Charlie Austin
Survived the depression no jobs by making cord wood
and saling it born 1920 £e~e~~r~
. ileuse go t.r-app i.n-,
Toply camping by the railway out north ward of Toply
'ct
station set up t en.t logs built up so high then t en t-ron
to ply tent over it heater stove for heat ,timber
cracking its so cold • Up there with mother father
br-othe r- Frances Adam .Pi er-r-i.e nephew- of dad, Marian
That was in between ~opley landing and Topley .Young to
remember all I rememoer ,all w~at I remember we d be
cold in the winter that the timber its so cold the
timber splits. The winter I remember dad taught me how
to trap no beavers but martin,fisher and we snare
eoxs coyotes trappen martin 1 know how build wooden trap
with dead falls called Goh still know how to make it
Fur market low. in the depression • Seldom went out cause
of the cold weather • that hunting ground up there
belong to my uncle Michial Leon from Babine area
grandfather Danial Leon sons using it_arid his boy~
trapping on it they register it. Indian law ~anial
Not suppose to mother side remain frog clan son diffrent
clan by mother difficult to get dad still register
sons names Patty Leon sons dont belong to frog clan
not entitled he knows that there ~ireweed clan • the ~ire
weed clan by the ir mother and their not suppose to
inhert hunting grounds patty knows this called me up
to have look at the area their sons hear about this they
start bee~ing they dont want out siders on the land
their different clan • I.¥ly
frog clan the land suppose
to go back to t~e heaj cheif.thats the old way.
ilent back over to trapping just local trapping useing
snares. Then worked in 8 saw mill with 44 to 4~ working
at Silver cup rond' sawmill worked there them days there
was no bull bozers had use a team of horses to skid
logs to the mill , and did some trapping useing dead :s~
falls
thats good to use the animal dont suffer or strug
gle trapped 31 miles just a single line Thats where my
dad went I didnt go out there with him on the old Babine
trail • Hun t ing area people owened a narrow valley
betweens two mountians. THey thought that nobody owned
loggers got permisoin from game o~ficeals to,log in 1967
School in Smithers,
in Smither quite a while my dad
worked around there for farms used axes crosscut sawa
to clearing land and pulling stumps wjth horses piling
them up and buring them.?5 dollares an acer n~ square
,feet by 00 square feet to gPt up to 25 dollares, done
pretty fast,
810 acre contract 1934. illie George
drowned in the canyon while we lived in Sithers .1932
dad got rumitisumin his leg and cannt work, he was
carpenter by trade during the summer worked clearing
land to sick leg bother him to much so he got aftTe

t~e government agent office to see if they could help
he pay taxs on schools and his kid not even in school.
Government agent wrote indian o~fice • Call dad the
of~ice answer back Hazelton, office ask use to move back
to Tsykya , they would supply farm implments plow
di~c so we could work the land no problem move back and
well supply you with everything to live off the land,
In 1935 moved back in that year deptment of indian
af~~ire~ B.S. people never got nothing from them
since. the log building Leonard house across was a one
roomschool house.
School was f~lled with 25 kids,
not much 20 any ways long way back and now th~ rest of
use attening school most of them sick didnt go to school
Walter Joseph his sister Pete~6Fay~Joe Sabastian,
Willie Sabastian.Margret
Jennie , 1eacher was a English
man Mr Browning up by the church the bell rings at 9
oclock for school kids I guess that was al right I
was 10 or 11 maybe more then that , for the first day
I hear the laugau8e they talk only english I didnt
understand a word of english,
I remenber them praying
in english the lords prayer couldnt make out what they
were saying. Can sigh my name read the news paper.
went ,·'tograde seven when my began to change kids all
lauge thoug~t whats the use of staying in school if kids
are going to lauge at me so I drop out today I regret
Dad cut cord wood for the elders in the village 10 dolla
res cord wood , today put i cord wood and they charge
50 dollares , then 1 cord of wood 10 dollares things
were cheap in stores , 10 cents a loaf of bread
grocies today costs paper bag full 100 dollares, thing~
bought in the store were c~eap • HUDsons Bay,~in
ffazelton , Lackwarthy dry good grocries ice out in the
Williens • Fresh meat when Joe Watson came form
Smithers with °resh beef. Lackwarthy bolony in ice
in sawdust no friges dont know about about friges
Dolony or can meat was all .Village had 30r6head of
horses mares stalion ranged ~rom here to South Hazelton
br-i dge at Ksan 'Li ghway this road was seldom used •
Hazelton business was with the canniers .Downthe bridg!c
New ~own station and store suppl~es ceder pole camps
The high level suspenson bridge sways when a car comes
on it sways like a swing loging trucks have 6 or 7
poles they take it to the C.l. station,
didnt have much
tra~fic • Ice on road glare ice t~ere wa~ ice on the
bridge take slay ride right across start at the church
and go to the ESSO station, no ice on the road go from
t~e church to the water gage on ~lay ride at 2 oc~ock
in the morning by moon light • scfiool was out then Jack
fichell , brother sister jackies sister back from La ~3~
Jaque , they come back in the summer your dad-his brother
Bert they come back for summer holidays •
Did you go to La Jaque also?
Charlie, no never went priest wanted me to go, heard

about the place, heard stories aboU!t it that is was a
rough place may be they were just rumors I dont know
Joe Sabastian was up there a ~ew years , I heard that
kids can,nt take the displine and they run away and
they freeze up on the lake just rumors though I do,nt
know • That old school not there today torn down some
fond memories ~or those who went there though I guess,
got my stories mixed up.
War time came Joe Sabastian and I down by were'~lle~s
Sabaetian built his house we were cuting wheat by hand
that grow there they rent the place ,so we were cuting hy
hand~~ith knives,car stops by Joe Wilsons place your
granddad ,we were working we saw who it was we ran to th~
bushs they were recuting for the war timeand thought they
were going to take us.Didnt know though they grab me
later on by mail they conscription I got called up to '.
the
army in Vancou¥er ,litt~e mountian army camp .Out of lucK
indian boys got to be fit me I was unfit .~ouch of
T.B. docter just found out give my letter to him he
wrote them and told them that I had T.B,.Person have to
be real fit to be in t~e army ,that reminds me of that
prince ~at qiut the army.What the heck you hit by
machine gun bullit its allover
,I was real disapointed
but might have been buried over in Italy~or France.
Johnny made it and came back t in Penlton ~ay in 195ended, H~ was in France ,GeFmany, some bum stole from
him and killed him.'
Dad was a boxer the old settlers around Smithers tought
him some, trained in Vanderhoof for six months training
they told him not to mistreat what he learned .Young I .
guess he get into a fight he use it.
Hazelton hosnital had collapsed lung in1939,.
In 1937 out in Fort Babine inJune10th sports days,
June sportsday, we had ~rass band they call use out
there to play band we were playing bal} to , some of
the boys were cowboys they ride wild horsesand steer9
they had stamped rodeo at the same timeand I remember
at that time r was pretty weakwonder what the heck make
me weak had to lay down all the timethe beginging of
the sikness 1 got hold of in the lung that was bad.
After I came back from therewent to see docter I was
on my way to seea movie on saturday night docter Whityin1
he took x ray befor that ,on my way b ck:1droped in on
him go to the movie or stay in the hospi tal right now'V·
thought a little bit I knew that people contacted T.B.
in those days they usualy die but he told me we got you ~
checked in the early stages just a little less then a
dime size SDot on your lung if you start treatment
right now you,ll get over it .I want to go down,you
have better things to do then stay in the hospital
r thought about itsitting there go to the movie right
now or stay in and get betterso I chooseto get better
t was in there 3 months as 'a bed pataint .Then they

d i scnar-ge me then about 4.years treatment from home every
body do little work to make money but I was staying home
dis sickness the only cure for it is rest so I stay home
and go for treatment every week for at lest 4 yearsdown
the hospitaloh that was hard life sit around people all
talkingthat Iwa~ lazy that I never work then docters to~
me that I got one more treatmentto go thats all right ~'then Smithers airport start hiring outthen inSmithers ~r
they,re going to build a big airport gee I start thin~ing
again just one more treatment I misout on a job up here
and wages were 60 cents an hour oh thats high wages
60 cents an hour I want in on that I kept t~inking one
more treatment I gues~ I,ll make it out 11 right so
I jump the train 3 oclock morning train to Smithers
had to wait for one week the Chineman there~give me
room and borad until the work started I got on wit~
Johnson construction all kinds of construction outfits
in OH that of building of the airport ,start working
tfiere one more tneatment escaped tired of laying around
the benfit of laying around here me talking right now
people think I lazy. ever sincethen I worked with just r
one lung,
the Pope fire, in Kispoxe pack a bunch of
tools on my sholder stright up a hill,gee I get tiered
easy I put up with all my working dayswork in ~awmills '
working with horses teamin a bush some times the mud
was right above my knee in the mountian ,foot of the'
mountiansskiding
with team o~ horses,
in Red rose the
other side of Roch de boule that were the hardest time
I had mud skiding logs then up dar up Willien camp
nine mile Two Mile spring tim~, had hill gose striaght
up like that they had one hig horseupthere they build
a shoot like thi~ here down the hill side up there on
the bench that were I was skiding put the logs there
and use my peve to pu~h it down gee it shoots down the
hill .• vh stipping season in Maycaming down those hills
its slopingwelI with ~prcrce did,nt have a hard time but
with balsume was soft bark on them soon as you start of
with them the whole darn back just slip rig~t of just
like grease hit the big horses feet like this they
slide so I had to turn the horse around oh that was
alot of funtiersome did lotsa work and with just one
lung and after all these years they got that am
after they done my heart sagery they went and done
start my lung that was to much that was two operration
at one time in' addion they move to my lung they use
vacume to clean it all off it must have collected that
sputum and things on it just incase in they use ~vacume
to clean it all off they had a hose in ther~ • Magret ~.
seen it I dia~nt T died twice use electrice shock to ~! .
bring me back to life, now I have a hard time is numd ~
leg hurt right up here my hands my head my eye see
my eye this side the pain dose that kind of strecking
thats caused by-eltver nerve damage only time heals that
so are the other oh T, am ok •
Did you ever go commercial fishing down Prince Rupert

Charlie, Ya Margret and I went down there like everythinC
else we just make a living thats all every year the big
commercail fishermen go down there they came back so
many thousand dollares in Vie holethey call it so many .•..
r
thousand dollares unpaid bill~ they leave behind to
work for the next fishing season Magret and I we were
just new,Magret was working in the filling cans inthe
cannier across there use to be two canniers across
the ocean one was Clarkston one was a now I forgot the
one ~ worked in now T forgot the name of it any way we
worked there at the end of the season we were thirty
five dollares in the hole so we must of done good.
The others they get so many thousand dollares in the
hole • They had to pay our way back on the train we
had a lot of fun commercail fishing .After that T
sould of stuck with the next year I got a better job
working on a saw mill worked on lotsa saw mills in my
time Smither Gordon Jewelson and then Chapman saw mill
between Smithers and Telkwa I don~ Evel~n Gordon Chapman
saw mill work train I was a pitman they call it ditcher
u~e travel to ~errace now T remember now it must of
being June cause wild strayberries were ripe the ditcher
was loading gravel for delivery some were else as a
pit man we didtnt have nothing to do just our hours
counting up,17/18 hours a day the wages were not that
high it was35 a hour 35 cents an hour all I did was
rill my ~elf up with wild straberries that was ih
Terrace but unloading rails was hard work w~ unload
five miles of rails Palling that year to this side of
Burns Lake. Little tongs put on the rail just like you
use to load ceder poles, plant the tong on the rail
two of use standing on each side of the rail steady it
liftput it out on next to th~ tracks, one guy he was
setting tongs up there~shorty we call use to call him
Swed,I guess he did clamp them tongs no right on one
side and one side got caught good it just fliped that
rail over on the edge dat edge cut of his toes right here
poor buggertook him in a cabose trip to Burns lake hospi
tal and den a wash out came in Terrace oh we ran down
der that a hard work for us big rocks that big they
put cable around it hook it on the ditcher put it up on
the car, fill the car up take it to the wash out
dump down where the wash out is ya lotsa work I did in
my life. lotsa other work lam going to skip some it
What about in Hazelton?
Charlie ,oh ya it was r guess you could call that a
way of life can,nt just sit around when there fish
running you goya put up for the winter and happy doing
it fish would come up • The more fi~h you put up the ..•.
t
better for everybody in the winter t~me if t theres alwa
y~ some surplus~af ~ish of dried fish that my mother

trades or sells to the commercail fish people a~ter they
come in they finshed done down the coast and people
always comes to my mother for dried saimon they give her
dried fish egg dried herring egg Olgoons trade her for "':'
that some year~ it cost money to buy 500 hundred dry ~
salmon it runs in to the thousands and yet the next year
the same thing , the same amount of fish comes never run
out after a peck run of fish in the river down here in -t
the norrowest part of the canton you could see the back
of them fish so some them they use say there so many fish
down there you could walk across the river on there back
thats only the saying fish woulded stay there use them f
~or bridge thets the way it was down the canyon , then
the jack spring oh I woulded mind those little jack
spring about that big little spring salmon lotsa of
them they use made out". The older day they use to do
nothing but gaffing feel around put your gaffe stright
down with a hook like thet just feel around you could
feel a fi~h you feel kind of soft thud likethat between
the fish and you kind of go like that with your hook
that wes quite a skill as soon as you feel it you,
fish like you pull it up a you catch fish like that.
Some time a big spring salmon when you touch a spring
salmon you could feel it its a spring its kind a hard
when a Sockeye salmon there only that big kind of a
light touch but if its a big spring solid its heavy
oh heard to pull them big spring salmon up they have kin~
of hole down they river like that , i~ boulders they all
over down there they have kind of place were t~ey lay ~t
they taking rest to go up river and thats were we catch
them and take one out and they go dowm again they go up
in school and a nother one is there bunch of them come
up thets why when there running good you catch them and
you thro~ them up anotherone then all of a sudden nothin~
keep doing that for five ten minutes nothing so I go up
~it down have a smoke sitting around waiting for those
fish to fill up the hole again they get scarde stick
moving there and a nother bunch thats how gaeeing is done
later' onwe got a let see now fish going upthe falls not
like MoricTown fall~ just like going up ther~ guess •
~lating like that and fish they go up there some times
they just about jump on top then fall back down wash bacK
Out th~ place close to the rock there like dis the river
right here falls we stand right up here we could see the
fish whenits running could ~ee it just below the suface
we could see there back streaming up the ~~&ll~
there on th~ shalow water well somebody got an idea
they build a wire mesh fish net like they call it dip n~
my dad u~e to make quite a few of them mak out wire
~hicken wire fence about that long in side about that
big'the round heavy<~'Wirethat big put right down on the
shlow side on the edge were the fi~h are running. put it
right in there track there they just jump in like that
tail to tail them thing going up the river we catch four
of them in about a second we throw it up like that and
guy standing there fish i~ ju~t jumping'around hit them
over the head with the stick by that time we got a

',',

nother one guy he justkeep on going like that , thats
when the fish i~ running good run a good couple days
two or three runs a season I think , r forgot now how
many runs thats when a big~erowd of fish come up form th~
coast .I like tfueday J hear they,er catching lotsa fish
in Skeena Cros~ing in Kitsaguckla that means that they,ll
be here in two or three days everbody get ready here
shareping gaff hooks gaffpoles oh getting ready fixing
dip nets puting horses in field,by the time the time they
hit our canyon they,were ready for them to start our fis
hing for the winter oh my ~~erybody packing fish ,~oke
houses all ready wooa •
Charlie Willen had a horse,Able Joseph had a horse ,and
a George had a horse and a Domn i c most of them did ,nt
have any they use the~e back pack it up pack board people
were strong and healthy .I use horses pack horses .some'
times horses are out on the range thats when we us pack
boards .Those wer~ the good old days of fishing down the
Hagwilget cayon •
N me the ~irst settlers came to Hazelton could you name
a few~ Your mother and father knew them.
Charlie ,oh th~ fir~t seltters oh ya well all I know is
the Spooners back here and .At the time they call it the
fish commisioner they called Joe Allen he was down there
just write down ho~ many fish you make in the smoke hou~
thing~ like that is what he,s for that all count fish he
never restrict how much you ~atch or any thing ,just cou
rrtkeep track of the count .But as fer as the settlers
there was lotsa white people at that time, but now you
here somebody moving in Smithers welcome wagon and all
that theygot on the news paper in the old days things
like dat no such thing as that, we hear new people comei
ng in ,lot of them settlers came in I think when the rail
road when the rail road was going by other business set
up I read abook on fronter day~ magazine one time I read
~~f a Goodacer was working young man at the twenty mile
house up here passed Beam and I kn~w that old log buildi
ng big log building there that was the building they,er
talking but there the road house "and Goodacer worked t~e
er they go ahead of the rail road crew they build houses
for bu~iness se~ving as hotle room board al themold,
Scotiey nckray ,Scotiey Ackray died long ago ,Goodacer
he still have now he owns the 600dacer supervalue in
Smithers his brother~ and sons their the early frontier
white people there pretty smat they now how to make
money ,well the since then the I think then the technolo
gy is pretty well advande,s these days education people
got have lot of advaned education to make a go of life
in this time can,nt go to saw mills end get a job like
that or go to a constructiongota hav~ education for ever
ything these days if you go haying time farmer~ start

puting up hay for there fames use to go over there with
a pitch fork make a few dollares now its all machinery
farmer~' dont hire you now its all machinery carpenter th
same thing use to go out pine cone picking if somebody'
whats if forsty wants it now that is done by machine to
helicopter, person like my self got no chace only
chane T hpoe for is ~/49.
But looking back at I had a prttey good life I enjoYiea
working , ~o~ memories that I recall sometimes is'ride
around on horse back up on Babine tail some were in May
June riding on mountian sife looking at the seanary greeq
leaf and grass for the horses up on th~ mountian range
up on Babine were we use to do some prospecting shooting
at ground hogs and trarmages boy they make good soup them
tramages better than any darn chicken. mountian when you
got up to the rockies Iota grouse they blend with the
rocks you can,nt see them very well just the movement yo
spot there just like pigons but bigger • tfoose hunting i
the same fall time use to go out catch our horse form so
uth Hazelton so in the summer time they sleep during the
day you just walk around all of a sudden you cou'ld here
clag elag (bell ring) they shaking there head lot of mos
quitos 9 we chase them ~ack here we coral them then we gb
outfall time at twenty four mile we ride on horse back
we got to ride on horse back because of tall gr-aae on
side hill widerness shoot them from the horse~ them
horses are trained ;shoot on top of them one horse is
not trained for that ;r did,nt tell Peter- William loan
him that mare me and Bert and Herb Willson he left they
left us~to cook bunch of young fellase went up a side
hill to hunt moose they left to watch the camp and cook
evening meal oh Stanly George andI left at that camp big
cast iron pot with san~ make the best steamed rice put h
ot rice I forgot to put the led on turn out some thing !_
like a glue ya Peter real mad when he got mad from a hun
ting trip that daysitting on toV the white horse that
all he rememberit start bucking. Use pack horsesto
twenty four mile can thellll
with vegtable turn out just
like s-tor-ecanned meat balls Magret make lotsa of them
make them out of the put them in jars like fish mixed
with beef fat some times pork eat my turn out good I
like them better than whiteman canned meat seal them
tiet air tite no eontamintion like I read in .What the
heck the indians th~re not that stupid not to seal
there can would be a wast of time if its contaminated
people would get si.ckof it and d~e they do everything
the rig~t way as far as canning is concered indians they
know their wise just some craz~ people nowadays
the)
they seal that can the jar ring on there just lightly
some time they the guy over just put or seal tietly
,I do it my self I do it titly but the one that licks
it just a thud the one that sealed titly it rings •
Talking like these cause of the new last yea!t~'thedepptm
ent of fi~heries making the indians look bad if indians
eat contamined fish there,d be no indians at all today.