J

Eric Janze

July 5 1985

Who and what was here when you arrived in Hazelton?
W~I Hazelton was here ancJ1all those farmers in the Kispiox
valley were her-e because r arrivea in Haze'L ton on March 5,
19T8.
Were you born in Hazelton?

Yes.
Wfiat was your earliest recollection of"Hazelton?
I waR about, r imagine 3 or 4 years old, the town appeared to be
bus-ier than it is:now, quite a few more building of course there
were no nice streets when it raine~, they'were mud. Two hotels'
and"about three restaurants.
Was Dr. Wrincn your delivering doctor?
Yes he was the one that fiOught me into Uns world an~ he bought,
my mother into this world too in T898 wnen she was born.
Wnat changes have you seen in Hazel ton?
Vre!I, 0 course it '"S more modern th-ese days it was pretty well .~
the seat of gove rnmerrt , the mining recording office was here many
more government agenc.les then there are now.
What kind of agencies?
Well there was the land office and of course there was no human
resources office or wel~'or
anything like that. The police
were here there was the provincial police~ and the R.e.M.p.
and there was one man called the dominion police man. But that
soon went sway.
~~at was his job?
I don't really remember.
What was the economic base at that time?
Mining, farming, Cedar poles, fishing.
Was there much of an exodus to the coast during.~he

summer~

Oh yes the villages WOQld be empty.
Tell us about some of the mining in the area.
Well there was the Silver Standard mine operated in those early
days and before I remember the Rocne de Boule operate~ but there

Page 2
was a great deal of'prosperaty- going on because there was a lot
of'pacK trains going out in the sprOng and summer when the river
goes down.
What were they looking f'or?
O.K. Anything~

Gold~ Silver.

Anything to make a buck?

Y;es.
\Vhat about some o~ the logging in the area?
first start?

Vfuen did 10gg1ng

In, lets' see. On, I ~ink the big push came on right after
the second world war. Bef'ore-that there was the odd'little
mill around but nothing to speak of.
How do you mean by a big push?
Well there was fif'ty sawmills around but nothing big.
portable sawmills.
~o

Small

was some of the people who owned them?

1 remember a few names. Ii'arry Simpson, Dave Prett, Freddy B~. ~~
trap Leary and his brother had one.~a there was quite a -!'ewon
the reserves' and there was about eight people wor'king on each
and they di<f1the logging too ,about eight to twenty and they.
_, .
would go to one spot and log it then move to another and log :t?~'.>·f

m~.

.

What kind of markets dia they have?

On ~f

They were cutting prime timber they were making

?x9rl3 scalfolding and most ofit had to be knot free now

they- allow more. But there wS's a gooJ pric-e for it you could
ship it anywhere in orth America.
How were the winter when you first came here7
Oh they were colder than they are now and there was no anow
removal, err- course.
How did they cont'end with it?
Ju.st let it lie there and it would pack down.

Put the cars
aw8.Y, in the fall and get them out again in the~spring ana
use t~e horses all winter.

Page 3
What kind of activities too
community hall?

place in town, mostly, in the

Oh, aancesr concerts, it was a great sports town during the depr,
ession.. They were Baseball teams- from here travellea allover.
Prince George, Prince Rupert. They even importe"a a couple of
people to play for them. r forgect there names now., but they
coulan'"t f~nd a job. They were ab Le to get a room ana t'ood
ana a couple of bucks on Sa-turaay IUgnt. So they came to" ~-:.:
Ha-ze-l
ton to play ball.
Tell us some more about the sports in the area.
They played at totem park thats-been there a'slong as :r can
remember-;
Its been r-ebui Lt a couple- of'times. The poles were
movea there sometime after the second'worla war~ but r was
away when ~~<~ent up there.
You were away f'or awhile?
YeEt. I was in the army ana then T did spme ship building in
Prince Rupert.
What kind of schooling was available at the time?
There was a one room school with eight graaes in it •. A primary
sehool with about forty ki<fi3,I guess. One teacher. And there
was high school with one teacher and about thirty-forty pupils.
Tell us about somE; of your recollections- of New Hazelton?
Well- there was a hotel there about where Simpson Sears ia and
the Ominecca Herald was whe?e the Chevron is and Larkworthy had
his store down close to the station, it~s apartments now.
There was a school there- about where the building supply facing
the stre~t the"other way, not the one that comes down from the
highway ana there was a few houses tL~re out that was about it.
~nat kind of interaction was there between New Hazelton and Hazelton?
~
Well, I thought it was good. There was a great rivallry in sport
but I" thought it was-~~.
Well~ there were one or two guys that
woula snarl once and a while. But it was O.K.
Was there dif~icul ty in Transportation-r
New Town much?

Did you get over to

No not that much, because the kia coming to High school had to
walk both ways. They would have to walk down in the morning.
-<~
,
I quit just Defore I wrote the exams for Grade II
because I haa a chance to go out on a job. So I left school.
F

Page 4
'/lorkat that time was more important than school?
Oh yeah.

It sure was.

How much did yo: get payed ~or doing YOJr job?
I took over the operation of the power plant at the hospital.
I did all the maintenance for 59.60 a month for twelve hours
a day. No time of'", Every day, Sundays too andJVj\ I got
married, they gave me two weeks off without pay.
What kind oT work would that entail?
I was operating the power plant and doing all the repairs in
the hosp i tal. Your grandfather camp. to work vi th me after I
had wor~ed two or three years, but we had to do all the carpentry, all repairs to wiring and had our own water system.
So we had to look a:"ter that as well. 'Ne looked af'ter the boiler
that bed the hospital. Mow all the grass by hand, one of those
that you pushed. In the early days when I worked there you had
to saw thirty to :t"ort cords of wood •••with an electric wacd saw
because the old laundry man flatly refused to use anything else
but a bighuge copper boiler and he had it built over a fire and
he would throw the clothes In there and boil them, all the sheets.
TVnat e.('fectdid the churches have in the communi t'J?
They ~ere better attended than they ere now.
attractions that there are now.,

There wasn't the

lfuatkind of health services were there?
The hoap i tal.

'"lhenyou got sick, you went there and that was it.

Vlas the 'ur-se s school in full operation?
Yes. I can remember it. I 7'orget when they closed it down but
T remember it was going in full operation when I started school.
That would be I924-25.. I had to wait a little longer because my
birthdav was in Jarch •••at that time we lived across f'rom the
hospi tal where \~:kKalowslive. There was a big house there ~.nd'
~
my fat~er was the foreman on the hospital farm after we moved in
f"rom the Kispiox Valley. Then later we moved down t own because
he figured it was too far to walk to school.
Tell us about some of your recollections from the valley?
Vie lived there un vi L T was five years old and then we moved down
where tPetersoIl~farm is, across the Skeena and then we moved'
across from the hospital. Oh! For a while we lived in a house
right behind the hospital.
What can you remember about the nurses school?

Page 0
Not l..na"t
much. I was too young. !1yfather was around there all
the time becaUSE he ~id maintenance too.
Do you remember the shi:t from the old hospital to the new one?
Yes that was r92I. r think in Je.nuary of 31 or was i t32?
we were livi.ng down town.

1

hen

,,'hatdo you know about the business community?
~ell, the riverboats stopped six years before I ~as born. Of
course Sargent's store isn't where it is now. It was about
where the breeze way is between the store and the hotel and
back :arther. 'T'heyhad a big huge warehouse sitting about where
the ;-)ar1-::ing
lot is. t<..nd
then there was sort or a town square
with hitching posts and rail for horses and that's where they had
hor""e shoe throwing contests.
Can you remember Haz eL ton days?
That was the -lower show they called it. Yes, I rememoer 11,
well. In thO'se days the men in town use to compete with one another for the best f'lower gardens. In t.Tllne
when you walked
through the streets, the smell was almost overpowering of
f'Lowe rs, r ~emember Sargent made a f'loat on his big open touring
car. I forget what kind it wa~. TIle f at was of a river boat
and covered it entirely with roses. They worked aLl night to
put the roses on so they wouldn't w'lt before morning.
hen
there was of course the big sports day with baseball and races
and everything. ~ don't remember the horse races they used to
have on government street but my mother told me about them and
there was pictures of them. They race up and down the street.
Yeah, it was an acti.ve community.
Did you play any sports?
Yeah. r p.]ayed baseball and hoc -ey and did a -Pair amount of
skiing in the winter. Downhill racing and ski jumping mostly.
de had for a while, during the r940's there was 3 ski tow up
the Babine road there going up the hrPl there. Allen Benson
had it. Then right tltere where they built that open air rink
beside Totem Park, some of tle men fell the large popr
trees
and built a r-unway , lle'd ,jumpon the side hill there, of'course
we're done awe with the side hill now. But that was too short.
Down past South Hazel ton on the river side of the t r-acks we had
B real gooo ski jump.
What about some of the ot~er sports Baseball, ?ockey?
r:;ellt:'1eyhad an open air rink about where the village pub'Li c
,;,orksis. Tha t ' s the or.er can remember-, Before that they use
to make them on the river.
Getting back to the busines-ses, what about ~I~yrosand Smith'!

.r

Page 6

I can go right back to when Smi th was operating it and that was
where you go right up the street past the present building. On
the left hand side, there vas a big cr-i bb i ng t.her-o holding the
road up. 'T'hat'swhere Smith had his store. 'tjutthen he diee.
Ther-e was a g:>n in there, we I'ved .n SIDithers for three or .f'our
years.
ut ~yros came along and he •••I Porget her name now, got
mar-r-i ed and i',~yros
bui.lt a new bu i Ld.ing ; The one ren vating now
an later they moved t~e 01 d Smi th buiLd ing down to right ,strai.'ht across f'rom th building they~re renovating now and
turned it into a high school and that's where I went to high
school. 'l"heprimarY school was where Rosie Morrison lives.
'l"hat'swhere it was; there and t,hat's where the school yard. In
fact, I think Rosie's house is built out of the material f'rom
the sChool.v'Smokey tore it down and then built a house there.
It would be I gueo'3 in the .oif'ti.es
when they built the high
school they have now.
ut by that time they had little schools
all ovp-I"town, renti.ng rooms here and there.
Nho...t year cid Myros close down or- sellout to York?

It was in the early sev0nties.

.~ros built the house in two mile.

'vIlhen
was the R.C.l~.P. barracks built down there?
Part o~ the building must have been built tn the early thirties
and then .t was added on to. But
don't know when it »e» added
on to. At one tjme they patrolled too, I thinlc. They patrolled
f'ro!I1
ljIerraceto urns ,ake and they sti 1 had horsl..]of'course,
they had horses right ,un to the forties.
What kind of entertainment was available~ Show Hall, Dancing
Girls, Tewspaper?
They would bring a show down once a week. They had to bring
these Dower plants down with them because we didn't have the
proper kind of, ;rOW8T. There was very Iittle pov:er in Haze lton,
just some of those litt~e DC plants. They were still depending
on coal oil lamps and bass lamps. It must have been in the early
fifties when they started up the diesal plant. That's when my
brot~er Rod, went to work for them actually. They had been
operating f'or a couple of'~3rs before that and he started w'th
them in 95?
~¥hst can you tell us about the newspaper?
Oh it was a small newspaper about the format of the province
exceptionally 4 pages and that was operated by 1 r Saul. I
forget whether he sold the equipment t~Terrace and it became
the T-errace Herald

Page 7
Originally that paper had been in Hazelton, but when the big boom
went on and the railroad went through New Town. He moved it to
New Town, but then things w~t flat.
'fuy:i8 things go ~lat therp ~or awhile, and expansion started
in Smithers and Terrace?
Well it •••it made once that railroad went through instead of
everthjng coming on the steamboats and being distributed all
the way up the Bulkley Valley; and as~far as Prince George in
some- c ases as far as Fort George then. That took away a lot
o~ the economy of the country, the railroad going through, and
I suppose mining dropped off a bit, prospecting alt~ough it went
on ulrtil just lately. Well ther s still a lot of it that goes on
only now they use helicopters instead o~ pack trains and there
was a big telegraph of'f'i ee here. I don' t know how many worked
in there but it was quite a few~ Of course they had to supply
the eleg~a h line all the operators and line men along the
:av to telegrap'L creek. So the pack trains went out of here as
ar as the eighth cabin. Then from telegraph creek they came
down to ninth cabin to distributeth9 ~ood because the steamboats
were still rLmning up the Stikine to Telegraph Creek.
What part did you play in the war?
J never got overs
.- I was mostly a teacher. I taught hand to
hand combat, guerilla tactics etc. I was on my way to Burma
when I took sick and Ilnded up in the hospital and by the time I
got out the war was long over, so it wasn't really a very colourful Vlar f'or me.

What was public opinion at the onse-t of wa'!'?
Oh Hazelton was a town of old men and young boys. Everyone was
gone that could possibly go.
here ~as three of us that went.
Uarie Wilson, she's m,y sister, she went and m,y brother Phillip,
he was in t~~ first specjal service ~orce. ~t was made up o~
Canadians and Americans who wore something like the green berets.
Only they lore red berets. The' had both Canadians and American
o~~icers who led t~em. ue was killed at Anzio during the invasion 0; Italy. He was only I9.
as there mUCH of a change in the area as the war car-r-i
ec on?

Yes. They ~1ad to take 13-14 year old boys and put them on the
~lblic highways trucks to drive them. They couldn't get anyone
else. They had an army detachment at Sk~ena Crossing to guard
the bridge there. They had other roving patrols because they
were prime targets and Prince Rupert was an important place.

Page 8
There was no highway down there then. So they had to mn1(e sure
the bridges weren't blown up, because t.her-e we~-'epeople around
t~at would do it you know.
~~en did that road go jnto Rupert?
It was t'Lrri shed before the war was over.
Wes there much of a change

i.n

t.'re economic base in the war ?

res, well thats when the huge m.arket for lumber came in
streams and t!1e small portable mills started operating.
iVhat wer-e some o" the old industries that you don't see o.nymor-e
I guess the mining was the only one.the pack trains as well and
of course trapping has disappeared, that was a big ODe
\Vhat was th~ econo~v like during the oppression? Did it hit this
area very hard?
Yes but if you wanf.edct.oexpend some energy you didn't go hungry
becausemo t people ate well that botherd to do some hunting or
anvthi.n like ttat.I remember mv father hada garage and there were
some days that there woul-:3be 1.25. in the cash register and that
would be fJr labourtthe rest would be meat, potatoes and eggs
things like that; bartering. We were in the house, there was a
big barn down where Steve Juhas has his restauradt right across
the s·treet from his place and then t'--erewas another one where
Scotty lives. A big barn there where people could pat there
horses when they came to town.
Vn8.l.

do you know e.bout the steamboats?

Just what I"ve read. As I say they were gone six years before
I was born. When I was a small boy in Port Essington. I use
to play on the the old Inlancer. It was us on the beach there.
~e ma~hinery had been stripped out of her, but other than that
she was in one piece. Now I hear she has d'f~appeared entirely.
But that would have been 1928 when I played on her, and she
was out of the water then about lS~lvyears.
lfuatdo you know about the following places: Fort Steele?
I've just drivt-'nthrough it ~
First Cabin and the telegraph line?
Ths cabins ,.'ererough by a days travel apart. That was 28-25
miles then. They had halfway cabins. They were just a small
place, so that if a man were stuck during the winter, he could
go there; then they ha~ what you call refuge cabins which were
just lean-to that they could light a fire in front~- ~ey would
have wood and probably some kind of stove and maybe a little
food.
Who took care of the maintenance oY these places?

Fa e J:)
One 0 the big trucks that I r€=embe~
truck w th solid rubber tires on it,
it had no cab on it.
Now were cars built

here was a chain driven
_ugh
irch used to rive it

ack then?

Well I k!J.~1N one t.hi ng , that they're nice maybe to romance about
but I wouldn't own one today.
he weir~ ligh~s vould falloff
a
10,000 miles and fp~ders would fall off bec~se
they were put on
so clumsily.
No heaters, even i n sedans.
If you were at 10, 000
mile without a valve jo~you were doing good. And a 0,000 a ring job, be~ing
job and another valve job.
TO they can romance
all 'they want about those old cars.
I worked on those old cars
I worked on those old cars. Thpy were still around when I was
working while a teenager, but working with a mechanic.
I'd
:_
sooner have a 1985 model. Funny thing is that i~ you ~igured out
the cost o~ a car in those devs compared to the cost o~ cars
these days in relation to wages, they are ~ar cheaper now then
th were then. For one 0 those cars you ~yed ~ybe
13-14
hundred dollars for the better model and I was calculating that
when I were t~ wor
i~ I'd put all Y clecks in the bank, it
would ta1<::ee 3 years to uy a car and today it would t3ke less
than a year.
Sa in relation to the dollar, cars have one down
in price and you get a much better car, ever~~ng
in it, self
contained.
~~1en you sa a be~ter mode~,
8 g00d one and a bad one?

what would be t~e di ~eren~e

between

Well, a model
retailed in Hazelton for about
750.00, and well
say one of the bi~ studebakers and Nash would be about 1500.00.
hey- were much more power.
Did the

ha~

air conditioning?

Oh no.
he air conditioning was the air blowing around the windshield.
ou had to stop when it started to rain and put curtains
around the side. ~o they were nothing like they were now and of
course the roads we.!'epoorer, if" you were a go01 driver you could
make it to Smithers in ? br~. that was in the th rties.
No there
was no compari
n. An odd thing wa~ there was an airplane flying
here when I was five years old with big game hunters.
010 George
Burns bought one.
hat's how ~y stepfather came into the country
he came into overhaul because he'd been a mechanic in the airf'')rcein the
rst Torld War. But when he wrote up the estimate
on it, George
urns thought it ~es to much, so he sold it.
he
first radio, I remember you took turns putting the headphones on
to listen to it.
here was a ~amily named Coxes that live right
next to the pentecostal.
. ell their house was were Mae Simpsons
house is now and they had a radio.
Once in a while us kids
would get in t~ere and we could put the headphones on and listen
a biteVfuat was

-amily Ii e like?

Page 11
It was certainly alot tighter than it is now. You did things
as a unit. If you were going to have a picnic that was a big
thing.
ice weather wae to go out and heve a picnic, both summer
and winter, T carried that on f'or' a Iong-· t'ilili .. n wi th my own
family.
en tne kids were 8,9,12 years old we use to go out
in the winter time and have picnic somewhe i-e , Four mile bridge
there use to be a big beach ther~. It's gone now on the other
side by that pully and that was a great place to go. You could
go swimming there, because the watpr didn't move out very fast,
so it warmed up e bit. But families did things as a unit not
like now when on~ goes one way and another goes a~other way.
Of course the boys had alot of wood to cut every year. Saw it
all by hand with a five foot cross saw. Split it, carry it in,
bring coal in, carry the ashes out, carryall the water for the
day. \Iehad 8 large f'mnilyyou see, there was nine of us. ~y
mother and father also. So that meant a forty-five drum oP
water every~y had to be carried from the river. We'd carry it
in buckets and make quite a few trips. 7fuenwe got old enough
we'd drive a truck down to the river and fill it, drive it back,
then trans~er it to another container. There was several people
in town wh made a living carrying water to the restaurants and
hot~l. IO¢'a bucket. Chinamen with the pole over there shoulder
and t~e last one around that carried water or a living is
Robert Robinson. He carried vater for a living.
V~1flat
foods were available t.hen th ':'t aren't available now?
'lellfor one thing, there was sea foods that y;,'ucould buy in the
Hudson Bay that you can'"tbuy now. Like seaweed would come in
coekesand dried herring eggs and dried oolichon things like that
are about all. ,'Ie didr.'thave the fresh lettuce and those kind'
of things in the winter time at Christmas time they would bring
in one for Christmas but that was about it. I can remember corn
gr-ov. i ng , See it was almost a solid building triangle motors
is now. That lot was a lot larger those days and it all burnt
down one night and I don't remember when it burned.
think I
was living up t?~ Kispiox at that t Imo , Then Dr Wrinch bought
it and planted corn there one vear. There is a picture downtmvn
of ill Sargents -Pather and Dr. 7:rinch standing beside t.he corn
and it was many feet taller than they were.
Did you use a lot of canned Poods?
No. Not really. People had places to store ood. But mind
you or people that were going out on a pack train, or for those
wor~ing on the telegraph line all their ~ood had to be canned
except for fresh meat. ~ey hunted fo- fresh meat. ~ev were
also supplied with ~resh meat even their tutter was canned, their
potatoes and their vegetables were canned.
Row was your salary divided up each month?

Page 12
Just by the seat o~ your p8nts. ~~en I was ~irst married I
paid 10.00 dollars a month fo r rent for a house. It ~as one
of'the more modern houses. It had a pump in it. You didn't
have to arry water, you could pump it. That house is still
standing, just back o~" where Trombleys live. There is a littte
log house that was 1940. ',ThenI got married they raised my rent
to 75.00 dollars a month. I~ ou~ total bill at the store was
over ~J.JO dollars, my wife would get upset.
~~at was the overall ef~ect when the public school and the
Indian school were amalgamated'?
Well, we got much ~~tter •••a wider variety 0-(' teaching. Mind
you, I have no complaints about the teachers we had. A teacher
that handled from grade 8-13 was doing a pretty good job and I
don't think we really lacked that much except our lab was ,
pretty primitive. But it w ~ better all around and there was
a good gym built; see that was both primary and high school at
the time. It was the .('irstamalgamated sehocl in B.C, could
have been in Canada.
How many people lived here when you arrived?
Oh, I don't remember, I don't have t~e ~aintest idea. There was
quite a f'ewmore houses. There was quite a ~ew living in two
mile at that time. Our population, I'm sure, has gone down right
in the village o~ Hazelton.
What can you tell us about Two mile'? It seems like
i.d o~ an
interesting place, but no one has much to say about it.
IVellit's only hear-say wi th me. Wh 1 I remember there was a
dairy there across the road from Bensons. Ed Sweet had a dairy·
then. He sold to someone who sold to Sendons. Then there was
quite a f'ewoldtime~s living in cabins up there. From its hay
day when the pack trains operated it has gone down hill sinc~
then. ~at's when the pack trains were operating from Hazelton
into ~anson Creek.
Was there one event ~

the past that you find extremely interesting?

leI] we would have to go to the ~1000or 193 • In '3f all the
lower streets in Hazelton was covered, quite a few houses were
washed away, we would drive out to f'ourmile bridge when it was
really high and of course the bridge was much Lower' then it is
nov, you 'oulc'r
see thE"houses coming iown .o am k i sp i ox all in
one piece and a big wh i rLpooI would suck it -:ovmand it .vorl d
turn up mat c.:':ood on the o ther- side. we went up to silver st.antar-d
mine and glen vowel was all under \'1:; ter they had to move up to th e
highway to get away ~rom the riv~r.Tt was all a.combination of:
heavy snowf'a'l
l , late spring, hot weather, t.hencame varm rain
from the mountains,it came in June.this yaer it would have happened
i1'that warm r-a' n '~na+ ',"egot last week had COIPe about a month ago
we would o~ had a ~lood.

PA3E 13
Crime and police protaction, what do vou rememher about the police
In the area?
''.'hen
the police were dov.ntown they did much more foot patrol.If
there /J[' s a br-e ak in t.hey seemed to know just v.ho to go get and
t hrow them in jai .But there wasn't that much crime •.To vandalism
parent3 made darn sure that their kids didn't do any thjng wrong
th-re was a bunch o~ ~ld men that use to hang out in front o~ the
old Omenica otel were Alice Maitland has ~er store now, on beches
and if they seen a trill acting up on t.h street they .ent up an/'
cuf~eu them one and ou didn't go home and tell vour mother for
she w uld cuf+'you one four times harder for acting up on the street
"rE use t.u-c
a'Ll.them the league 0 ~ nations. there are big many colourful character~ back then:Eourdough IcKay, we use to like to go and
visit them when we were kids, lots ot' sto ies to tell but if there
was a lull in the conversation he idn't stop talking he Qtarted
tal ing to himsel:' and at baseball games vou caul'"'al'lays tell h'"
was arouna, he had the louler;t vo'ce in the country T reme;nber ':1.iJi!.
and ar..other01' tirrer t'r-om Smi therffi,
Buo DaWSOD walking around w i th
a handf'ul of money betting on the base'::>all
game, I aidn't know so
much about them but they had fancey names for all these peopl~;
Pea V'i
ne Iarvey, Stringbean ;'ji lson, aughing Sv,ede, Galloping
Swede, lack Olson, thE::yhad colouri'ul names.
Can you think of'any trouble that you got i r.to that you .:'~n,
8musing now?
No, I th ~nk the .••
orst I ever di.d'
was t.hr-ow rocks on Bud Gr'ants roo:'
he ived where Sarah r'arshall lives we 'a stand up on the hill to
get him upset. well the trouble you got into at home VIas far Norse.
i-(-'
you did anything, cause your parents would'!really ju.rnpon you,
they ai n't waste no time either I don't remeffibermy dad or my
stepfather ever aLapning p,. Cause f:lymother she was only" '11"
but boy she sure ran the lace.Parents were way more strict then
than now c~~se they dian't want the family embarrassed by the actions
OD their chilaren, they ai~n't hurt us.
\ at type o~ clothing was fashionable?
3ell there was no d" nthetic material then inthe winter time it
was '11'001 and in the sumuer-t i me it was cotten.But I remember in
the 193J'~ the ~reat thing ~or the boys to were was blue demim
bell bottoms with a rea triangle on theside, that thei~ fad
cause we weren't allowed to go to school in blue jeans. we
had to go to school in aress pants and a proper jacket,white
shirt pol i shed shoes, Tdon ' t know if the sc.ioo'Ienforced it or
if the parents enforced it, bue oyu had to go to school dressed u~
viestarted at v: O::Jarn,
had a recess at 10: '38, lunch f'orm 1'"':00
ti 1 :D8, another recess in the af t=rnoon and you wer-e out at
3:?J, the riscipline was very s t.r-ong while T·OU can irrsgine on=
taecher teaching eight grades there coula b no noiee, you even
had to be careful 0 put your pencildo~~ quietly. one blackboard
at the ~~ont an~ on~ at the side?
':!hatmade you stay in "laze Iton?

PAG~ 1'"
I liked the country my mother 'Nas b-rrn here, ny gr-andmo t er was
bonn her-e an-T V.AS abou t EJ. My father came from Swed~n, 's grandfather
~.~acIntosh was born in 192('•. The first Hudsons Bay store was
down there where they have the cenotaph. It was there. Then they
built that one that,.s tllewarehouse now. And •••I've just forgotten
that was in the 1929 or 193J.
Wasn't that the old fire hall?
No.
Where w::

c

the fire hall?

They had a little bit of a one down there about where the paddle
wheel is. Thev had one of those two wheel cart with hoses on
it, and lots 0" buckets there, because when they'd have a fire
they'd have a string of men :rom the river up to the fire, passing
buckets to one ana :.her.
So you didn't have a volunteer fire department?
Uh, Uh. But the Hudsonfs Bay store sold everthing that a pioneer
store soJd in those days. Itfull coverage of'things. Sargents
did the same thing. Nyro's pretty well the same. They were all
basically "General Stores".
Vlere ":".
ere any sJ~cial ty shops?
.VellDot that T really remember, but: nthe early days there were
stores that just sold wo en hats, there were storps thatsold
mens c10thing,ehoe store, shoe repair and realestate of:ice.
I don't remember the big restaurant and hotel that was there were
that bu i Ld i ng , lI.yros'sold 'build!"g that they are r-enovat i ng but
black jacc ~.~acDone l."had a ho t ejl there that ran t.venty-"our hours
a ~ay , waat.er-s in whi +e coats the ,.n ole bi t ,
:lasthere much o f a night life :bars, pool halls?
Well there was three beer parlors,there was one •••well no not
right in Hazel ton there ViaS h 0 in Fazel t o= one where Al.i ces
store is now and the other one was down on the river bank.
thpre was two hotels down there that ournt down one after the othrr
then there was a ~otel and a beer parlor in south Iazelton and one
i n re',v" 1.. azel ton and I barely remember the Haze lton hotel that sat
where ~ob Blac~stock and Dickie Browns house.~here was th~ HAzelton
Iot eL there and outside f that concerts and- dancr-s that -as about
it for the night life oe Hazelton.
\'I~,-1at
about a black-smith, was there one hare.
Yes ~here was. ~he first one that I remember was ~own opposite
Steve Jushaz beslde the big barn that was th~re then the next one
is where the omenica buildlne is now."'eddy,I '"'orgethis last name
had a blacks iths shop there, then there was three garages in later
v=ar-s,cne , ITI.Y dad had one r-i.gh
t where the cenotaf iff'
ar..cf
then trianze I mtors thats the wav the highway ran into t own not the way
it does now,it came down by t.hesalvation army and down by the

PA8E 15

Anglican church 1 er; down to l1(sanand across the river thereon t
the bridge to South Hazelton, and you could drive at al~)st any t
t 1 we to kiaseguk Le and if'the wae her was dry you COGld .Ir-i, ve to
cedervale
So the roads ~ere ba~ically just mud?
Oh yeall they were just wagon roads
Did you ever get stuck?
Oh yes, many, many times. 'liewere always getting stuck wi th
wagons going home. Up the Kispiox Valley in the Spring. The
W[ ,:onswould be in the mine
up to the hubs.
How populated was theKispio~

Valley at that tim~!

here were pr"bably as many then as there are now. The population
dropped drasicaIly for a long time, then it picked up again.
Because of the depression and that"peo~le moved avay or died off.
There were alot of single men living up there. Almost the whole
valley was taken before the ~irst world war, but then when the first
world war came, they were all young men. They we.rt to the .rmy.
Most of them didn't co~e back. I mean they didn't come back to this
area, T don't think they were all killed, they just settled somewher-e
else. Because thev had a post office and a small store, just this
side of Marty ~llens.
How long have you been involved in the village?
council?

N'Iththe village

Thirteen years. T think if anyone ~€members back six or seven years,
we've made a great change i~ Old town. Trying to keep the original
concept, but it's pretty hard, you have to judge between the two.
What we're trying to do is have a mi of the new and mix of the
old. ~hat's what we're a~ter •
.isthere plans to eventually change June's place as well?
No I don't think so. We have tried, but June didn't go for that.
Because we had lots o" money to do that. Tte paid 60-80% of all
costs, renovate the buildings on the outside. Oh, we~l be orf
and running prett soon.. We'll have all inds of ideas just sort
of simmering. ~o ma.e Hazelton a better tourist attraction. ~e
worked 5 years on that craft shop. Got it underway. It's doing
well. Its a nice place. ,ore people are beco~ing interested in
bringing in home crafts.
Do you think there will be a pic~ tIft of tourists now'?
Oh yeah.
Do you find it becoming a maJor industry?
That is what we want, because we have no secondar-y

industry.

Page 16
have~'t got any land Ior seCOndary industry.
So that is why we're
going a~t_r tourists •••T'd say in anot~er five years you'll see a
big change , oNe' re .ius t tryi ng to get enough money together to
start Cleve]or-i ng tria+ ar-e a towards t.he r-i ver , :Ie have over five
hun:'lredacres,but ~~atts going to be costly to get a water line
over t:"ere.
Nhen did they out water and sewer in town?
Well water has been in town :or quite awhile.
'T'herewas a emalI
system wor'k ing , up bv the Sal vat ion Army was a b ig well underground.
When the spring wasn't suppling enough water, Sargent user) to pump
water up from tho river, up into th2 system, and then it would run
bacy down. But in 1965, T f~ess •••no it was earlier, when they put
in water from thr~ la1'e. I've f'o r'go t t en.i when though.
But in 1966,
we did qui te 3 rebuild job, when t'1ey ~irst paved the streets.
'T'hen
it was about that time when 'JC ut the sewe r plant in. Thr-e e years
a&o we upgradarl the water sys em in town. So;ne of the lines were
too small.
Just be~0re we repaved.
What can you demember

about South Town?

'Nell it was verv small, when I can remember.
'T'herewer-e a "e«
peoDle livin~ there.
~here was a hotel, and in later years, a store.
"he Sargent f'ami 1 y from New azel ton buil t a store there.
But there
wasno school rig'1t in South Hazel ton. The school was dawn where
Johnnv Aantjes ltYes. Way out by Seeley Lake. That's where the
school was. Man;v kids that were living on this entT of South Town
they c~me down to Hazelton to go to school, it was easier for thrnn.
Wa~ there a road between New Town and South 'i"own?
es, but it Jas just a trail.

In the dry weather you could drive it.

Just enough for one car?
Uh, huh.

~hat's all t~ese roads were.

Allover.

So they h?4 1 r ts of turnof't's in case you wet someone"?
o. Just put one wheel in the ditch.
ditches.

Thev were~

that deep of