Fort Providence 1954-58

In the summer of 1954 we left Arctic Red River for our semi-annual holiday with family in Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, then moved to Fort Providence. This was our largest town yet - a RC Mission with a residential school, RCMP detachment, and Royal Canadian Signals operation, in addition to a large population of Indian and Métis families. I started Grade One here at the Sacred Heart Mission School, with only one other non-native kid - Carol Upton whose father Al worked for RCSignals.

Me with a raven in front of the Sacred Heart Mission School, 1954

The HBCo in 1954, store on the left, lighting plant, our house, toolshop and warehouse. The overhead lines are for telephone, we were one long two short, my father would answer "Here Before Christ", which was factually incorrect as the RC Mission was established in Fort Providence (1860) before the HBCo opened business here. 

Fort Providence had an airport 4 miles upstream from the community that was built by the US Army at the beginning of the war to support the Canol project.  Canadian Pacific Airlines would bring our mail in Dakota C-47's (Douglas DC-3's)which were converted from military to commercial use after the war. The HBCo ran the post office.

Spring 1955, meeting the mail plane with the HBCo truck. The face in the truck window might be Mom. My father insisted I call him Mike when we met the plane - he liked to flirt with the flight attendants, and didn't want Daddy mentioned. I happily went along with the charade - eventually he ignored me calling him Dad or Daddy at any time, and I ended up calling him Mike the rest of his life. Kodachrome, 1-25.

1956, lounging in front of the store. The man with the guitar may be David Bonnet Rouge.
 Kodachrome, 5-16.

Angus McLeod serving customers in the store, 1957. Forty years earlier the bodies of Angus's uncles Willie and Frank McLeod were found in the Nahanni Valley without their heads, leading to the area being named The Headless Valley. The door behind Angus opened to a storeroom with stairs to the attic. I kept my comic-book collection between the joists under the floorboards up there. The store was eventually given to the community as a pool hall - my comics may still be there... Kodachrome, 9-11.

Angus McLeod in the mid 1990's, © Leslie Philipp.

Spring 1958, Mission procession attended by most of the town. Buildings from the left, priests' house, Sacred Heart Mission School, Our Lady of Fort Providence church, teachers' house, HBCo store. That might be Ernie Goltman on the roof, he was a clerk who grew up in Africa somewhere, and told great scary stories of the jungle to my sister and me.  Ektachrome, 10-34.

Note the roof on our house is longer now - two bedrooms (one was mine) and a bathroom were added to the house in the summer of 1956 while we were in Fort Rae. Also running water and a drain were added to the kitchen. The new bathroom still used a chemical toilet that needed to be emptied into the outside toilet. Ektachrome, 10-35. 

Mission procession winding through the tent village behind our house. This field had large tea dances on holidays - people would come into town from the bush and drum all night long. Alcohol was a bit of a problem as fighting often became too violent. Mike would ration out the sale of raisins and prunes before holidays to prevent large batches of brew or the Mission and the RCMP would be overwhelmed with injuries. I loved climbing the trees on the far side of the field, and exploring the trail system in the bush. 10-36.

Sandy Davidson and Mom enjoying his very strong beer. Sandy was a "white trapper" who spent his winters on the trapline and summers in Fort Providence. Sandy made his beer during the summer and let it age all winter (!) to enjoy it between trapping seasons. Note the electric light-bulb on the wall - he must have connected to Signals - his little house was right beside their fence.  Ektachrome, 1-36.

1958, resident students and nuns from the Mission. The Mission school closed in 1959 when a federal public school was built. I'm on the bicycle by the store, and my sister Tania is on the far right. The building on the far left is the ice house - ice cut from the river during the winter provided coolant in the ice-box we used for storing perishable food. The blocks of ice were covered in sawdust to slow the melting. Anscochrome, 11-2. 

For some detail on the town see Jean Watts' detailed chronicle of living Down North in Fort Providence from 1948 until just before we arrived there. 

We were in Fort Providence for four years, but never spent a whole summer there. We spent the summer of 1955 in Fort Norman, 1956 in Fort Rae, 1957 on "holidays" in Winnipeg and Kamsack, and in 1958 moved to Fort Chipewyan.