls can't Fish?!" Westrum Party 2010

They have checked out the old abandonned trapper's cabin and wondered about the old man that died in his cabin during the winter and was discovered by Hugh and Craig coming to put up ice. Then they heard of Andy who brought his mail order bride to this cabin and later, together, they brought their first child here and spent the winter.

They have watched for the woodland caribou who pass this way and sometimes calve nearby.

Mostly though they just enjoy the great walleye fishing, great shorelunches, and time together away from all else.

This lake is joined to Guernsey so has quite a bit of water to fish. Although only 45 miles from Red Lake it happens to be in a remote area untouched by roads, logging and even canoers.

"It don't get no better than this!!!" Westrum Party 2010

Mary Jane Paishk

This is a very difficult post for me to write and one I have been postponing. On December 17, Mary Jane was hit by a truck while on her way home from the hospital where she was delivering Christmas goodies to her brother. On December 27, she died in hospital of her wounds. Today is her native funeral.

Mary Jane worked with me at Viking Island on and off for 25 years. When she first came to camp, she knew way more than I did about keeping things neat and clean, so we worked together as partners. During the wintertime, we often got together for projects or coffee. If I count my best friends on one hand, Mary Jane is one of them. I can't write about this for now. I can just say we shared our lives and feelings and just connected in a good way. I will be missing her. Mary Jane's partner, Joe, is not well right now. He and I are on our way to Winnipeg for a big operation on Friday. If you know Mary Jane and Joe, please keep Joe in your thoughts while he recovers from all this.