Bill Blackstock Bill Blackstock resident of Hazelton. I was b~rn here. What type of housing was available? 1-Jellthe.>house that I lived was across from the police station the old police station you ~now. It was a house. Most of the people had houses generally. They we ren 't exactly as they are now, but they wer-e houses. No log houses or anything like that that I remember. What was the cost of renting a house, do you know? Five dollars a month or something like that. I don't remember anybody having to ~e~t at that time because most of the people lived here you know. There was no people moving in or out or anything like that. ny people that moved in wer-e here to stay you know. The.Ylfeitherbought a piece of land or just moved in to a piece of land. Not that I know of anyway. Were there a lot of people1 There wer-e people coming and going all the time you know. About what it's like now, that I remember of anyway. There was never very many moving in at any time or anything like that I remember of. It was pretty well a stable community. There was no need for tourist accomadations. Had one little hotel. Has Hazelton grown much? Well not really, no. There's no place for it to grow. I mean it has grown some. l4.:snecially on the lower part. '_heoriginal b'14_1d~_n~3' 8 "'.1 been done away with you know. Age I guess, torn down, rebuilt again, replaced. I would say it has grown a lot. The reserve has grown. You know the people living up there. In the white community most of them moved away, You know, after finishing' school or soon afterwards anyway. Like the marshalls. Their children' have moved away. Alice is the only one"that~s still here. Phil and Toby, they've all moved out you see. Same with our family. I'm about the only one that's still here. David moved away. Delvin he's in ~rince George. My sister she's down in the States. Actu~lly there was never much here to attract. How long have you been ';he re? I was born here. But I was away for a number of years. I was in the army for a number of years. When I came back, I couldn't find any work. YOlLknow anything that I could do anything I wanted to'do. I moved out. I was away for fifteen years. I was a miner. I followed the mining tr.mde pretty well. No I don't know. I didn't find anything I wanted here. I moved out, found work elsewhere. That~Mas about the si.zeof it. after I finished work I decided I better move ho:ne I like it up here. At that time anyway right after coming out of the army, coming back here. There w~just no work period. Decided I had to go out and look for work. Do you know "Then they got electrici:ty in Hazelton? Electricity. The m in town pr e t ty well all h .d electrici ty I c .n 't re.n e.nber' Ii hen the power house w'" s buil t down there. ?ower house used to be. I believe it's still in the s.me building where ... ,.bout --cross f'r-om.n Bob Bl. cke to cks ' )l.l.ce down there. Bob vrnd Dick. Is th't buildin:::; still Uy? Th·t whi t e .' 'l'he one thd. t used Laundr-om..t , to be the Ye .•h. Th ,t's the orioin11 power house. That's wr er e B. C. telegraph hdS it now I believe. You know where the B. C. Fydro office is? I'ha t old building beside it or t h e other side' of it. Th~t'8 where the power moved uJ to then. But it just served tte businesses n .d son e of the residents f'r om what I c.in remember. Ve lived down town there; we lived WlOSS from the -o l i c e st vt i on .md Ie didn't h ve .10 _,ower. Do you . ..110'1 if lJi CA suess Bill i t W~LSBill Sargent .,ct~"lly. w s )d.rt .m' p~rti S.trgent In Q, lIo I don't ,.11 You were s t :t i oned : owned it? daye i t VLLSold the 011 w~s the Dick. ori;in:l think I would. Like I s ~i d I W:.S aw.J.Y for "touether I W LS '", here a number Were you .i ell mostly in Eng.Lm d, I w en t over to North ,•..L'ri c c, They sent over ., division of ••• br g.:.ide of C .n ~di .ns over to North 'fri ca ..in' I.S one of those. Then we went 0 :er r t. ly. It Lly right u » to 1 Eur o p e, .c t i on > Did you see any Oh ye .... h lots of it. Did you take ).rt II ell ~ctu.lly ) .r tn' in it? I guess you'd s.y I bet ~s f~r dS killing .,) rt i .i.L -..If i t ye tho Did you h,•.ve to .c)ick up VI S LJ:.lrt of it, ye ..... h. --l.nything like thd~ 01 .ny foreign I didn't But I WtS 1 .ngu= .....,e.? You .Le.vrn --l.Syou gO-Llong. I w ,8 quite fluent in It .Li.. n, Lu t e.r I moved UL) in the m in _)...rt of Euro)e. I. s st vt i one d in HoLlxnd .nd \.,erm >..ny. I never d.l d Le rrn t1 e Dutch 1 ).n.:.:,u.~ge. I c n't S..iy th~t I w.s fluent, but I could m.ak e myslef understood ,ny -w .•. y. Ji s r..d.Z el ton ..•ny di fferent when you go t b- ck? The difference that I found When I first c.ime Vi'S thJ.t I got off --l.t the wrong st, tion there. I got off .lt South 't.6wn, Wdsn't ~ bloody soul over tl ere. I forgot abcu t , I'd he I'd .b ou t the :r- bri dge -\.cross the Bu.lx.l ey down ther e. Cume b .ck here from overse i s c rse 'ba ck on holi days Le.rv e. Insead of getting off in Nevi Town I ' got on South '1'0 n.TLL t w s .::<.bout tfle only re .L ch .nge I guess. S-.l.rgemts' store s still 't r.e sa.me I beli eve. 'I'h. t 11 .s the old store you know, . I •.• Do you k.iow who the first m.iyor- w.,s ? .. g.dn I W.LS .Wlciy. 'I'h er-e w cs never a.ny offi c ,1 m -yOI'. li ce the first one th t, t I he I'd of that \ ~.s [;1~YOI'. There w s never .ny 'ti t ,» l o.l dor of th.t d ee cr Lp t i ori t:cit T reme-nber ~nyw.J.y. N ·.s Did you .c t t end school? or. ye h. I st .r-t ad of in Indi.. .in D y Sch 001 do'! n by st. 'eters Chur-cr there you know. 'I'l.en I ,'v's e:molled in .'ubl~c SCf.OOl. "r.ere S,.;oAey' shouse is here. TL.l.t 's wher e tl e Bubli c S,,'rool used to be. Oh I w en t to sc1:001 .:~spiox for awl.Ll.e, I li ved wi th ,.y 61' .nJ.~)-le ts. Vlent U~) t r ere , mcv e d U) w i t h my gr .nd» rents for Ol e ,linter tI e1 e. \, ho stex:« your g1,nd) .ren cs ? 'TL.JOthy .nd L ..ggi e . rri s. onc e in wl.i Ls, Did you no t i c e . difference I ue e d to between go up .•rid the 8t Y Ylith t.hem s croo l.s > ii'ot t.l en , no. didn't).y much t t en t i on .c tu lly, I Vlent to e cho o.L in Edc.orrt on for ...•.while. Tl~.t VI .s w l.en t rey used to just t."ke " b.inch of kids do..n to ..n there, 81' iT) them off to Ednonton or Le Jd,C like, you know. I cot c .ugh t in -cLe round 'J.rJ,'IJent to school in Ed.non t cn ';:'01' '. couple of ye.r s, I gue ss. ':'1 en l.g .i.n e duc • tion v, .s , .s:f.r .s school 'iT.S concerned, I don ' t . t.r i nk I ever le .rned .ny tl ing in tl ose d ,.ys. 'Sxcept ,B, C, 1,2,3 .rn d stuff like tLLt. flll.t's our,but th.t's fu li c Sc} :]:]1.1:'r1en it \'I-,S cuite . wr.i Le l·.ter tl~.t trey h d , W}"t We ell t he Figh Scl~ool. But lOI'get Vlr.. t ye, ..r tl.t would be ..• but •.• I SUODose it v/-.s )l.ce GO le rn to r-e a d rid wr-i."Ce. .nyone 'Nitr a better e duc .tlol1 those d ys or \J .n t e d _, better educ .t.i on h vd to nr e t ty w eLl. le ve to.m. (Q) Lo urou know wr en the "iere amalgamated? ~ubli c Sch:Jol cLnd tr e Indian D.y No, I think it was while 1 was away, I wasn't around her then. It was •••the present facilities wer n't even up when I was here, you know before I l~rt. I was only a youngster, I don't know I can't :tell, you. I kno~ the hospital has changed an awful lot since my day. Old .rinch Memorial the original one. I don't know how many beds tner W re in there. There w ren't too many. That's one of the major improvements that I've found around h re, is the hospital facilitiea. What we hav h re now is cOmpared to a you know smaller scale of course. I imagine the only thing right now, we only had the on doctor in those days, Dr. Wrinch. When he was gone on of the boys, L onard Nrinch he took over. It must havebe n a family affair, I guess. Kept it in the family fo~ears. ~ut I suppos it was adequate. He was a good doctor. It W8S for like, at that time. ~ut thepopulation has doubled I guess. Especially in the rural ar as, Kispiox valley nd out th re. There was only one or two families, maybe thre or or four more living out there in them days. '1'here wae the Love's and ~ieavener3, George Burns, Th re wasn't too many families. (Q) Do you know anything about th ~chool of Nursing? School of nursing? othing. That's another thing that's gust start d in the la$t~ew years I guess. Like I say lot of these things I •••that's ~uite a span of time whil 1 was away. 'rhat _azel ton d iidn ' t go in that direction. It didn't grow any bigger or anything like that. but the id as and the things that are happening h r has just been over a period of tim. 1hey~v add d these things,. nothine thaL I know of anyway, nO,no school of nursing, like they have now. All these stUdent nurs s come up her. I don't think they had anything like that in my day. () hat types of businesses w rE;_-the're? ~usinesses? Well, mostly grocery stores, Sargent's Grocery ~tore, Tudson nay, Myros-Smith. They~r the three grocery and dry goods outlets. 'l'h y handled just about ev rything. he~ th r w s anoth r little store ther , ~ud Dawson, he dealt mostly in confectionari s and he kept all kinds of odes and ends. ( ) W re ther polic m n? Oh yah, we had the Provincial Police then and the Mounties mostly it was controoled by one polic man. I b liev , originally. That's as far back as I can rem mber. I believ the ~ounti s came in, I can't say just when the Mounties first carn • out I was just a kid then, th r€ was no mounties then. (Q) You don't rem mber his name? Dutch Kline. I just barely remember him. I was quite young, Dutch, I believe he left just shortly afterwards. They transferred him out of her. 'l'~enext on~ I remember . was Wyman. He was the guy t~lat we s.c i.rrvo kved Wl. th the ehoo t i ng they had down here. He was shot by I believe itV18s Moses Wilson and William Greene one of the two. He wAsn't killed or anythi~g~ but they had quite an altercation apwarently. I believe some of the other guys might remember mor about'it. I just barely remernher that. Our house was right across from the police station. The biggest crim around herE: was getting drunk I gJess and be a t i nz your old lady. rh y 'rad two or three. cells in the police station. But there was never anything around hezte, you know , Li ke it wa s a tame old town. Of course nobody h sd cars then. 'I'he re was only two or three around then, that was in the early days. (Q) What types of entert~nment were there? You more or less, I don't •.•• 1 -c en 't recall anybody having radio's ar-o unc her. 'rh r'e w re no t.v. 'S,·I.t.V. 's were nonxistent then. I don't think any of t).C. haa t.v. then. But radios ye~ battery radios. We had on over at the hous • The nterteinment part, we maCe our own. In the winter time we used to have a skating rink down where ~ob illa'sstor is there, in that feneral are~. ~ell ri ~t across from the power·hous~, that's where we got our water, the used to pUffin the water Zor us and flood the rink. Otherwise we us ~ the river or Hospital Lake. «(~) Was there a hockey team? No, not as auch. Any hoc{<:eywe played, you hpc to go out in the bush and cut up your own hockey sticks and pick up horse turds,' w ~'used for puc k s , You know go out on th road ther , trhere was lots of horses around. You'd always find a pUCl<:. You know'we pretty well made our own past times. There was always lots of dances. Usually a dpnce up there in the old Ki t.anmaax Hall. It seemed to b a weekly affair. Especially durine the winter months when everybody was back from the coast. Used to be at one time here fishing was the, one of the SUITlll r tim jobs of everybody arolmd here. Around about April or May the reserv would empty right off, exc pt for a few old peOPLe that stayed behind. In thosL days it was just ••• everybody on the train and down to the coast lor the summer. the reserv~ ~as just ••• there was no reserve for the sumner. 'hat was th only industry going in the eunruer- tin. In the fall thEre was mostly pole camps and trapping. I was involv d in a lot of sports down here when I was growing up. I playe6 baseball, football and aide fiom thAt like I say there was nothing really orfanized. Summer time was mostly ball and it was all up on th hill. They used to play Old Tom, that was our ball game. Our main past time was as far as kids were concerned t1.en was aruop sports. It's not so much a sport as it is a pact time. You know playing I scream everybody screams, whatever you call it. It used to be a hide-and-seek, t ra t' s what i,t was. ou done this in teams, two teams. ne team was t'1e se,rchers the other team was the hide.rs. Of cours this was an after dark snort God only knows what went on when you w re hiding. .r, No, we didn't have that much to do. There were danc~s which w re usually sponsered by just whoev~r felt like it. They were pretty wel a wE.ekly affair. If th orch stra felt like going up the hill or down to the hall and playing some music lor all the young guys or yaung peopl. Som wer more organized danc s, they w r good I m an we, the ladies would bring something to eat. e would have unches there. lways sam thing li~e that, somebody would bring sandwhiches som body would bring cake. but th n they USE-d to •• ~I remember we us d to dance till all hours of' the night right until ~orning. le'd stagger home at breakfast time. 1her was never ~ny drinking involved. At one time there if you w re drinking they wouldr' t let you in the hall. 'lih admission was 10i or 15i. Sometim s no admission at all. There was n VE.r any problem with drinking. It was an older peoples game then. It used to b a big deal after I quit school ta~aven get a ho~d of beer, 5 or 6 of us would get into a case of beer. After the first couple of bottles of course we'd be out. out tha t' e the way it was. Liquor wa sn" t any, ••it wasn't included in anything we done, going to dances or anything like that. Like I say some of the old r people would probbably get into it. You couldn't get it, you could but no ~ne had the mon y for it, put it that way. Even if t~ere was cars available then, ther w~re cars available then in the 20'S and 30's, but nobody had th money. Any mon y you could make usually went for clothing and general living like, you know. There was no w Ifare, such as it today. They had what th y call reli f. I was Just a kid then, I remember cause we liv d right across from t he st.ation , Theat's wher they us d to giv out this relief mon y, usually about ten dollars a month. If you werE crippled, or'you wer ••• just couldn't wo rk:or anything ••.• Then ',ifyou could go to work they us ed to put you to work on th Public Worke.. Th y put yon to work on there for a couple of days a we k, shovelling gravel, the road. (Q) as 10 dollars sufficient? I don't know how much dollar figure on it. it amounted to, I wouldn't put a (Q) Do you know when the steall b09ts quit coming?(' No, that waR b fore my tim. I rem mber reading just don't remember ever s eing it that's all. (Q) ';hat about the building about it. of the railway? No, I was born in tw nty-two and th through about t~e time of !I. ( ) Do you ~now any thine about railway cam the Comfuu~ity Hall? They ra d the first community here and t.at was th old Ki tanmaax Hall it was near the St, .• Peter' 8 you know up the first bench, I thin~ that w~s th only tell for 1a~c s or anything like that. ( ) ;hich church s w re involved wi th t he community? Pretty well the sam, ell we had one more church, that was the ~hurch Army an afiliate of England. Used to be up on the hill on the reserve, by Arthur Mowatts. (Mentions the vatholic churc~, never panned out.) Used to be down on the corner wh re Steve's is. (Mountain View) (Q) het w re tIn events surrounding Th y usually had a, it all dep nds married. ft ~an of influence, he would Usually a ance, party a~d a dance aft weduing danc that night, if you could a wedding? on who was g tting havt a party in the Hall. rwards. You had y~ur afford it. 'rh Ki tanmaax all was always busy) wi t h a basket social or a dance. 'fhey w re quite a lively affair, t.hos '_oR et socials. Th id a behind was that all the women brought lunches, you wer net supposed to know whose supper you w~re bidding on. They'd auction them uff, you'd bid and who v r, say you brought a bask t and I won the bid, yOU we my girl for t e evening. It was lots of fun, something different • T •• had a badminton club down town, in the lower hall down where the th atre is ! JV. We'd play badminton down there two or thr e times a week. That was our only other winter sport besides skating. We always had baseball, t amdo; n here. (Q) softball, Did you have na n s for your No, we didn't for th "r teams~ th girls had a softball teams? ,- not as far as I know. S~ithers-p~d nam s they'd march back to th ir r sp ctive halls and hav their s~rvic s. Th r wa two churches on th hill, th y had their own band. it'orthe communi ty band, w 11 th y join d forces. All in all they had a pretty good; at least for those days they wer good. () Did you know cataline? Cataline? No a littl (Q) Or did you know anything about b fore my time I gu SSe Why do they call It Smith hill? Oh b caus Myros and Smith you know wh re th house where they hav th offices? h t was Smiths' hous right blow Smith hill. Th Smiths' liv d down h r and Smiths' lived on top of the hill. Ch rlie and his family liv d ther. nd th other hill that goes up b hind the reserve there that's Mowatts' hill. Sara Mowatt us d to live right ther • (Q) You know anything about the t 1 graph line? T 1 graph line yeah. ell mostly what I r ad and my dad was lin foreman for the government telegraph. They did have a line running right from here to ussia as far as I know. My dad was a for man mor or less a line foreman. They had cabins tw nty or thirty miles apart. They had a tation at eoch cabin. 'ach family was responsible for twenty or thirty miles or something like that. My dad used to walk from her right up in the Yukon. Twice a year we done that. () Did they use pack trains? Well h didn't. They had pack trains to take supplies into the line m n you know. My dad, he never went with the pack trains. But twice a y ar he'd be gone. He'd walk right form here into Vhitehorse I believe was as far as he w nt. Then he'd steamboat back. He w nt up in th spring before spring break up. I don't know what a line foreman did. () Do you know how China Grade got its name? B caus it was so steep. You couldn't driv up the damn thing. Cars would have an awfull time, g tting up china Grad. ~om body just put it on th r I guess. They figur youtre going straight down you're going through to China. () er th r uhinese living here wh n you were a little boy? Oh yeah as far as I r memb r I guess they came through with th railway hey. They had lots of Chinese labour whaft the railway went through. So whenever the railway came through. So whenever the railway came through that was went the first Chinaman came here. We had one old coloured guy here on time, you probably heard of him, old Dave Wiggins. here did the girls practise th ir softball? (Q) "i:. the ball field. Th y always played ball up there. It was one of the big spring time deals, of course everybody was involved. Ve had a good soccer team. (Q) Th re were sports days in the spring? Who all came? All the villages? Every spring? N w Hazelton used to have the 24th of May for sports. They had a ball diamond betw en Hagwilget and Tew Town. They had sports all in May before everyone went fishing. They used to hav a good brass band, Native brass band. They always played at the sports days. They used to march up to the ball field from down town. Once a year th y made a big deal out of it. They were part of the sports. Play for half an hour, __.; rest for half an hour.and play som mor. At the sports days itself, they used to have a lean-to sh It r, r sturants you know. 'I'hey ' d cook you up a steak. Di.f'f' rent organizations, church organizations used to have resturants. They always had confectionary boothes ther. 11 in all it was a onc a year deal. Everybody put •••nobody was rally b hind it. I don't rem mber a boss or anything like that. You know, it was a community effort. What v r existing organization w had th y wer all behind it. They w r only a two day affair usually. Ther 'd be tea s coming in from all the villag s. They'd do the same when th r was sports in Kispiox, everybody took part. (Q) vo you rememb r the name of the band that played the mar- ches? ust Haz Iton ~and. Th re was only one band as far as I know. I don't think ther was ever any name to them. There might have been for all 1 know. Arthur ~~owatt and some of thos guys, they w re part of it. He'd probably remember if they had a name or not. As far as I know Gitanmaax ~and or something like that, you know. (Q) uo you know anything of the I{ildwoodOrchestra? Roy ilson and vhris Harris they were the originators you might say , Old I~ os s vorrison he was part of it and Jonthan Johnson. They w r quit good as a matt r of fact. hey had a damn good orchestra. Th y had two orch stras in Kispiox. 'rh re was th 'fildwoodand forg t the name of th other on • () It b th Northernlights? Noth rnlights yeah. Peo~l seem d to go in for music in those days. mean they all went in for it hey. ~and wo Id b practising up in the hall. All they used it for was band practise. nd the churches, ~alvation Army had their own band. vhurch rmy had th ir own band. Usually on a Saturday night or ~unday, I forg t which it is, usually ~aturday night and ~unday mayb , th y'd heve open air service; ri~ht on top of the ill th r ~mith hill. ou could hear th band all ov r town lik , you know. They'd hav a short servic , then He used to be with the pack train; Old Cataline. That's all I rememb r of the pack train was old Dave Wiggins. He wae the first whit man in Hazelton. That's what he used to say all the time. Hetd get drunk and we'd all be sitting there listening to him talk you know. I guess he must have come through with one of th first pack trains you know. There used to be alot of old bachelors down in Hazelton. I guess they were railroad construction men originally and they just settled down there you know. We ven had a real estate office here at one tim. We had a mining engineer working out of Hazelton. The mining office used to be down ••• about where about where Mrs. Webster lives now •. There was only one hotel that I remember and that was the Omenica Hotel. It was big building. It housed a beer parlor. Gambling was l gal too I believe. They had card games in there. A cOnfectionary store on the ground floor, store, rooms were up stairs. Like I say thatts right where Alice Marshalls' •••••extended right down to, damn near to wh re Scottie Smith lives there. I dontt know how long it was, but when I was a kid it was a long building anyway. Wheather it burnt down or what, T don't know. W_.had a.liver eyst~m h re livery stables. It was down where the old police station is, on the left hand side. Big bulic~ng there where they kept the horses, pack trains. Al falkner had the first trucking outfit around Hazelton. Rorse drawn trucking outfit. I remember he had up front there Al ..I:t'alk! r-s ' Livery Stable or something. Another big vent would be the trappers going out in the fall. They all left about the same time. They'd all get outfitted down' at The bay or Sargents. ,See them heading out. They waited for th snow or usually after New Years beaver trappers you know. They'd b heading up the river dog sleighs you know, s ven or eight dogs, dragging the tobbogan away th y e up the river. ~oy it was really something to s e them go. ~ 11 it was a big thing here trapping in the winter time. You eve hav dog sled racing? Not that I remember no. Like I say I don't rememb r anything. (Q) () Do you know any t ni.ngabout the ferry that when across the river to the Kitwanga back road? Yeah.~ There was quit a few people had, like I say there was lot ta horses in them days. They had to get there hay some place. 'fherewas a lot of hay fields out there. There was som of them that didn't go down the coast. They lived out \over there in the summer months hey. Hauling hay an' put in gard ns an' do th re fishing. They had smok houses there. ::>omepeople had smok hem, ee down in Hagwi, get canyon , On both sides of the river. Hazelton crew used to fish this side of the canyon. Bagwilget people would be on the far side. Quite afew emoke houses down there at one time. lwo or three big smoke hous s on Hazelton side. Three or four down on Hagwilget side right down next to the river. I had a picture of the original bridg I wouldn't be caught crossing that damn thing. Did you ever see a picture of it? The original bridge that went across that Hagwi~get canyon , \' Boy that was something to eee. I saw a picture of it recently but I forget where. That was even before my time. All it was made of was telegraph wire I guess. (Q) Do you know who built it? The indians I gu SSe I just saw pictures I don't really know who built it. I imagine the indians put it across. It might have been a joint effort too.