Page 18 - Wilfred Creighton & the Expropriations: Clearing Land for the National Park, 1936

ISSUE : Issue 69

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1995/8/1

was his first name?) I just forget. It was a MacNeil and he, if anyone had a sick horse or a sick cow he'd always go in and look at it and pre? scribe. He was well known. Everybody knew him and they'd give him orders to get stuff in the stores. He brought the mail but he also brought them parcels. Well, that was '36 that I went up with him. (That was your first trip?) Yes. Then afterwards I drove up. I flew up a couple of times. That logging expert, he and I flew up and landed on Freshwater Lake. That little open cockpit and the fellow wasn't much of a flyer. He had a pair of broken snowshoes with him in case he had to land up on the (barrens). When we landed on Fresh? water Lake we got out of the plane and the wind picked it up and we had to chase it and grab it and tie it down! Oh, off Smokey, and this way and that way. The open cockpit, we had all the clothes we could put on, and blankets wrapped around us. Ice as far as you could see. (Where did you fly from?) They had a little airport outside Sydney at the time--a lit? tle private airport. And we landed on the Freshwater Lake. It must have been January or February. It was cold, I know. '36 I went up with the mail. The time I flew up. HomEnergy ?? FURNACE OIL ?? STOVE OIL ?? LUBE OIL ?? KEROSENE ?? AUTOMATIC DELIVERY ?? BUDGET PLANS - SERVICE PLANS Serving SYDNEY, GLACE BAY, NORTH SYDNEY, NEW WATERFORD and Surrounding Areas 24 HOUR EMERGENCY SERVICES Glace Bay 849-4626 North Sydney 794-2010 it would have been '40, because the court case was on. And of course we had snow- shoes with us. We landed there. Probably it was Steve Whitty that drove us up to the Spruces. And Sanford Burke had a con? tract to deliver the mail, and he had about five horses. So we hired a driver and a horse and we got as far as Cape North. There was Morrison's Store right where one branch of the road goes on up to Bay St. Lawrence and the other one turned left to go to Pleasant Bay. Well, we turned left. There had been horses and sleighs right up to Morrison's Store. But Riverside Cleaners Cape Breton's Only Drive-Thru DryCleaning KINGS ROAD • SYDNEY Lowest Drycleaning Prices in Town! READY MIX CONCRETE CONCRETE SEPTIC TANKS • PATIO BLOCKS PRIME BROOK, SYDNEY 539-5217 NOW AT 229 Kings Road SYDNEY Motor Cycle Shop 539-7644 • 539-1730 HONDA Equipment FOREMAN * 400 THE FUTURE OF ATVs • Super-low first gear • 5-speed transmission with revei • 395cc single-cylinder air-cooled 4-stroke engine

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