{"id":21093,"date":"2022-05-06T10:37:48","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T14:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=21093"},"modified":"2022-05-06T10:39:15","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T14:39:15","slug":"fwd-episode-575-mining-camp-on-the-alaskan-barren-land-advemture-1959-series-on-pebble-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=21093","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: EPISODE 575 MINING CAMP ON THE ALASKAN BARREN LAND ADVEMTURE..1959.(SERIES ON PEBBLE MINE)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 575   ALASKAN MINING CAMP ADVENTURES\u20261959 (SERIES ON PEBBLE MINE)<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
MAY 2022<\/div>\n

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Large mosquito?  Don Van Every and Helicopter in Alaska 1959<\/div>\n

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SUMMER 1959:  Don VanEvery, Ian Rutherford, Bill Morrison, Mike Chinnery, Alan Skeoch and Dr. John StaM were flown to Dillingham, Alaska to conduct a Turam<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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geophysical ground survey in he summer of 1959.  From Dillingham the Canadian crew were flown into the Alaskan interior  by two Sikorsky<\/div>\n
S 52 helicopters.   A camp had been constructed overlooking an Alaska river valley where thousands of sockeye salmon were laying their eggs before they died.<\/div>\n

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We were told the site was a secret.  Whether this was true or not I have never been able to prove one way or another.  What I do<\/div>\n
know is that the site is located overtop a huge area  mineralization.  To this day, May 2022, no mine has been constructed<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The hinterland of Bristol Bay has become one of the most controversial sites in the history of north America mining. All that needs to be<\/div>\n
said is \u201cHow about the Pebble Mine?\u201d and a stormy debate will follow.  \u201cAre you for or against the Pebble mine?\u201d<\/div>\n

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There was no such debate when we were there in 1959.   So let me state and restate some of our adventures and <\/div>\n
then look st the Pebble Mine controversy.   This is not a tiny story best forgotten.   It is one of the most controversial<\/div>\n
issues in mining today.  Is the Pebble Mine a dead issue?  Could be.  One of our adventures was linked to the big story.<\/div>\n
But we did not know it.  One tiny adventure.   <\/div>\n

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ADVENTURES (as memory serves)<\/p><\/div>\n


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1)  TWO huge Sikorsky S 52 helicopters piked us up when our F 27 Fokker landed at the<\/div>\n
obscure Dillingham fishing village on the Bering Sea not far from the Aleutian Island chain of<\/div>\n
south west Alaska.  Flying in a helicopter became routine that summer . So much so that we often<\/div>\n
sat with our legs outside the open cargo door.  Some kind of force held us in place.  Centrifugal?<\/div>\n
totally enjoyable.   The lead pilot awoke us each morning singing over the camp Public address system,<\/div>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get fucking airborne\u201d\u2026and we would fly over the endless tundra to our survey points where we <\/div>\n
would be dropped for the work day then picked up.  I even had one small misadventure when trying <\/div>\n
to jump from the pontoon to the cargo cabin with a 90 pound reel of wire on my back. I missed<\/div>\n
and fell through the gap just as lif toff began\u2026.distance 10 or 20 feet, hit the soft tundra like hitting<\/div>\n
a rough feather bed.  I remember asking the pilot \u201cWhat happens if we hit a sudden downdraft?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIf I have a sling load I just press this button and drop the whole load.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHas that ever happened?\u2019<\/div>\n
\u201cHad to drop a whole diamond driller drill unit once.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWrecked?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cImagine so, never checked.”<\/div>\n

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2) WEAPONS:   \u201cYou boys can expect to be given rifles at base camp\u202630-06 hunting rifles. Be prepared.\u201d said our boss<\/div>\n
Dr. Norman Paterson, one June morning in Toronto.<\/div>\n
And sure enough rifles were handed out on our first helicopter ride into the tundra.  I still remember my partner, Bill morrison , <\/div>\n
commenting.  \u201cHow the hell can we carry rifles when harnessed into the Turam?   So We just stacked the rifles at<\/div>\n
the landing point.   Took a few practice shots at stunted spruce trees then forgot about the rifles.  Why were these<\/div>\n
weapons distributed?  The Humble Oil contractor feared we would have trouble with Kodiak bears. I suppose that was<\/div>\n
a legitimate fear but it never happened.  The closest I ever got to a Kodiak was one day trying to follow Bill up a <\/div>\n
river densely thick with tag alder scrub brush.  I was about 100 feet behind Bill.  Saw his footprint in the river bottom\u2026<\/div>\n
a swirl of sandy mud\u2026and made a wrong turn.. I followed a bear who was getting out of our way.  Noticed a big patch of<\/div>\n
brown fur . Moving.  Turned fast .  Bill had gone downstream.  Bear moving upstream.  Nobody hurt.  Would the rifle have<\/div>\n
been any help?<\/div>\n

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Normally Bill and Were strapped together by a 100 feet of rubber sheathed cable.<\/div>\n
Traversing river brooms often made it necessary to disconnect.  Hence my<\/div>\n
confusion leading to the bear incident.  Bears do not like our smell so<\/div>\n
they usually get out of the way if we make enough noise.  Sometimes a tin can<\/div>\n
with pebbles strapped to our waist was all that was needed to alert the bears.<\/div>\n

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We were not the only people with weapons. The camp had a double purpose<\/div>\n
Our job was to pin point anomalies (unknown but surprising blips on our Turam consols).<\/div>\n
Then a diamond drillers crew would be ferried to the site to confirm by hard evidence (i.e. diamond<\/div>\n
drill core) the nature of the anomaly.  <\/div>\n

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There were 25 diamond drillers in camp\u2026 and six Canadian geophysicists.   Seemed to me that <\/div>\n
they were all armed with revolvers on western styled gunbelts.  Maybe not all.   But many.  If you<\/div>\n
carry a gun, there is a tendency to use the gun  As one of the drillers did one evening<\/div>\n
down by our beaver pond in the river bottom.  \u201cWatch this!\u201d And he made a fast draw and aimed<\/div>\n
at the beaver some distances busily chewing.  Killed the poor beaver.  <\/div>\n
“Damn, I did not think I was that good.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Bottom line?  The most dangerous place in my Alaska was our camp.<\/div>\n

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TO BE CONTINUED<\/div>\n

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\u201cADVENTURES IN ALASKA = THE PEBBLE MINE CONTROVERSY = TRIUMPH BY ENVIRONMENTALISTS\u201d<\/div>\n

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ALAN SKEOCH<\/div>\n
MAY 2022<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 575   ALASKAN MINING CAMP ADVENTURES\u20261959 (SERIES ON PEBBLE MINE) alan skeoch MAY 2022 Large mosquito?  Don Van Every and Helicopter in Alaska 1959 SUMMER 1959:  Don VanEvery, Ian Rutherford, Bill Morrison, Mike Chinnery, Alan Skeoch and Dr. John StaM were flown to Dillingham, Alaska to conduct a Turam geophysical ground survey in he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}