ar

THE WILLIAMS

LAKE TRIBUNE

y

Wednesday, June 17, 1955

Posing for a picture are the parties of two planes
and local Anahim people out to welcome the first ar-
rivals at their new airstrip. Left to right are Mr.
and Mrs. Tommy Holte and their son (Anahim
Lake), Robin Blair, Bob Smith (Anahim Lake),

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pilots Jack Abbott and Dave Whelan, Jimmy Waters,
Gordon Jakel, Gordie Wilson, daughter Tracey and

Hazel Wilson (Anahim Lake) and Ross Wilson
(Chilanko Forks).

Nestling between the trees, this is
how the new airstrip looked as it was
about to be christened by a first land-
A road can just be dis-

ing Sunday.

Aircraft makes first landing

on new strip at Anahi

By Fred Waterhouse

One of the more remote points in the “ Grass
Beyond the Mountains” story was brought within
easier reach of civilization Sunday when the Chil-
cotin Airways plane piloted by Dave Whelan touched
down on a brand new airstrip at Anahim Lake. Get-
ting off was going to be more difficult, but more
about that later.
Anahim Lake is fairly cut off

7 ‘oticeagh . of Jimm;
from civilization by 220 miles °

to, blurt out on the

of secondary road east to Wil-|"Cliish deserted new strip,
liams Lake, a vast expanse of | ell, there's no band! ”
nothingness to the north, moun-|!KE-OFF

tains and lakes to the south and] We took of from a rain-
the high coastal range to the |S0@ked fiel@ at Williams Lake
west through’ which a roaa|*t 9% @m. Sunday. As we
winds to Bella Coola, 90 miles|‘lmbed, the weather changed

from the gloomy murk of Cow-
town and the

long and currently a four-hour

m Lake

nose. They'll stop on a dime.”
It made sense. He practically
did.

The reception committee com-
prised Gordie Wilson, his pretty
wife Hazel and their two-year-
old daughter Tracey.

contemplated the driving
1ow lashing down.

We all drove back to Gordie’s
place where Hazel soon had egg
sandwiches and hot coffee on
the scene—a typical and most
welcome gesture of. hospitality.
EVERYBODY HELPED

These people are not given to

rain

|brother of Gordie
| ensconced | Anahim. ; |
simply, are warm, straignt-| Completion of the flight to]
forward and friendly, are with-|2@bim Lake was uneventful, |

but when we reached our des-|
tination the weather turned bad |
as Dave circled the strip to have |
a look at it before landing. A!

out the affected airs and graces
of urban civilization and they
live a hard life in a hard coun-
try. |

friendly windsock told us which |

NO EXCITEMENT way to land and D
They might have been mighty |“ looked pretty good.”

excited about their new airst Jimmy thought it looked the

but our arrival coincided with a|size of

big round-up and there were| didn't think about much at all
only three people on hand to|as I fiddled around with camera

[settings and slackened off my
in a sud-|Satety belt to lean forward for

greet our Tri-Pacer as it made
a perfect touchdown

a tennis court while I, however.

While the distance re- cockpit Was | vging i f :
the same, the time in| ”etehed with warm sunshine | ?TSS#iNS about their endeavour
there varies with the/@> the plane headed west for|@"4 it was hard to find out ju
7 Puntzi Air Base where we were how the airstrip ever got built
for all its remoteness,:Ana-|' Pick up Ross Wilson, aa-|" Welly everybody helped, you
For all i 38,44 know,” seemed to be the ans-

wer. However, it seems that it
sparked by their local
cattlemen’s association in 1958
and the airstrip committee com-
prized wwo men, D'Arcy Christ-
ensen and Earl McInroy. The
strip was bulldozed at that time
but it had only been finished
the

was

thing th

| One did

wanted it.
ance if
This
eration of the community.

Another
rancher Bob Smith suddenly ap-
peared out of the bush as we

previous Sunday when Bob-
ave thought it|>¥ French of the public works
|had graded it.
know,
They know why they
They are now with-
in easy reach of medical assist-
it is needed hurriedly.
is the number one consid-
It

den rainstorm which made land-|4@ quick shot through the pro-
ing somewhat tricky in the! peller before sitting back and
‘ rip between two clumps | tightening the belt in for

of forest.
Pilot Whelan had been plan-

landing,

RELIEVED

| As soon as we touched down
| pilot Dave grabbed a big hand-

ning the trip for some time as
one of the airstrip builders wa

opportunity, particularly as a|cerned about the whole business.
spot of fishing was promised. | “Marvellous jobs these tri-

The other man in our party|cycle undercarriages,” boasted
from Williams Lake was Jimmy|Dave about his pride and joy.
Waters, whose humor can al-|* With a wheel at the front you
ways be relied on to light a/can brake immediately without
shady corner and it was typical] pitching torward on to

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will also be helpful for the tour-
ist trade which is of some con-
jSiderable consequence anid a use-
ful adjunct to the staple indus-
try of ranching. Anahim Lake

an old school pal of his, Gordie | ful of brake lever and we pulled |PPovide a fisherman’s paradise] soon subsided for those of us
Wilson, When he asked me if/up in a surprisingly short |f" ‘rolling, spinning or fly| who were to leave when the two
I would like to cover the trip| time three of us secretly | fishing. + [pilots had a conference and
for the paper I jumped at the relieved and Dave quite uncon We jokingly warned our|Dave announced that the strip

. | the locals.
Nimpo Lake and the Dean River

hosts that the news we would

- =_-—SEr__

cerned crossing the strip at the far
end. There was only 40 yards of run-
way left beyond this and the strip
proved to be too short for safe take-off.

Chilcotin Airways plane piloted by Dave Whelan is
seen above early Sunday morning just before tak-
ing off for Anahim Lake to be the first plane to land
on the new airstrip there. .

give them depended entirely on| take-off!
the fishing and we weren't dis-|strip to
appointed. We had

off

get the

seven nice size rainbow trout
in no time at all. I have never
seen fish jump quite so much
and the lake was alive with
them. Even Jimmy, who has
something wrong th him (he
doesn’t like fishing) was per-
suaded to grab the pole for a
few minutes and landed a fish

We decided rowing was bet-
ter for Jimmy’s figure, however,

the plane stkaight away.

pounds.

so it was clearly
discuss taking chances.

run Ross back to Puntzi
come back.

Lake with Robin Blair and Gor-

Tt would take the full! +
ground
two boats| which was heavy with rain and,
with one rod in each and caught,if it missed, there would be no
time to stop before hitting the
rough Seow which would flip

immy weighs just over 200
Putitzi passenger Ross
Wilson was 10 pounds heavier
pointless to
“TH
and
Then I may have
to run one of you to Puntzi and

would go and slowly gathere¢
speed on the wet earth whil:
we watched with bated breath
Dave had known what he wa:
talking about. He left th
ground with only 40 yards t
spare, which isn’t must whe!
you are travelling at 60 mile:
an hour.

Jack Abbott was driving o1
to Bella Coola by car with hi
party so they weren't immedi
ately affected by the take-oi
problem.

It was an hour before Dav
got back fromt Puntzi durin,
which Gordie drove a heay
truck up and down the airstrir
packing down the earth as muc!
as possible. By the time Dav
landed the ground was in bel
ter shape, a fresh wind had go
up and take-off would be easier
The plane was also lighter b
an hour's burning of gas.

We strapped ourselves in, th
engine revved up to maximut
and Dave made a beautifu
take-off in a shorter distanc
with two passengers than he ha
with one.

The boys at Anahim hay
promised to get cracking an
lengthen the strip to make —
safer. With their Stamped
only a couple of weeks awa!
they'll do it. They are just th
sort of fellows who will. An
yet another step will have bee
taken in opening up the va:
ranching and forest hinterlanc
of British Columbia.

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and took the rod away from|come back again,” Dave said. | Get it a
him without further ado. MADE It! NORTHERN MACHINE!
MORE VISITORS He taxied to the end of the CO.
In the meantime Jack Abbott| runway with Ross, opened up Williams Lake
had flown out from Williams|in. throttle as tar as she

don Jakel of Alexis Creek.

We returned to the airstrip
to"make the journey home and
the isolated landing ground
took on a more festive atmos-
phere with two planes and the
arrival of one or two more of

Any feeling of fun and games

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