Dock Dance 1959

In early fall of 1959 the community gathered on the government dock for an impromtu dance.  

Government dock on the evening of the dance.

Melvin, HBC clerk, in the yellow shirt. Possibly Lloyd Flett standing on the fuel drum. Frank Ladouceur* playing the fiddle. Sonia Popowich, public school teacher, in the striped sweater. My Mom in the red coat. Mabel Fraser in the white coat. Above Mom is Mabel's two-story house that was built by her father John James Loutit. 

Lily Wylie** in the blue dress, Leo Tuccaro, Charlie Bruno, Albert Voyageur dancing, Jessie Flett above his arm, Melvin Hansen in the suit dancing.

Barry Shields, HBC clerk, in the red shirt, Virginia Stewart in the white blouse, Sonia Popowich dancing with the happy guy.

* Frank Ladouceur was active in promoting Métis pride and heritage through his community activism and family traditions. Frank's great great grandfather Joseph Ladouceur moved from Quebec to Lac La Biche in 1804 to trade for fur. Frank's father Modeste left the family business in Plamondon to trap in the Athabasca delta when the prospects for Métis on the prairies had become grim. Each generation of Ladouceurs have maintained their French and Cree roots in language, music, and enthusiasm for living on the land. 

** The red roof barely visible above Frank's head is Lily's home which is now Lily's on Wylie Bed and Breakfast. 

Forestry Picnic 1963

In June 1963 Mr. Lawrence Yanik hosted a river excursion with the Forestry tug and barge. About 30 of us travelled 12 kilometers downstream to an island in the shallows near the east channel of the Rivière des Rochers . 

Everyone has loaded at the Forestry dock, and getting settled for a beautiful sunny but cool day on the water. People that I recognize: myself, Al Misko, Charlie Summers, Mom, Katherine McMaster, Charlotte Herman and her daughter Diane, Pat Dickson with her baby, and Bunny Yanik. Others, while familiar, I can't name for sure... 

Enjoying the sunshine...

Mr. Yanik, who knew the country very well, took us to a small island with plenty of room to spread out on a sunny slope and deep water for docking the MV Chipewyan. I think that's Al Misko waving to the camera.

The sun, while still high, had moved into the west by the time we left.

Mr. Yanik piloting the boat back home.

The Rivière des Rochers drains Lake Athabasca at the very western edge of the Precambrian rocks that form the Canadian Shield.  In 1963, before the W.A.C. Bennet Dam was activated*, much of the light-coloured green land in this image was open water. 

The land around the island we visited is now mudflats and willows, with only a few open channels.

Mr. Yanik winking at me at a party in the Yanik's basement, August 1964. 

I took this photo of Picnic Island in September 1964 when returning to school on a Courier Air Service flight that stopped at Swanson's Sawmill on the Peace River before carrying on to Edmonton. 

* The disruption by upstream dams isn't the only factor affecting water levels in this area. Isostatic rebound, the rising of land depressed during the last ice age, accounts for as much as 18 inches of relative elevation change in the 60 years since 1963, and the relentless progress of climate change continues to reduce inflow from the Peace, Athabasca and Fond du Lac rivers. Late 18th century fur traders recorded that the entire lowland area northwest of Fort Chipewyan was under water at that time, and named it Chipewyan Bay.