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EPIDOSE 263 SAWYER INVITING DISASTER.

EPISODE 263     SAWYER INVITING DISASTER


Alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

Picture was taken at the Milton Steam Era Show
a few years ago.  Looks like the blade would
split the sawyer about dead centre.  

No, I do not know what happened next.  I could
not stick around because too much blood makes
me upset.  SEEMS to me I heard a scream…

alan



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EPISODE 262 THE YEAR 1956: WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND OWNED THE WORLD AROUND US

EPISODE 262     THE YEAR 1956 WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND OWNED THE WORLD AROUND US


alan  skeoch
Feb. 2021


Ah!  Wonderful!  When we were young and  anxiously awaited the March Break to go camping
on the banks of Etobicoke Creek…a wasteland of mysteriously abandoned farms with empty barns
and  brick farm houses .  Nobody around.  As if some mysterious disease had  wiped out all living
things … a plague … a  pandemic.   And we arrived free of any contagion to document this empty 
land.

Russ Vanstone, Eric Skeoch and me.  Just three of us on this venture.  We got to the “Land  Where 
Nobody  Lives Anymore”  by hitchhiking and public  bus from West Toronto.   Packed for three or four
days.  Sleeping bags, food, camera and bits  and pieces of winter clothing that we hoped would
be unnecessary.

The dead horse had floated down near out campsite as if to confirm the mysterious plague…pandemic…imaginary
interpretation as to why the land was empty.   Corpse still frozen.  No smell.   The only smells were those
of the land getting ready for spring…a damp, coming alive, kind of smell.   Lots of wood on the creek
banks  for our campfire.  Great slabs of fossilized shale…Ordovician, 500 million years old with tiny whitish
things that once were alive.  Those slabs were beds for us.  Not sure if we had air mattresses. 
 I wonder if the future explorers on Mars  will have the same feeling we did.
Endless adventure ahead.


YEAR 1956: THREE ADVENTURERS ON THE EMPTY LAND CALLED ETOBICOKE…RIGHT TO LEFT…RUSS VANSTONE,
ERIC SKEOCH, ALAN SKEOCH

YEAR 2021: I  NEVER GO BACK TO ETOBICOKE, ESPECIALLY NOT TO ETOBICOKE CREEK.  THERE IS NO WILDERNESS
LEFT.  THAT ENDED WHEN THE SOMMERVILLE BLACKSMITH SHOP WAS DEMOLISHED AND THE BULL DOZERS MOVED
NORTH FROM DUNDAS TO BURNHAMTHORPE ROAD.   I NEVER GO BACK THERE.  I LIKE  TO KEEP MY IMAGINARY WORLD INTACT.

alan skeoch
Feb. 2021
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EPISODE 261 HIGH GRADING…THE ART OF STEALING RAW GOLD AND SILVER (A ROCK FELL ON THE MOON)


EPISODE 261    YUKON DIARY     HIGH GRADING…THE ART OF  STEALING RAW GOLD AND SILVER   (A ROCK FELL ON THE MOON)

alan skeoch
Feb. 2021




Old shaft at Keno Hill Silver Mine, Yukon



Abandoned mine adits were unlikely to get much attention as they could
be dangerous.  A good place to hide stolen bags of silver ore


There is legal ‘high grading’ and illegal ‘high grading’ in the mining industry lexicon.  Legal high grading
occurs when miners ignore low grade ore and only select high grade ore.  i.e. Ore with high mineral content.
Most often, however, the term is applied  to illegal ‘high grading.’

“HIGH GRADNG” in mining parlance refers to the stealing gold and  silver.   Quite often gold  miners 
feel the discovery of raw gold in an ancient stream bed or gold embedded in quartz is just as much 
theirs as their employers.  So they work out ways of ‘high grading’ (choosing) some of the gold for themselves.
This  is particularly true of gold miners.  

Gerald Priest and Pancho Bobicik and the man that was never caught were the biggest high graders
in Canadian history (that I know bout).  They high graded 70 tons of silver ore.  No small matter.  Gold
high graders developed ways of hiding the gold on their body cavities or in the fake bottom of lunch
pails.  Jerry Priest needed five ton trucks.  Quite a difference.

I think it was back  in 1959 that I first heard the term used.  We were conducting a brutal nearly 3 month
survey from our bush camp on the Groundhog River…several miles by air north west of Timmins, Ontario.
We started the job with three of su but by late August had four when the bush plane from Austin Airways
dropped off poor Walter Helstein, an older man.  Nice old chap but not suitable for bush work. He slipped 
off a moss covered windfall and speared his outstretched hand on a sharp picket.  Right through the hand.
We called Austin Airways to get Walter out and to bring in another man if one could be found.  Well we got
the first High Grader I have ever met.

I think he had been fired from one of the Timmins gold mines.  He never said  that but he sure filled
us in detailing the skills of high grading.

 “All kinds of tricks to get gold out, The lunch box trick was
the least successful.  The mine officials would  search lunch pails.  Using body caviies was another..”
“Body cavities?”
“Just think about it…a gold nugget in the mouth or the ass.”
“What was best way?”
“Hide the piece of high grade ore in the mine…get it later with help
of a mine captain looking the other way…lots of ways.”

A local Timmins journalist, Kevin Vincent, has written two books titled BOOTLEG GOLD, VOLUMES 1 AND 2.
He claims high grade gold is Timmins worst kept secret.  Everybody knows a high grader.

“I met this fellow by the name of Jack Atkinson, a detective with the Timmins Police Department, who I dedicate both of my books to, who told me these extraordinary stories about these gold thefts that were happening in Timmins,” explained Vincent in talking about how he came by his passion for documenting high-grading in Timmins.“I thought ‘Where are all the books on this and the magazine articles?’ and he said I don’t think there are any,”  recalled Vincent.“I think we can fix that,” Vincent told Atkinson. “So for two years every morning before work I came to the library from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and researched the stories about the theft of gold in Timmins.Vincent has accumulated 17,000 pages of documentation on gold thefts from examining microfilm of the Porcupine Advance and Timmins Daily Press.“Everybody in Timmins has a story about this and it is Timmins’ biggest secret because anyone you meet on the street will tell you a story about someone they know who high-graded, usually it’s a friend who stole gold, never anybody in their family.”“It was a lot of fun, researching these stories,” noted Vincent, “but it was also very serious because of many people getting hurt.”

“But for the most part it was considered a victimless crime,” he added.


Old mining roads criss crossed the Keno Hill area.  Too bad the White Pass trucker got lost.  Otherwise Gerald
Priest might have successfully stolen 70 tons of silver ore.

HOW DID GERALD PREIST AND PANCHO MANAGE TO STEAL 671 BAGS OF SILVER ORE?

First they needed an inside man who had  a responsible position.  The police, lawyers, mine officials concluded
that inside man was Swizinski,the night shift boss.  This has never been confirmed. Only alleged .
Here  is how the  system  worked….allegedly

1)  There was a four hour gap between night shift and day shift.  That gave the thieves a 
four hour time to do their high grading .
2)  Bobicik and the mystery man (i.e. Swizinski)
 entered mine at 200 foot level via an disused adit.
3) They reached the Bonanza Stope via a crosscut tunnel that ended at a ventilation door
that closed off an inactive part of the mine…kept closed to avoid loss  of compressed air….
needed to maintain air quality in operating part of the mine.
4) Bobicik passed through this door to operating part of the mine
5) Where he encountered a  “Lugger” …a machine used to move rocks
6) forty feet from the Bonanza stope on a gentle incline
7) Stope contained freshly blasted ore…ready for ‘high grading’ theft
8) The two men shovelled the best ore into 5 or 6 burlap  sacks.
9) They pulled the 100 pound  sacks to a ‘Slusher”, a giant mechanical  shovel used
to direct rock downhill to the 400 foot portal (adit)…but the slasher could also
move the sacks uphill to the 200 foot level when operating in reverse.
10) Half  a  ton of ore could be moved in a few seconds  up to empty rail cars which
were pushed 400 feet to long unused part of the mine where the sacks were hidden.
11) They ‘high graded’ a ton of ore each night.

And there, hidden, the sacks of ore sat.   Moving them from the mine to 
a food pick up point was the next task..   The Yukon has bright nights in the summer…sunshine
until late so danger of being spotted was high.   Winter movement in the long dark
nights was also a  problem since tire tracks would be left in the snow.
Movement of the ore would be easier if they seemed to be legitimate owners
of the ore.   So they bought the Moon mining claims. They became reputable mine owners.
The Moon claims  were almost inaccessible…a long way from where the 671 sacks of ore
were eventually stashed beside a gravel Road.

Getting the sacks from he 200 level in the mine to the roadside was not easy
as they were seen a couple of times but Bobicik had a cover story as did
Priest since they formed  a legitimate mining company and developed the Rock on
the Moon story.  

But there was  a lot of work involved.  The Keno Hill sacks had to be opened and
the ore piled as if waste rock in a ravine. Then all the ore had to be rescued in their
own sacks.   Not an easy task.  Stealing 70 tons of silver rich ore was not something
that could be done with the snap of their fingers.

Much  more to the story.  A lot of twists  and turns.  But this  overview at least 
explains some events between 1961 to 1963.   I find it quite amazing that
none of this activity was noticed by my geophysical crew.  We covered so much
of the land around Elsa on foot.  We used any road we could find to get to
our survey properties.   Then again we saw a great many piles of rock and
derelict  buildings.  We would  not have paid particular notice of Gerald even if we met him
on a mine road  with a half ton truck loaded with mine sacks.


This trench  was not dug on the Moon claims but gives some idea of how rough the land
was and hence unlikely to be investigated.  Dead trees from forest fire long ago.  Growth rings
on the trees were almost invisible because climate was inhospitable.

Investigators said the Moon claims were almost inaccessible.  Took more that two
hours to reach them by an ATV.   Lots of swamp in that part of the McQuesten 
Valley.  I  know that.  Especially when doing that claim tagging on my last day
in Keno Hill.  There were so many signs of abandoned work stations…cabins,
wagons, equipment, even barrels  of gold concentrates…that it was unlikely 
our crew would notice the stolen ore even if we walked right over it.


alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

Map below gives some idea of the number of old silver mine workings around  Keno Hill.   Finding a pile of
broken rock was not unusual.

post script




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EPISODE 260 YUKON DIARY ANCIENT DEAD FOREST STILL STANDING…WATCHING, WATCHING, WATCING.

Note: Some of you did not get my Episode on Bunmahon, Ireland…covered  in sea foam mysteriouslyl
The video and pictures were just too large for your computers. No matter. Not a big deal.  I will not 
send videos again…


EPISODE  260          YUKON DIARY:    ANCIENT DEAD FOREST STILL STANDING….WATCHING, WATCHING, WATCHING

alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

We were working our way up the side of a Yukon “Hill”  which back east in Ontario we would call a mountain.  
It was quite verdant until we reached the crest and looked down the other side.  There before us was a
ghost forest.  Hundreds  of trees that had been killed in A forest fire long ago.  Then decades of wind, rain, ice pellets,
snow had scoured the dead  trees into wonderful shapes.  Frightening really.  Like entering a graveyard at the
end of time.  

So I rescued two of the trees and carried them back to our Peso Silver camp much to the amusement 
of the crew there.   With the help of a buck saw and Bill Scott I reduced the size of the pieces and later
shipped them back to Toronto using White Pass trucking.  My expense.

I still have those tree trunks.   One has the shape of A duck with one wing partially extended.

The other seems like an abstract kind of thing that Henry Moore  would do.  The scouring sanded away
most of the charcoal residue from the burn.  But not all.  The result can be quite chilling.  Just imagine 
coming to the mountain crest and suddenly seeing hundreds of these eroded trees standing vertically
like a ghost army…watching …watching…watching.

alan skeoch
Feb. 2021




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EPISODE 257 YUKON DIARY: “SALTING” A MINE SITE: (A ROCK FELL ON THE MOON)

EPISODE 257   YUKON DIARY  “SALTING “ A MINE SITE    (A ROCK FELL ON THE MOON)


alan skeoch
Feb. 3021



My job in Chibougamau’s wilderness in Northern Quebec was to carry and
protect this magnetometer.  I was  17.  While doing so, I got to know a lot
about mining…and lying.

Mark Twain knew miners when he said “A mine is a hole in the ground, owned by a liar.”

I have only been closely involved  in one ‘salted’ mine  site  and that was on
my first bush job in the wilderness south west of Chibougamau, Quebec.  I may have
mentioned this in an earlier episode but the salting of the Moon claims in Keno Hill
put me in mind of that salted site in Northern Quebec.

We had just finished  a  magnetometer job and were resting in an old lumber
camp on the Opemiska road.  Gravel track where huge Euclid mine trucks had
the right of way.  Smashed windshields from stirred up gravel were part
of daily life in that derelict camp.  Glad to be away from the flies for a spell.  

“Alan, I want you to go with Dr. Smith to look at a mine site north of here.”
“Flying job?”
“No, only way in is by boat…lakes are too small or too shallow…there will
be a lot of portages.”
“Canoe?”
“No canoes available.  Boom times in Chibougamau…all canoes gone.”
“So, we walk?”
“No.  I managed to get you a rowboat.  Tough on the portages
but easier on open  water with small outboard motor.”

This happened in 1958.  Was just an 17 year old high school kid.  A beast of burden, really.
 A helper. A flunky.

Dr. Smith was a nice older man. Bald. White hair. Anglo. Relaxed  kind of person of which there were
not many.   It was a bitch of a job.  Just imagine trying to portage a rowboat on rocky, slippery, brush
covered  trails.  We tried carrying the goddamn thing but sometimes had to just push it through
the portage.  Then go back and get our gear.

Very slow going.  Just to get to the site took us two  or three days.  We had an aerial photo
and map as a guide.  No problem finding the spot.

“Salted,”  said Dr. Smith who was a man of few  words.
“Salted?” I had never heard of the term before.
“Just look around.  What do you see?”
“Look like some blasting has been done.”
“Salted.”
“Seems veins of some kind of shiny stuff…metallic”
“Pyrite…worthless.”
“Some chunks of Chalcopyrite though,”  I was sort of proud  of my discovery of that
copper looking mineral embedded in Quartz.”
“That’s the salt.  Somebody spread a few chunks around…brought it in. Then hired  us.”
“Why?”

Stock  market.  Penny stocks.  Whoever did this hired us to come  in here to 
check out the site.  Took us a couple of days.  The information was  leaked  
somehow such as “sending a  geologist to look over a new discover” promoted
on the  stock exchange somewhere.  Stock goes up.  Promotors buy stock cheap…
value goes  up suddenly on the news we were going into the site…buy cheap,
sell high.
stock  crashes when final report is made by a professional like
Dr. Smith.  Marorie’s grandfather,  a pharmacist in Lindsay papered the
bottom of his sock drawer with penny stocks…worthless…looked pretty.
 I have wondered about this short job for years.  Why could we only get
a rowboat?  Think about it.  A goddamn rowboat! When we came back to the Opemiska camp I carried a big
lump of pyrite with me.  Still have it somewhere out on the stone pile at the farm.

SALTING OF THE MOON

Did a huge 70 ton rock of near solid  galena (silver and lead mineral) roll down from the top
of Keno Hill to the Moon mining claims that Priest and Bobicek now owned?
Mining geologit Dr. Aho gave his opinion.  If  that really happened then the
end result would be a stone the size of a pea.  Opinion.  Salted.  Dr. Aho
had loaned Priest and his partner $50,000 for a share in the Moon claims.
Money that may have been spent buying a bobcat to rip up the site.  

More  factual evidence was presented by Mining engineers Bob Cathro and
Bob Shank who visited the Moon in late June 1963.   They believed the place
had been ‘salted’ as they found chunks of galena  here and there, some sitting
on moss, others piled around the cabin on the site.  It seemed the galena was
left in conspicuous places so it could be found and thereby infer that there
may have been a boulder of silver on the Moon.  In other words the two
engineers believed the site had been ‘salted’  “Usually salting involves the
scattering of enough valuable ore  in the right places to lure would-be investors
into paying for miners  claims that may have little worth.”  (i.e. the Chibougamau
claims I saw in 1958).   “On the Moon, the intended message appeared to
be the opposite: something valuable had been there. But, except for a few 
spilled leftovers, it was gone.”   (P.136)

Later…To make things a little more difficult, someone had driven a bobcat all over
the site tearing up the ground so badly that not much else could be found.
…except a Doublemint gum wrapper.  The same Wrapper was found at the
site where the  sacks of ore were picked up by the White Pass trucks.
Does that have any meaning?  Gum wrapper?

In July 1963, geologist Al Archer visited the moon with his own inspectors.
They fanned out across the site to make agrid survey.  Men at 10 foot intervals
walking the claims as cops do on a murder site. Found nothing but
a few more samples .  “Looks like whoever did it had one thing in mind — to
obliterate any previous workings on the property, “ testified Archer later when
Priest was  arrested.

No matter how many professionals testified the Moon claims were phony,
Gerald Priest stuck with his story until his death.  One judge described him
as a queer duck.

So much for the science of SALTING MINING CLAIMS.   The opinion of
experts was that the Moon had been salted.

alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

post script  HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF BICHLORIDE OF GOLD?   Read  this postscript and
you will discover a novel way of SALTING a gold mine site.

Salting A Gold Mine

January 10, 2017 Marshall Trimble 
Daguerreotype-California-Gold-Rush-mining-scene-photographed-by-Robert-Vance-circa-1850s22658.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Daguerreotype-California-Gold-Rush-mining-scene-photographed-by-Robert-Vance-circa-1850-300×180.jpg 300w, s22658.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Daguerreotype-California-Gold-Rush-mining-scene-photographed-by-Robert-Vance-circa-1850-768×461.jpg 768w, s22658.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Daguerreotype-California-Gold-Rush-mining-scene-photographed-by-Robert-Vance-circa-1850-600×360.jpg 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px” style=”box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; display: block;” apple-inline=”yes” id=”7C43BEFF-1A94-4CCA-99AB-5B44B2342366″ src=”http://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Daguerreotype-California-Gold-Rush-mining-scene-photographed-by-Robert-Vance-circa-1850.jpeg”>
Gold rush mining scene, photographed by Robert Vance circa 1850.

A favorite method used in unloading a useless claim or mine was called, “salting.”  The seller would take ore from a productive mine and carefully scatter it about his non-productive property in hopes of closing a sale on the claim.  Others might take a shotgun, load the charge with gold dust and blast the walls of the shaft, impregnating them with particles of gold.  Gold was malleable and would imbed itself into the rock, giving the worthless claim a highly mineralized façade.

The game of buying and selling a worthless mine could conceivably become a matter of who could outwit whom.  The seller might impregnate the walls with gold but the wise buyer might ask to have the walls blasted to see what was inside the rock.  Trying to stay one step ahead, the seller could install gold into the headsticks of his dynamite and when the charge went off, the interior would be salted.  To counter this, the buyer could insist they use the dynamite sticks he’d brought along for just such an occasion.

The smart buyer also brought along his own geologist.  Not surprisingly, many times an entire community would plot against the buyer since the economic stability of a region might hinge on the successful sale.

Bichloride of Gold, or a chemical liquid, was used for medicinal purposes such as alcoholism and kidney ailments.  When taken internally it will pass through the body, exiting the body with high assay value.  A seller bent on cleverly salting his mine could load himself on the substance and salt any crack, crevice as nature moved him.


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EPISODE 259 SURPRISE FROM BUNMAHON, IRELAND showered in sea foam

EPISODE  259    SURPRISE FROM BUNMAHON, COUNTY WATERFORD, IRELAND…showered in sea foam


alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

I hope some of you remember the Irish Episodes when Huntech sent me to the small
village of Bumnahon on the south coast of Ireland.   My friend Jack Maize remembered
and sent this video of the village under assault from the sea.  Perhaps  some of you will
know why such a  thing can happen.

You will find the sea foam video below…just after the Volkswagen and Tinker’s Carts picture.




This is where we lived…very close to the sea so the foam must have plastered Mr. and  Mrs.
Kennedy’s store.

Drinking water from an Irish mountain stream was not s good idea….hundreds of sheep wander the mountains adding
fertilizer…  Drinking that sea foam is also not a good idea.

Rough weather in 1960…nothing compares to the sea  foam weather of 2021.


This  is the beach in front of the village of Bunmahon.  The bug rusty iron ball was once a World  War II
floating mine…I cannot sea anything recognizable covered in sea foam.


Not sure this is the Bunmahon beach but it is nearby.  I recognize the woman though…Marjorie when we went back
to visit Bunmahon around  1965.   Charming.  Not so charming with the sea foam.

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NOTE RE: EPISODE 254.. ROCK FELL ON THE MOON…

Note re EPISODE 254 ROCK FELL ON THE MOON
The story written by Alicia Priest shortly before she died in 2013 has so many twists and turns that at present i cannot complete my Episode. Lots of attempts but nothing is just right. The story I sent was generally joyful…Thing One and Thing Two. A family.
Life did not go so smoothly after the family was suddenly uprooted and left the cosy mining town of Elsa. Gerry was a big time thief…or was he?
Alicia Priest captures so much that I fear I cannot do justice to her work.
Dan Bowyer even bought the book because I am so slow in finishing my story about the Priest family….high grade ore theft, family plunged into poverty, tensions, steady decline of Gerald…then some money comes from startling source but the money is soon lost in legal fees, etc. Not many laughs. Maybe best lease the story when the family was full of joy. We will see.
There is also a very chilling side story about Helen’s mother who fled across Eastern Europe with the Red Army not far behind. the story of a German Mennonite family uprooted from the Ukraine many times. Including the horror of the 1932-1933 mass starvation triggered by Stalin which resulted in bodies of starved Kulaks in the sweet and side roads. Awful. Not sure I can complete the story.
Long ago, about 1963 I read a book titled Documents of The Expulsion which covered the subject in all its horrifying detail. Maybe best not told. Helen’s mother got out while thousands and thousands did not. She never talked about the escape in any detail except to say “I did what was necessary to survive.”
Canadians have never faced the kind of hatred that spread like a cancer through Eastern Europe in the 1940’s. Many of those survivors came to Canada in the post war years. Some even worked in the Yukon mines.
alan skeoch Feb. 2021

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EPISODE 257 MAGNIFICENT ELM TREE…LONE SURVIVOR OF DUTCH ELM DISEASE

EPISODE 257     MGNFICENT ELM TREE…LONE SURVIVOR OF DUTCH ELM DISEASE


alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

This wonderful elm tree may not be the only survivor of Dutch Elm disease but it is the only one
I know.  And it remains stately, huge, and very much alive on the fifth line of Erin Township,
Wellington County, Ontario.  Very close to our farm so we see it several times a day.
Why did it survive?   There must be a  genitive reason for at one time elms were common.
Always aristocratic among the maples.  Haughty trees.

Today  there are whole generations of young people who have never seen  a stately elm.
Remember how they dominated and made our city streets  so inviting. And remember
the devastation as they died by the thousands…and the hum of those chain saws.

My cousin Eleanor’s  husband John Calder made the interior panels of his stone house from those
devastated elm trees.  Spoliated  Elm he called the planks.   When put through his saw mill the dead
elm logs revealed  a fungus among the wood fibres. Quite pretty although sad.

Compare ‘my elm’ to the elms currently being raised.  Not nearly as stately.  Why is  
that?  I have been told that Canadian arborists have been searching for survivors
of Dutch Elm Disease for decades so this big one may not be alone.   We had two or
three generations of elms survive the initial devastation.  Hope was strong.  Not 
lucky though.  The last of ours was cut into firewood  last fall.  It had been standing
dead along the fifth line sideroad.  Dangerous for Andrew to get underneath  with
his  chain saw. But also dangerous lest it fall suddenly on a car…or a deer…or a turkey
…a coyote…or one of us.

Gone Gone Gone.  But this beauty remains. 
( As if a hairy mammoth is surviving on some
deserted  Arctic Island.   Some did.  But they did not survive human predation.)

alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

post script

Cultivars of the elm are flourishing but somehow they do not look as  stately.  Why is that?




Elm as a future urban tree: is it possible?

Author:  Henrik Sjöman & Andrew Hirons
  08/01/2021
Last Updated:  08/01/2021

The Plantsman’s Choice

Dr Henrik Sjöman and Dr Andrew Hirons

The high tolerance of many elms to challenging urban conditions, combined with their ease of establishment, meant that they were widely appreciated across Europe and North America until their near-complete demise as a result of Dutch elm disease (DED). Today, as we seek long-term sustainable tree species for our towns and cities, there is a great desire to make the elm part of our urban treescape once again.

In Europe and North America, the elm (Ulmus spp.) was historically one of the most common urban trees until the end of the 20th century. Parts of Amsterdam in the Netherlands had over 70% elm along their streets and in their parks. Cities such as Malmö in Sweden were also proud of their majestic elms. It seems that in the eyes of some policy makers there was no reason to break a winning concept: all other trees were worse in comparison; it had to be elm on elm. However, these cities experienced the catastrophic effects of over-reliance on one type of plant material as the DED epidemic struck. Such widespread mortality of such a profoundly dominant tree was a bitter blow to many towns and cities. The effects of these losses can still be observed today.
Therefore, proposing elm once again as a city tree may seem unthinkable, but thanks to the hard work of tree breeders, it is now a realistic prospect. We know that many Asian species of elm are resistant to the serious type of DED, which has led them to be used in extensive hybridization work to produce DED-resistant trees. Many of these selected cultivars are of North American origin, including two that we have a substantial experience of now: the so-called Resista® elms, ‘New Horizon’ and ‘Rebona’. In order to succeed with them, however, you must know their background, so that you can more easily understand their capacity for growing in urban environments, as well as the care they may require.
Both cultivars are American hybrids from the University of Wisconsin and both have the Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila) and Japanese elm (Ulmus davidiana var. japonica) as their parents. It’s important to note that the characteristics of Siberian elm are such that its genes might be considered something of a mixed blessing.
In fact, some of what is said about the Siberian elm would not be polite to put into print. Suffice to say that some consider its weed-like growth, which results in an untamed, wild crown perched atop a stick, makes it one of the worse trees you can grow. However, the advantage of the species is its outstanding tolerance for hot and dry conditions, attributes that have served it well in its native regions around the edges of the Gobi Desert in northern China. So, having Siberian elm as a parent in these cultivars means that you get trees that are tolerant to the most challenging of urban environments and that quickly establish and grow fast. On the other hand, you also get trees with a rather messy crown structure, which is particularly difficult to manage at a young age when branching can be very dense and irregular. This means that it is wise to buy larger plant material (trunk size at least 25–30cm circumference at 1m) where the nursery has already done the difficult and extensive work of building an even and attractive crown structure.
Ulmus ‘New Horizon’

Ulmus ‘New Horizon’.

Ulmus ‘New Horizon’

Ulmus ‘New Horizon’.

Ulmus ‘New Horizon’

Early-mature trees of the cultivar develop with an oval crown, 10–12m high and 4m wide, but over time they can become significantly wider, usually with a continuous single trunk and a dense but fairly evenly distributed branch structure. The dimensions of the mature tree are listed by German nurseries as 25m × 10m. The cultivar enjoys heat and is a really good inner-city tree; its wind resistance also makes it a good tree for planting adjacent to highways. The autumn colour is not spectacular though. The variety has been around for 25 years in European cultivation and in the USA for another 10–15 years and is considered completely resistant to DED.
Ulmus ‘Rebona’.

Ulmus ‘Rebona’.

Ulmus ‘Rebona’

This cultivar is similar to ‘New Horizon’ but has a stronger tendency to develop a consistent single trunk with a more even crown density. The leaves are also slightly larger in ‘Rebona’ compared to ‘New Horizon’. Trees of the cultivar are very fast growing and initially develop a narrow pyramidal growth pattern, 10–15m high and about 4m wide, while older trees become significantly wider. Here, too, German data describe final sizes of 25m × 10m. ‘Rebona’ is also heat tolerant, wind resistant and it has proven to be resistant to flooding. The cultivar is somewhat newer and thus has not been tested as long as ‘New Horizon’, but it has shown remarkable tolerance for inner-city environments.
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EPISODE 256: LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL..AUGUST 1963…ERIC ARRANGED A STAG AT THE FARM…DREW DIVERSE BUTWONDERFUL CROWD.

Note:  The Yukon story is coming but 
needs a bit more research…so here is
a short bit nostalgia…remember those days?


EPISODE 256   LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL…AUGUST 1963 ERIC ARRANGED STAG AT FARM

alan skeoch
Feb. 2021

What a grand time we had  that late August evening in 1963 when my brother Eric, my best msn, arranged a  stag for
all of our friends at our farm.  We drank a lot of beer but not so  much that there was  any danger.  Just lots  of laughs.
The only concern was when Bill Doyle disappeared and was found enmeshed  in a forsythia bush…staggering.  It Was
his birthday and he promised  his mom he would not drink until he turned 21.  So he had a couple of beers and
made up for lost time.  No, he was not driving.  

Ron Saunders came over from the farm across the road.  He did not know anyone but that did not stop him from
mixing with the crowd.  About 1 a.m. I remember carrying him back to his house across the road.  He  was  quite
happy.   We probably had about 20 to 30 friends arrive, maybe more.   All done in good taste as you
can see in the picture  with Eric  and  the special sign he constructed.

Life in the  1960’s was good.  A grand time to get married.

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EPISODE 256 WHO WAS GERALD PRIEST? HE FOUND OR STOLE 70 TONS OF SILVER ORE (STORY 2)


Gerald Priest took this  photo of his family…powerful photo.  Yukon in June…spring time.


EPISODE 256    WHO WAS GERALD PRIEST?   HE FOUND OR STOLE 70 TONS OF SILVER ORE, (Story 2)
                            (subtitle  THING ONE AND THING TWO)
alan  skeoch
Feb. 2021

Gerald Priest was believed to have stollen 70 tons of silver ore worth upwards of $200,000 from  United Keno Hill Mine
company.  Stollen from the  mine  and hidden various places. This was not some nickel / dime theft.  Big time.
He  denied the charge stating that the ore came from a boulder  that had rolled onto the Moon claims which he
and a partner owned.  

Who was Gerald Priest?   No-one really knew much about him until his youngest daughter wrote A Rock  Fell on the
Moon in 2013…fifty years after the event;

I think her description of her father reveals that Gerald Priest was quite a  normal guy.  Nice father.  Could have
been.  Yet…..

Gerald Priest on the right with the roll your own cigarette and rifle. Dark Glasses.

THING ONE  AND  THING TWO  (from Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, 1957)

“Ring…Ring…Ring! “ sounded  the newly installed telephone at the Priest home in Elsa.
“yes, yes…Alicia is here.”  said Alicia’s mother Helen.
“Phone call for you Alicia.” , a little girl at the time.
“Hello, who is this?”
“This  is the BIG BAD WOLF, and I am coming to eat you up.”, said Gerald Priest from  his
assay office at United Keno Hill Mine in the company town of  Elsa, Yukon Territory, one of
the largest silver mines in the world in the late 1950’s and 1960’s.  Alicia was either terrified
or consumed by giggles and  laughter.  She never said which.  I prefer the latter.

Why tell you this story?  First, I found the story amusing.  The kind of story my dad might
have told Eric and I when we were very small and  easily frightened.   Secondly, I want
my readers  to try and understand  Jerry Priest, a man who changed  from an idyllic husband
and father into a master criminal.

Alicia Priest, his youngest daughter, draws a  wonderful picture of  Jerry.  Her prose is faultless
revealing, touching, sometimes  unforgiving, at other times warm and loving.  I think you need 
this biography.  It will help you understand his story.   Jerry was  a nice guy.   A little private but all the same a nice person to share
a beer with if given the chance.

Jerry was born on August 27, 1927 in Edmonton.  His parents  dirt were poor and remained so  all
their life.  They never owned a home but rented places  in communities  across  western Canada.
Three boys.  Jerry was the middle child and resented his father’s favouritism of his  older brother Bill.
His mom, Alice, was  disowned  at 18 when she loved and married Bertrom, a  printer by trade.
Out of sync with his times in that he remained wedded to cold type.

As I read these descriptive  words I thought of Steinbeck’s Grapes of  Wrath families.

They moved around a lot.  Depression family…dirt poor.  Powell River, Nelson, Prince Robert, Kimberley, 
 Kitimat, Williams Lake, Maple Ridge, Slocam City, and others. “Occupational Nomads.” Poor with no
prospects of anything  better.

He finished  High School in Nelson, enrolled in the University of Alberta in chemistry for a short time
then took a short course in assaying techniques…i.e. determining the mineral content of
ore samples.

“Dad grew into a  quiet, clever, well-read and well-spoken young man” with all the attributes of a gentleman
who could preside over business meetings.   Flip side … Jerry was at ease leading a string of
pack horses through the Rocky mountain wilderness.  But when his guard was down “he squirmed
in his own skin…a fretter, a finger kneeder…out of step with his times.”  Shy in that he “disdained parties, 
crowds, and  gatherings of more than three or four and  was most at home when seated at a kitchen
table with a dog at his feet, a cup of  coffee or a freshly rolled cigarette in hand and one agreeable
companion across  the table, preferably female.”  (P.16,17, A Rock Fell on the Moon)

He had a cruel streak. “he could trigger my tears by scowling in my direction”  when Alicia was two  or three
years old.  “Mom would say ‘Stop it, Jerry’ and he  would lean over and kiss me.”  Jerry was witty,
affectionate and  ” original” most of the time.  He would give us the “works” which entailed
tickling us “until we screamed  for mercy”.  In winter, when the snow was deep he would throw us
“full force into snowbanks.”

Jerry loved practical jokes and  once persuaded his wife to drink a full spoonful of Tabasco sauce.  She
choked and spat and did a full Ukrainian cossack dance then “collapsed in a fit of breathless giggles.”

He pulled off the “let  me put a string around the  tooth trick” successfully “Don’t worry, I won’r pull
the string.” followed “Yank!”  Tooth out.  I did this trick with my own brother.  String from his loose tooth
to our bedroom doorknob. “Don’t want this done.”  Eric said.  So I exited in a huff and  firmly closed the
door.  Wham!  Tooth came out;  His trust in me however was another matter.   The story made me
see  Gerald as a  normal person. No comment required from readers.


Helen’s story is powerful.  A great mother…seamstress.  She  made  clothes
for the family…in this case deerskin jackets.  Her story comes next.  Global
in its reach.  Tragic in its consequences.  Loyal to the end.


He  was an outdoorsman. For four summers from  1958 to 1961 he ventured through  the Rocky 
Mountain wilderness on a horse  with a pack horse in tow.  Helen went with him on some of
these jaunts while her mother babysat the kids.  A solid  marriage.  A camera buff, he photographed these
trips with joy and  then turned  his  lens  of  his wife Helen and daughters Vona and Alicia both
of whom were born in the Mayo Landing clinic, not far from Elsa.  They were children of the northland
with a father that fitted into his  home and his surroundings.

Jerry loved sing cowboy songs while picking his guitar and puffing on a mouth organ strapped
to his mouth.  The Priest’s subscribed to Book Clubs.   Obviously the children were  up to date
since Gerald called his girls ‘Thing One and Thing Two’ .  Names he took from Dr. Seuss’s
Cat in the Hat which had just been published.   

He was  indeed an ideal father.   How could Jerry become one of Canada’s great con men?
A mega thief?

I suppose the simple  answer is that people change.  Is greed our fatal flaw?
I want you to know Jerry as we explore his heist.






What are facts about Cat in the hat?


  • Dr. Seuss was asked to  write a children’s story in 1957 using only
    words  on a list that children …new readers …would be expected
    to know.  He was given a list of 438 common words.  He wrote
    The Cat in the Hat using 223 of those words…which included
    ’Thing One and Thing Two. (three words)

THE CAT IN THE HAT
Dr. Seuss 

“I think I will call them Thing One and  Thing Two”

excerpt

you will see something new. 
two things. and i call them 
Thing One and Thing Two. 
these Things will not bite you. 
they want to have fun.’ 
then, out of the box 
came Thing Two and Thing One! 
and they ran to us fast. 
they said, ‘how do you do? 
would you like to shake hands 
with Thing One and Thing Two?’ 

and sally and i 
did not know what to do. 
so we had to shake hands 
with Thing One and Thing Two. 
we shook their two hands. 
but our fish said, ‘no! no! 
those Things should not be 
in this house! make them go! 
they should not be here 
when your mother is not! 
put them out! put them out!’ 
said the fish in the pot. 

‘have no fear, little fish,’ 
said the cat in the hat. 
‘these Things are good Things.’ 
and he gave them a pat. 
‘they are tame. oh, so tame! 
they have come here to play. 
they will give you some fun 
on this wet, wet, wet day.’ 

Next Episode:   Helen Preist