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Tape Interview-Clarence

Schroeder

Summer Of 1988
WHEN DID YOU FIRST COME INTO THIS COUNTRY

CHARENCE?

Well, I left Saskatchewan

in Edson,

Dawson Creek, Alaska
there, Chtwyn-then

in 55, I worked

Higway.

I worked

in the oil rigs up

I come up this way. That's when I discovered

my brother was up this way. I hadn't

seen him in ten years.

THAT WOULD BE BEFORE YOU LEFT YOUR OLD HOME PLACE, HE WOULD
BE OLDER THAN YOU?
Yes.
WHAT MADE YOU STAY HERE WAS IT THAT YOUR BROTHER WAS HERE?
Well, i don't know,

I've left several times, but I always

come back.
WHAT SORT OF WORK DO YOU DO?
Worked

in mills,

a bit, mostly

down the coast-Vancouver

in the bush-falling.

for awhile.

I worked

I always come back

to Hazelton.
WHEN YOU WERE AT VANCOUVER

WERE YOU WORKING

IN THE BUSH?

Yes!
SO THEN YOU CAME BACK HERE, DID YOU EVER WORK IN THE MINES
HERE?
No, I never worked
WHAT IF ANYTHING,

in the mines.
DID YOU FIND DIFFERENT

WHEN YOU FIRST

CAME TO THIS COUNTRY?
Oh, I don't know-didn't
Northern

Saskatchewan

seem to find too much difference

wasn't too bare.

WHERE THERE LOTS OF VIEWS?
Oh yes, and small mountains
I worked

and trees in the northern

parts,

in the bush there and on the farms.

SO IT WAS A LOT THE SAME FOR YOU THEN?
Yes mostly

small eats and power saws in the bush. Some

of those power saws were almost as big as the guys packing
them.
THE BIG PROBLEM

SEEMED TO BE GETTING

THE THINGS?
Yes.
WHAT KIND WERE THEY?

SOMEONE TO REPAIR

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Hornets,

rugged

old things-big

titon-awful

things, hard

to start.
DID YOU DO TRUCK DRIVING
No-mostly

falling,

OR ANYTHING

seem edgrt.

YOU'RE OVER HERE AND PLANNING
PROBABLY

PLANNING

LIKE THAT?

TO BUILD A HOUSE HERE YOU~RE

TO STAY A FEW MORE YEARS?

I kinda like it here, plan to stay here now.
WHEN YOU FIRST CAME TO HAZELTON
AT SKEENA CROSSING.

YOU SAID YOU "WOUND-UP"

WHAT WAS IT LIKE DOWN THERE THEN?

I'd heard the name Skeena crossing,

I figuired

I wound up there on the train. I walked
and the first person
THAT WAS BEFORE

a big town.

down to the cafe

I saw was vi Pawell.

SHE HAD THE CAFE IN CEADARVALE?

Oh yes.
WHAT WERE THEY LIKE BACK THEN, BUSY PEOPLE?
Oh yes! The place was right beside the road, there was
gas pumps there too, and a store. There was quite a few
small mills

in then days, my brother he had a mill out of

Skeena Crossing.

George

bawie, he run the store.

SO YOU STAYED AND WORKED WITH YOUR BROTHER

FOR AWHILE?

Yes, for that winter.
THEN WHERE DID YOU GO?
Back to Hazelton.
WAS THE SILVER STANDARD
OPERATING

AND THOSE OTHER MINES STILL

THEN?

No.
LET'S GO BACK TO SKEENA CROSSING

WHEN YOU FIRST MET VIE

HES (PAWELL). HOW DID THEY TREAT YOU?
I walked

in the cafe. Vie said, you a stranger,

where are

you from? So I told her and she said "Are you any relation
to Lloyd Schioeder?

"I told her he is my brother"

I asked

her where he was and she told me to hurry and have supper
and they'd drive me down. turned out he was in the hospital
in Hazelton.
GUESS HE WAS A LITTLE

SURPRISED

TO SEE YOU?

Yeah, I didn't know he was up in this country.
TYPED BY
JILLANE

SPENCE