Farewell My Love

I worked in Edmonton, Canada for about a month until the mill was ready to be shipped to the Yukon. I was over the moon when Mel offered me the position of Millwright. A Millwright’s job is to maintain the sawmill and keep it running. I thought, “The Yukon! You beauty.” I was in love with the wilderness, and I didn’t think you could get any more in the wilds than being in the Yukon Territory.

While I was giving the mill some finishing touches, Mel introduced me to the other three blokes who were going along. His dad Henry, a sawyer named John, and an office bloke named Warren. Warren was a friendly fella, who invited me out for a drink, picked me up from my place at the Yellow Head Inn, and took me for a look around. The first spot we visited was a lookout from where you could see the bright lights of the whole of Edmonton, nestled in the shadows of the huge night-time mountains. It was a beautiful sight. We stayed there chatting until he took me to a boring bar. Warren spent most of the time speaking with the barman, who kept giving me curious looks. It was so boring, there were no girls. I thought, “What a strange place.”

Warren was continuously telling me, “If there’s anything you need, just ask.” I was pleased we were driving to the Yukon together.

When it was time to load the mill onto a truck, an Irish truck driver with a large clover leaf painted on the driver’s side door arrived. I was surprised to hear the level of talk this prompted about the I.R.A. Mel was a great supporter of their cause, if only in spirit, and a hundred percent behind them. I didn't have an opinion about the I.R.A. either way, but Mel's strong belief in them was later to work in my favour.

After the sawmill had left, we readied all the other gear we'd need. Tools, a large welder, which sat permanently on the back of an old pick up, a forklift, and a few other things were loaded onto the back of a second truck. With the equipment on its way, we followed. Mel, Henry, and John headed off in one Ute, while Warren and I took off in another, bound for the Yukon.

The trip took a couple of days, so we stayed in a motel on the first night and started out early the next morning. That next evening, almost one and a half thousand kilometres from the Alaskan border and just over one and a half thousand kilometres from Edmonton, we reached Watson Lake. Mel put us all up in a motel for a few days until he rented a log cabin from a bloke called Yukon Jake.

Indians owned the country Mel wanted to log. He made them an offer, and they agreed. If they let him on their land, he’d employ as many of them as possible. He organized things quickly. We met about fifteen kilometres out of town to clear a space in the bush for the mill. There were still about two or three quarters of a metre of snow on the ground, so we used snowshoes to get around. We first marked trees with spray paint at what would be the perimeter of the yard. Indians were falling trees with chain saws, and John was knocking the stumps and other trees over and pushing up snow with a bulldozer.

I walked on snowshoes, deep into the forest to get a feel for what it would’ve been like for the early settlers. The boys were having smoko, so there was no noise. I let my imagination run wild, just me, the tall trees, and the snow. To return, I needed to follow my tracks.

The Irishman turned up with the mill a few days later. I spent the next couple of months sorting out the mill's teething problems and spent time driving the skidder. A large 4wheel drive machine used to drag the fallen trees to the yard with wheels as tall as a man.

Before the trees could go through the mill, a different machine stripped all the branches and bark off them, and they were sawed to a suitable length.

I did all sorts of maintenance including fixing the Ute when its engine mounts broke and the motor fell out. I disconnected the battery cables, so the electrics wouldn’t be damaged and lifted it back into position with a car jack. I then welded the broken mounts. Dennis Carter had taught me how to do this. There were a hundred jobs for me to do, welding, cutting steel, measuring, designing, and maintaining the hydraulics. I enjoyed the work and loved being in the bush all the time.

Yukon Jake’s cabin was in the middle of the bush where the nights were dark. I witnessed the most mind-blowing thing I'd ever see. Mel and I were sitting up talking, when at about ten thirty, the room began to glow in a deep, florescent green.

Mystified, I asked, “What’s that?”

"Go outside."