|
|
In cooperation with the family of Poole Field and the RCMP, a bronze marker
was placed on the grave of Poole Field at Vancouver, B.C. and a rededication
ceremony was held in November of 1998 - one hundred years after Poole had
first passed thru Vancouver on his way to the Yukon as a NWMP recruit, and
fifty years after his death in Vancouver in 1948. The ceremony and
subsequent
reception was videotaped by Don Wilder, cinematographer of the NFB
"Nahanni."
This footage was combined with historic old photographs and dialogue written by
historian Norm Kagan. The project was managed by videographer Douglas Tuve
at the offices of Seraphin, Inc. of St. Paul, MN. The resulting video
documentary
has been distributed to archives, historical societies, libraries and
individuals.
The documentary traces the origins of the venerable Field family from English
nobility
to the pioneering families of Manitoba, and Poole Field's introduction to the
Nahanni
region as a child from stories told to him by Robert Campbell, H.B.Co. Yukon
explorer
and a close family friend. After serving two years in the Klondike, Poole took
his leave
to travel to the goldfields of Nome and Fairbanks for three years before
returning to the
Yukon at Ross River in 1903. Establishing himself there as a trader, he gained
the regard
of both Natives and newcomers and mushed throughout the Mackenzie Mountains with
the
Dene from Ft. Norman. He married Kitty Tom and had two daughters, but tragedy
struck
them ca. 1915. Widowed, he joined with Alaskan-Japanese pioneer Jujiro Wada and
took
his surviving daughter Tanny, and Mary, his partner's wife, and relocated to
Nahanni Butte
in 1919. For the next twenty-five years, Poole was a leader of men along the
Liard River, and
by his second wife was blessed with a daughter and a son. After assisting the
U.S. Army in
the 40's, he traveled with them to Aklavik in 1944 to prospect for the gold
found by Jujiro Wada
in the Firth River country. Taken ill three years later, he was flown from
Dawson to Vancouver
where he died at St. Mary's Hospital, his brother by his side.
More than any other single individual, Poole Field was the Nahanni. Conversant
in several
Native languages and an excellent story teller with first-hand knowledge of
events throughout
the region, his life detailed and enhanced the known history of the area.
Copies of the documentary can be obtained from the Albert Faille Wilderness
League,
or it can be viewed at these locations:
Northwest Territories Archives - Prince of Wales Museum, Yellowknife, NT
RCMP Historical Collection, Ottawa
Fort Simpson Historical Society, Northwest Territories
Ross River Public Library, Yukon
Yukon Archives, Whitehorse
Rasmusen Library, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
A remarkable 22 minute, 8 mm film was discovered at the Ft. Simpson
Visitors Center in 2002. It shows a patchwork of summer and winter
scenes taken in the 1960s. The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
has had it transferred to video tape and copies can be found at the Ft. Simpson
Visitor Centre, the Nahanni Parks Office and elsewhere along the Liard
River.
There are some two dozen people featured in the film including a few seconds
of R. M. Patterson during a brief visit with the Turner family at Nahanni Butte,
and
Albert Faille with the National Film Board of Canada movie crew when they first
arrived at Nahanni Butte on July 4, 1961 for the start of their summer film
project.
Most of the footage was taken at Nahanni Butte (NB) between 1961-62, with some
later scenes from the Hot Springs (HS). Mary and Gus Kraus were the
photographers,
both are featured in the film clippings, and Gus was known to have an 8mm movie
camera.
Gus and Mary's adopted son, Micky Kraus, is often seen both as a lad of five and
ca. fourteen,
and a visit by Gus' brother, Joe, and his wife Amy, is shown.
The following description was made using a copy sent to me by the NT Archives
which I showed to those portrayed during my recent travels along the Liard.
Kraus Film: N-2002-004
(The RCMP constable at the start of the film may be Victor Werbicki who was
stationed
at Ft. Liard in 1960 - his traveling companion shown poking ice with a stick was
Willie McLeod,
a Special Constable, the son of Frederick McLeod, and nephew of the lost McLeods)
time - season - details
m/s
0/00 - W - Ice flowing on River - NB
0/40 - W - RCMP Const., Micky, Willie McLeod , Gus Kraus w suspenders
0/45 - - Mary Kraus, , ,
0/50 - W - Micky Kraus w pups & sled at NB
2/00 - S - Children running relays at NB - first girls, then boys,
then
men
2/40 - S - 3 legged races at NB - first men, then boys
3/20 - S - Tug of War at NB - first men, then women
4/00 - W - dog pull, Micky on Skis at NB
4/25 - W - Mary and girls tall girl is Corrine Betsaka
4/40 - W - River flowing ice ( HS ?)
5/25 - - Men in Voyageur canoe ferrying
across the river
5/30 - W - teenage Micky in hot springs pool - HS
6/00 - - ?, ?, Fr. Mary w gas tank - all in boat
6/20 - - HS pool
6/50 - W - Micky
7/00 - - women
7/10 - - two men with fish
7/55 - S - white haired man is George Bayer, playing w Micky at NB
8/25 - W - Mary w Micky , sled and dog at cache
9/00 - - Gus w Micky at NB
9/30 - - Micky and ax, then snowshoes at NB
10/20 - S - Birds
10/53 - S - Helicopter at Turner's place at NB
11/12 - S - old man Tsetso (white hair & cap) & boys
11/50 - - missionary ( Mrs. Jack Norcross ?), Vera Turner and
daughter
Nancy and older son Rolf, Will Bern Brown (pipe)
12/07 - - meat drying, Mary Kraus
12/27 - - two helicopters at Turner's compound NB
12/45 - S - Joseph and Amy Kraus, Gus' older brother & sister-in-law
[Joe grew vegetables at Paradise Gardens south of Hay River]
13/25 - S - red plane is Jack Norcross' Stinson Voyageur at Hay River
w Joe and Amy Kraus
[Joe: 5/26/96 - 10/23/86 buried at Hay R.,
Amy was in Ft Smith seniors home in 1995]
13/25 - W - Pacific Western plane and frozen wolf
13/50 - - birds in tree
14/07 - - man scraping hide, NB
14/18 - S - Mary, Micky, and Fr. Mary (cigarette in hand) at NB
14/50 - W - Mary Kraus with laughing Vera Turner & daughter Nancy
and son Rolf talking with visiting R. M. Patterson at NB
(March,1960?)
15/15 - W - tractor scenes - building airstrip at NB?
16/25 - S - Fr. Mary pouring gasoline
16/50 - S - cinematographer Don Wilder at NB - July 4, 1961
with George Bayer, John Brucker with hat, young man w fists up
is Rolf Turner
and Albert Faille [Wilder hired Geo & John to crew the 2nd scow]
17/40 - - kids
17/48 - W - Mary w girl - Corrine Betsaka (tall, black hair) ?
18/32 - W - new cabins at NB
19/00 - - dog on chain
19/10 - W - red plane and Mary with others
19/25 - W - wind blowing at NB
19/45 - W - Mary with young girls, Corrine Betsaka (tall, black hair), at
NB
19/59 - S - black bear at HS
20/30 - S - moose along river at HS
20/38 - - birds and dogs
20/58 - W - Norseman plane - Edwin Lindberg folding tarp
21/20 - - Mary cutting teenage Micky's hair, looking for
lice
21/35 - THE END
Curtis Smith was a wealthy Vermont businessman, the son of a former state
governor.
He was inspired by an article written by R. M. Patterson in the
"Beaver" H.B.Co. magazine
to hire Patterson for a personal tour of the Nahanni in the Summer of 1952. With
a friend along,
the three men spent six weeks camping by the river, mostly on the Flat
tributary. Patterson
entertained Curtis with tall tales which later became the basis for his
"Dangerous River" book.
During the trip, the group meet Albert Faille, and this reunion of old friends
was caught on film
with a small Honeywell Motion Picture Camera that Curtis had brought. The four
reels of old film
are held by the Smith family. I visited them several years ago hoping to view
the films but the film
were too fragile to project on standard equipment, and I stopped my effort after
only a few minutes.
Although Patterson was unable to show Curtis evidence of rich mineral deposits,
he had convinced
Smith that it was there. Three years later, Smith returned with a large
expedition in search of gold, and
the "Caribou Hole," a fictitious box canyon filled with minerals that
Patterson had invented. Pleading with
Patterson to return and look for the site again, R. M. flew in at the last
moment but never did connect
with Curtis who waited for him in Deadmen's Valley. Rather, Patterson flew on to
Seaplane Lake, off
the Flat River, and camped with a geology crew for ten days, leaving just days
before Curtis arrived.
Harry Snyder was a businessman from Chicago who expanded his
family's home trailer business into the mine management trade. His
company obtained the contract to manage the production of pitchblende
at the Eldorado Gold Mine at Great Bear Lake in the mid 1930's and he
became a frequent traveler thru the NWT.
Fancying himself a hunter of big game (his 302 page book "Snyder's Book of
Big Game Hunting"
was published by Greenberg Publishers in 1950), he made several expensive
hunting side trips
while overseeing the Eldorado operations. For his 1935 trip to Glacier Lake on
the upper Nahanni,
he hired geologists, mammalogists, and local guides to assist, and he flew in
for a short holiday.
A detailed account of this trip appeared in "Canadian Geographic" and
a twenty-two minute black
and white film of the excursion was made. The low quality movie shows Snyder's
party setting up
camp, hiking along the side of Glacier Lake, the Mackenzie Airways plane that
brought Snyder,
and Snyder posing with Dall Sheep trophies. Among the local crew was Poole Field
who was their
guide. The film was donated to the National Archives of Canada and can be seen
in Ottawa.
Snyder began the construction of a Big Game Lodge at Glacier Lake, but the
Interior Department disapproved
and declared the area a game preserve to shut him out. Snyder also maintained a
ranch, the "Bar 75," near
Sundre, Alberta. The main house which he called "The Teepee" was a
meeting place for Nahanni enthusiasts
including R. M. Patterson. Regrettably, it burned to the ground with
the loss of a valuable collection of rare books
and paintings by noted wildlife artists.
Snyder retired to Arizona where he died in the late 60's. The Nahanni was a
favorite topic of his and he continued
to refer to the Sawtooth Mountains as the Snyder Range even though the Canadian
Geological Survey had
rejected this name which had been used in the magazine article.
Return to Main Page
