TRANSCRIPT

The following is a recollection that I have of the history of my father, John Bruce Johnstone and of my mother, Mae Johnstone. Bruce Johnstone was born in Park Corner, Prince Edward Island, November 15, 1880, and my mother in the area of Perth, Ontario, March 22, 1880. My father spent the first 20 years of his life on Prince Edward Island, moving west to an area north of Edmonton in the year 1900, where he spent a few years working on ranches.

In the year 1904, he moved to British Columbia--Vancouver, New Westminster area--and from there came north in the spring of 1904, arriving at Port Essington on the Skeena River. From there, he journeyed up the Skeena by riverboat to the area which is now Terrace. But prior to Terrace having been a community, the area then was either Kitselas (which was below Usk) or Eby's Landing (on the mouth of the Kalum River, just east of the present Terrace area). The first winter that Bruce spent on the Skeena River, he built a cabin just in the area where Thornhill is today, and spent the winter cutting firewood which in turn was sold to the riverboats for firing their boilers the following spring. During the year of 1905, the summer and spring, in company with George Little who came up the river the same year as my father, he spent the full season cruising the area from Kitimat in the south to the Nass River in the north--more or less deciding in what area they would take up their stakes in the country for pre-emption.

My father decided that Lakelse Lake was the area, mainly because at that time there was a railway being constructed from Telkwa down through the Telkwa Pass that was eventually to wind up at Kitimat. So, he pre-empted the hot springs in the year, 1906, legally, but had done considerable work prior to that time. A roadhouse or hotel was built at the present site of the Lakelse Hot Springs Hotel, mainly because at that time the railway was passing right alongside. This was a roadhouse for railway construction and eventually would have been a railway station, as Lakelse Lake was then being sub-divided as a town site.

I might add at this time that the hot springs property that my dad took over in 1907--he also had a partner by the name of Hank Boss, who was a telegraph operator on the telegraph line between the mouth of the Skeena--it ran up through here and on up north from here. He was more or less a silent partner and I would presume probably put some money into the original proposition of building the hotel at the hot springs, although he was never very active as a member at any time or future date. Boss died prematurely in the early '20s and his estate of course was left to his wife, who was a sister of Wiggs O'Neill who has quite the reputation of leaving behind several articles and the history of the Skeena River. He was here on the telegraph line in the early days around the turn of the century.

During the time that the hotel was being constructed at the hot springs, my father was employed by the Dominion Government and fisheries that operated a sockeye fish hatchery at the mouth of Coal Creek on the Lakelse River. This hatchery was built at the turn of the century, started in the year 1900, went into operation in 1902 and operated at that site until 1919, when the location was changed. A new hatchery building was built on Granite Creek at Lakelse Lake. The main reason for the change was transportation. By this time, there was a wagon road through to the lake, whereas for the old location the only transportation was still up and down Lakelse River by boat.

Each fall, when the hatchery season was completed, the members of the staff would go south for their seasonal holiday. During my father's stay in the south in the year 1913, he met my mother, whose maiden name was Beatrice Mae Bradley. She in turn was visiting her sister in New Westminster. Her husband, as it happened, was the head of the Fisheries Department in BC, his name being Cunningham. I would say, just from recollections and conversation that I had heard, that it was probably the previous year, 1912, that my father and mother met. But they were married on October 24, 1913. The other supposition that I would have to have is that my father must have suggested that there was no place for a woman in this north country because, at that time he left the Fisheries Service. He had made a deal to sell the property at the hot springs that he built up at that time. He purchased a home in Victoria on 1433 (or 1435) Grant Street and started to work in the sawmill industry in Victoria and Port Angeles area--Port Angeles being in the state of Washington across the strait from Victoria. The old story was, I guess, that the north still had quite a calling. From what I can gather, the sale of the property at the hot springs fell through. In 1916, my mother came north with my father and went to the hot springs, and more or less carried on with the old hotel that was built in 1910.

I am sure it must have been a very lonely life for my mother, having come from a big city and a fairly well-to-do family where she had all the amenities of life to end up out in the woods, miles from nowhere in the year 1916. When I say 1916, it was actually prior to that, because I would think she moved back up here in the year 1915. I was born in Prince Rupert on January 18, 1916. From just recollections and stories that I have heard, I believe that she was pregnant the year she was at the hot springs prior to that time. From 1916 to 1921, my father and mother lived in the north at the hot springs during the summer, fall and spring seasons, and the winter time in Terrace. In the winter months my father worked in the sawmill industry for George Little in the old sawmill, which you might say was the only industry in Terrace at that time.

In 1921, again, the hot springs was sold to a fellow by the name of Doctor Bayne in Rupert who was interested, and also a Captain Colthurst whose son Dave still resides on Lakelse Lake. At that time the family, my father, mother, and I, moved back to Victoria. My father again worked in the sawmill industry which he was well suited to, having a fair amount of knowledge in it. He was a foreman in several mills, including one in Port Angeles, Washington. From 1921 to 1928, I attended school in Victoria. We would spend the winter season in Victoria and move north in the summer and spend the summer months at Lakelse Lake, at the same point (Gainey's Point) where we have our present home.

In 1928, my father again returned to Terrace, the deal having fallen through on the sale of the property. He received it back (that is, the hot springs property). From there, he operated in 1928 and '29 at the site up at the old hot springs. I always remember one of the highlights of the 1928 era as something we didn't find out about for many years later by reading it in a copy of a magazine (I believe it was the old Saturday Evening Post). During the prohibition days in the States, the Al Capone gang was in the Chicago area. In the fall, October, out of the blue sky there were four Catholic priests arrived at the old hot springs hotel. All they had was just little suitcases and the uniforms they wore, which was the uniform of the Catholic priest. It seemed kind of odd at the time. They didn't want to have anything to do with any of the rest of the church people. I remember my dad suggesting that he would get one of the priests out from Terrace or Rupert who he knew would be very pleased to meet them. They said, 'Oh, no, we are here on a holiday. We don't want any part of anything.' I can recollect that they used to buy their Scotch whiskey by the case, which seemed kind of odd. Another thing I remember quite vividly was that in those days, money was quite tight, and when they left they gave me (who was a child of twelve years of age who used to run errands for them) a $10 tip. It wasn't until years later that we found out it was Al Capone and three of his henchmen were hiding out from the law. They had gotten into Northern BC and spent a month out here while things cooled off.

In the spring of 1929, my father decided that the days of the old hotel at the hot springs were numbered--that the demand was more for a hotel on the lakeshore. So, we decided to build a new lodge on the lakeshore. This was built in an area very close to where Olli has his restaurant, only close to the lake. This was a log building that was built with upright logs rather than horizontal. It was roughly about seventy feet by forty feet and had about twelve bedrooms upstairs, plus a couple down, a large fireplace, dining and living room. As strange as it may seem, in those days, from about the first of May until the end of October of each year, you would have to have reservations in order to get a room. The only way of getting into the country was by rail, and out from Terrace by taxi to the north end of the lake and then down by boat. But somehow or another people seemed to like this type of life, even in those days, and there was a real good clientele and a great deal of repeat business.

During 1930, there was a gentleman by the name of Poe arrived at the new hotel on the lakeshore and he took quite a liking to my father and to the operation. He was a multi-millionaire, ex-contractor from the Chicago area, and he suggested at that time that he would like to put a little money into the operation and build a bathhouse and bring a pipeline from the hot springs. This was done in the year 1930-31. There was a 6" wooden wire bound pipe for 4,000 feet and a thousand feet of 8" pipe before it led out of the hot springs. This in turn brought water to the lakeshore at a temperature that was just ideal for bathing. The bathhouse was constructed of horizontal logs approximately the same size as the main building. It also had a large fireplace and seven foot enamel bathtubs, about 4 or 6 all together in a large bathroom area. Surprising enough, here again, there were a great number of people that used to come for the benefits that they used to feel they derived from the water.

This fellow Poe also built himself a permanent residence on the lake. It is now the residence owned by John Sarich. It was built about 1931 and was also a log building. He was more or less (although a married man) considered a bachelor, because the only person he had living with him was a Chinaman. I may add that it was very easy to see how he became a millionaire because he was very close with his money, to the point of where if he gave you a dollar to go to town to get something, he'd ask for the two cent stamp when you came back. I had the pleasure (or displeasure as the case may be) of rowing him around Lakelse Lake during his fishing episodes. I can never remember--in all the times that I did it, I never ever remember him feeling that it was anything except my duty to do it. He never offered me a nickel for my services.

This gentleman (you might call him a gentleman, who he was in many ways) lived at Lakelse Lake. But he was so tight with his money that one time he had an attack of gallstones. I got up at 2 o'clock in the morning and went down to the north end. I drove to Terrace in our old 1929 Chevy car, brought the doctor back to the lake, back down the lake in an open boat (this was I believe in October). He arrived about 5 o'clock in the morning at Poe's house, treated him, and he recovered. When the doctor sent his bill, at the end of the month, for $25, Poe was so incensed that he made the remark that the next time he had an attack it would be cheaper to die than to call a doctor. That is exactly what he did. The next time he had an attack he did die, at Lakelse Lake. He and his Chinaman were the only two in the house. This was 1935, the height of the depression, and the estate of the Poes went to his wife and daughter.

During all the years that my father had the hot spring property, both at the location at the hot springs and also on the lakeshore, my mother did the majority of all the cooking a great deal of the work in the hotel. I look back on it and I often wonder how she was capable of doing it. She used to be up at 4 and 5 o'clock in the morning baking pies, doing washing (which in those days had to be done by hand) and sometimes 12, 15, 20 guests as well as doing all the cooking. The facilities were very premature--it was always wood stoves heating your hot water in tubs or some other form than the present-day facilities where you heat them in tanks and running water. My father did all the cutting of the wood in his so-called spare time. On top of that at the old hot springs there used to be a plank walk that was roughly half a mile in length. It was made out of split cedar planking, from the lakeshore to the hot springs. Everything had to be transported by wheelbarrow or some other means of backpacking from the lakeshore to the hot springs. This was all done, you might say, in spare time, but still was almost a full time job. During the summer months my father would probably have a Chinese cook part time and also a girl waiting on table, but still the work load on my mother was extremely heavy.

In 1936, which was the year of the major flood of the century in the Skeena River, the only means of transportation into this area at that time was by rail. The last train came through on May 29, 1936, and the track was washed out for miles and miles between Kitwanga and Kwinitsa. The first train after May 29 was August 14. This was just a work train - it was almost September before passenger trains again started to run. So it meant that the whole season, as far as hotel clientele were concerned, was lost to my father and the business.

At this time, the Poe estate was being settled. My father owed the Poe estate I think it was $6,000 that he had not necessarily borrowed, but that he still had left owing to the Poe estate. Their only interest was to wind it up and he was unable to make his payments due to not having any season that year. So they foreclosed and he had to walk out with nothing but his shirt on his back, after spending 36 years building something in this country. I may add that he was a very bitter man at that time.

But typical of this type that came into the country at the turn of the century, he had a piece of property up the lakeshore. He moved up the lake, built a little cabin, and started all over again in a very small way. He spent the balance of his years at Lakelse Lake--that would be from 1937 until he passed on in 1954. He had a few cabins and he did a little freighting on the lake with a boat--a considerable amount when they were building the railway to Kitimat. At least he saw some of his dreams come true because he did see the railway construction to Kitimat. He didn't live long enough to see the highway through, but the railway, yes. By today's standards, it's kind of hard to imagine how a person, for the sake of $6,000 could lose something that today would be worth a minimum of half a million dollars. I don't think that anyone can realize that in those days a dollar was very hard to come by.

There was just nothing around. Just to give you an idea of how costs were, in the old hotel which was operated until 1936, the going rate per day was $4.25. That was European style, where that included your 3 meals and all the fringe benefits thrown in. Lakelse in those days of course had an enormous number of fish in the lake for its size. A great deal of the clientele that came to the hotel came for the fishing. The fly-fishing on Lakelse River and in the lake was second to none, also, of course the steelhead fishing. In those days there was somewhere in the neighbourhood of a hundred thousand sockeye a year that came into the lake. This in turn put a terrific number of fry into the lake and a lot of feed for trout. So consequently, where there is feed, that is where the fish are. Today, we don't have that--the sockeye run into Lakelse Lake varies between 2,500 and 10,000. So there is probably only a tenth of what there used to be years ago.