I first arrived in the Smithers area in the year 1912 when I was driving a big truck on the road from Hazelton to Telkwa or, as it was called at that time, Aldermere. I also had at this time a river boat which I was running along the railroad but when the railroad went inland from beside the water I had no reason to run my boat so I hired a fellow to take my boat to Decker Lake on a sleigh the following winter but he got drunk so I never got my boat. Well, I took a contract along the Grand Trunk Railroad to clear 20 acres of the Smithers town site. I was always resourceful so I found one fellow who knew how to clear timber, by the name of Bill Henry and I found another man by the name of H. A. Biglow, who had a lot of money and the men to do the work, and took them as partners into the contract. In the spring of 1913 after the town was cleared, the town site Company built the famous ditch which paralleled Main Street and went to what was known as Harry Smiths hill. This ditch was to drain the town for many years. In the warm summer months on many occasions our ditch could be smelt for many miles. In the early days our hockey team was called the Gaundlears by the neighbouring towns on account of this ditch. We were fortunate that a lot of young children weren't drowned in this famous ditch. In the first couple of years in Smithers the main street was from the railroad station to where the Government Office now stands and was paved with old plank slabs brought over from the sawmill where the Meuhiem School now is. Up from the Government Office where the Public Works now is, was corduroy. When I first ventured into the garage business I went into partnership with Bill Henry and James MacDonald who was at that time, always known as Sergants Mac because he managed Mister Sergants Store. We went into the Ford business and that summer Mister MacDonald went into the war with the Railroad Battalion. I managed to have $150.60 and Mister MacDonald’s interest in the Ford Agency so Mister Henry took on the sales parts of the venture and I took on the parts and repairs. The cars came in on the railroad all knocked down and we had to assemble them and this was my job for which I was to be paid. After a couple of years my partner told me that I should have put the cars together for mothing as I had made more money than he had. I made him a present of my half interests in the business and let him go it alone. After experimenting on the merits of other cars I finally signed up with a Chevrolet Agency in 1924 and not long afterwards went onto partnership with George A. Wall and I have been in the best car business ever since! During the early days of Smithers I ran the first electric lights. I had a big gas engine and generator behind the theater, which I owned, to run the pictures with and I extended a pole line down to the Pool Room and supplied the town with lights including such places as the Bulkley Hotel and Adams Drug Store which are still standing, until such times as the Railroad Company installed an adequate machinery to supply the whole town with lights. The theatre burnt down on I9I5 and put me out of business and forced me to go and hunt for a job I then went to Francois Lake and operated the Government Ferry for two years. I left there on Armistice Day and came back to Smithers. The theatre was burned down by Ardie May who was thawing out the engine in the theatre and hit a tank of gas and up she went in flames. With this also want a small car and truck garage and as neither of these buildings were insured I borrowed some money from the Home Oil Company and in I95I built the garage where it is now standing. Smithers was the first freight and passenger divisional point on the new Railroad the Grand Trunk Pacific and was starting with business all up and down her main street and looked to have a bright future when out of a clear blue sky on the fourth day of August I9I4 the German War Broke out. Smithers was just getting on her feet when this great calamity came about. We have often heard of people in the intervening years complain about hard times but they don't know what hard times are compared to the first years in Smithers. For an example of how scarce money was I'11 tell you of a business deal which happened around this time. Mister Slim Gregerson from Evelyn came into the garage one day to buy a second hand car engine which I sold to him for $35.00. Slim said I haven't any money but I have seven milk cows and you can have any one you want but what could I do w1th a milk cow? Right in the middle of the conversation, who would come in but Mister Ray Oulton. I said to Ray, "You don't happen to need cow would you?” And he said that he could do with one if he could get one. You understand that Ray had just taken over his father's big dairy ranch which was at that time was where Carl Veterlys land now is. I told Ray to come with me and we loaded the engine into the back of an old truck and went out to get the cow. I knew nothing about cows and Ray picked out the cow which was blue! We took the engine off the truck, put the cow in it's place and town. By Wiggs O'Neil
I have my computer feeding into a 50 watt guitar amplifier, I turned the volume on my computer up all the way and my amplifier all the way up and all I get is a loud 60 cycle hum, which is unfortunate, because I'd like to watch this.
Very good stories..... Traveling by sternwheeler / steamboat would be like traveling in a hotel, nice.....
I first arrived in the Smithers area in the year 1912 when I was driving a big truck on the road from Hazelton to Telkwa or, as it was called at that time, Aldermere. I also had at this time a river boat which I was running along the railroad but when the railroad went inland from beside the water I had no reason to run my boat so I hired a fellow to take my boat to Decker Lake on a sleigh the following winter but he got drunk so I never got my boat. Well, I took a contract along the Grand Trunk Railroad to clear 20 acres of the Smithers town site. I was always resourceful so I found one fellow who knew how to clear timber, by the name of Bill Henry and I found another man by the name of H. A. Biglow, who had a lot of money and the men to do the work, and took them as partners into the contract.
In the spring of 1913 after the town was cleared, the town site Company built the famous ditch which paralleled Main Street and went to what was known as Harry Smiths hill. This ditch was to drain the town for many years. In the warm summer months on many occasions our ditch could be smelt for many miles. In the early days our hockey team was called the Gaundlears by the neighbouring towns on account of this ditch. We were fortunate that a lot of young children weren't drowned in this famous ditch. In the first couple of years in Smithers the main street was from the railroad station to where the Government Office now stands and was paved with old plank slabs brought over from the sawmill where the Meuhiem School now is. Up from the Government Office where the Public Works now is, was corduroy.
When I first ventured into the garage business I went into partnership with Bill Henry and
James MacDonald who was at that time, always known as Sergants Mac because he managed Mister Sergants Store. We went into the Ford business and that summer Mister MacDonald went into the war with the Railroad Battalion. I managed to have $150.60 and Mister MacDonald’s interest in the Ford Agency so Mister Henry took on the sales parts of the venture and I took on the parts and repairs. The cars came in on the railroad all knocked down and we had to assemble them and this was my job for which I was to be paid. After a couple of years my partner told me that I should have put the cars together for mothing as I had made more money than he had. I made him a present of my half interests in the business and let him go it alone. After experimenting on the merits of other cars I finally signed up with a Chevrolet Agency in 1924 and not long afterwards went onto partnership with George A. Wall and I have been in the best car business ever since!
During the early days of Smithers I ran the first electric lights. I had a big gas engine and generator behind the theater, which I owned, to run the pictures with and I extended a pole line down to the Pool Room and supplied the town with lights including such places as the Bulkley Hotel and Adams Drug Store which are still standing, until such times as the Railroad Company installed an adequate machinery to supply the whole town with lights. The theatre burnt down on I9I5 and put me out of business and forced me to go and hunt for a job I then went to Francois Lake and operated the Government Ferry for two years. I left there on Armistice Day and came back to Smithers. The theatre was burned down by Ardie May who was thawing out the engine in the theatre and hit a tank of gas and up she went in flames. With this also want a small car and truck garage and as neither of these buildings were insured I borrowed some money from the Home Oil Company and in I95I built the garage where it is now standing.
Smithers was the first freight and passenger divisional point on the new Railroad the Grand Trunk Pacific and was starting with business all up and down her main street and looked to have a bright future when out of a clear blue sky on the fourth day of August I9I4 the German War Broke out. Smithers was just getting on her feet when this great calamity came about. We have often heard of people in the intervening years complain about hard times but they don't know what hard times are compared to the first years in Smithers. For an example of how scarce money was I'11 tell you of a business deal which happened around this time. Mister Slim Gregerson from Evelyn came into the garage one day to buy a second hand car engine which I sold to him for $35.00. Slim said I haven't any money but I have seven milk cows and you can have any one you want but what could I do w1th a milk cow? Right in the middle of the conversation, who would come in but Mister Ray Oulton. I said to Ray, "You don't happen to need cow would you?” And he said that he could do with one if he could get one. You understand that Ray had just taken over his father's big dairy ranch which was at that time was where Carl Veterlys land now is. I told Ray to come with me and we loaded the engine into the back of an old truck and went out to get the cow. I knew nothing about cows and Ray picked out the cow which was blue! We took the engine off the truck, put the cow in it's place and town.
By Wiggs O'Neil
Yes I have a copy of the book by Wiggs O'Neill "Steamboat days on the Skeena River" that he signed.
cant even imagine the ride downstream....
I've done it in a canoe as a young man.
There's no sound.
There is but you have to turn up the volume on this one.
I have my computer feeding into a 50 watt guitar amplifier, I turned the volume on my computer up all the way and my amplifier all the way up and all I get is a loud 60 cycle hum, which is unfortunate, because I'd like to watch this.
plays fine 4 me. maybe they fixed it