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| # 2025-05-02 - Little Lady Vagabond by Hal Kane Clements | |
| I found this series of 5 articles in Outdoor American written by | |
| Hal Kane Clements describing her wandering through Canada. Hal was | |
| her pen name. Her given name was Hazel. These articles are a time | |
| capsule giving a glimpse into Canada 100 years ago. I enjoyed the | |
| author's adventurous and upbeat style. | |
| Below are some photos of the author. | |
| Hazel sitting on a boat | |
| Hazel at a trapper's grave | |
| Hazel with Dutch journalists | |
| Hazel in aviator clothes | |
| Hazel with her daughter Enid | |
| Below are the letters themselves, with links to the magazine issues. | |
| # July, 1925 | |
| Outdoor America, July, 1925 | |
| Dear Stay-At-Homes: | |
| It all began when I was born, I guess. Perhaps the moon was a little | |
| off color--or the stars a bit mixed--but whatever the reason I seem | |
| to have arrived among those present all fixed up with a bad case of | |
| heel itch, which for many years I covered up the best I could. | |
| Somehow I managed to reach what really should be the age of | |
| discretion (if one is ever to have such a disadvantage wished on | |
| one), without getting into serious difficulty--and then one lovely | |
| day in June--the worst happened! | |
| On the picture cover of the highly respected and conservative | |
| Saturday Evening Post I looked upon a tragic sight. A tired out, | |
| stoop-shouldered, old bookkeeper, probably the watchword-of the | |
| office for his punctuality and steadiness--sits dreaming of his Ship | |
| of Adventure, which somehow never came true. In his faded, | |
| half-blind blue eyes there is a look of hopeless wistfulness--he | |
| realizes he is too old to sail the high seas of Adventure even if the | |
| chance should come--and he has had his dream for many, many years! | |
| "My grandfather's ghost!" says I to myself. "Just suppose that | |
| should happen to Me. My joints don't exactly creak yet--but Time has | |
| a mean way of sneaking past--and that pathetic old dreamer probably | |
| has been planning on getting away next year, for the last forty of | |
| 'em. And that dream I've had for most of my life of a long, | |
| meandering ramble through the North country seems a bit mossy. Right | |
| now is when I'd better do something about it or quit thinking of it." | |
| Making dreams come true is easier than forgetting them, you'll find, | |
| if you try it. So I turned my thinker upside-down in a desperate | |
| effort to find the ways and means to get my little old Ship of | |
| Adventure out of port, and me with it--and then, lo and be-hold--out | |
| of a cubby hole, forgotten and dusty, I dragged forth an Aladdin's | |
| lamp idea that only needed a little rubbing--and I found that all I | |
| had to do was to unwind a little more sail--and then--away! | |
| Between this log cabin, where I am writing you this letter (four | |
| miles from even the meager civilization of Metagama, a station and | |
| three log cabins plus one water tank, and the nearest human being | |
| except my comrade), and Chicago, there stretches a thousand miles of | |
| endless interest and beauty. | |
| Driving on splendid roads most of the way, through the dunes and | |
| fragrant clover fields of Indiana, great fields of buckwheat, the | |
| prosperous quaintness of Ohio, made most tempting by the tantalizing | |
| smell of early apples, drifing along the road--the breath-taking | |
| swoops down the steep hills of Pennsylvania, past picturesque old | |
| white-washed farm houses set among twisted apple trees in | |
| southwestern New York--and woven throughout the whole flying picture, | |
| great glowing flower color--gorgeous hollyhocks along a stone | |
| wall--lovely gardens everywhere of sweet william, larkspur, bachelor | |
| buttons--and rambler roses clamoring for admiration from doorway and | |
| gate! | |
| A never-to-be-forgotten sight was Niagara Falls during a terrific | |
| electrical storm at night. It was pitchy dark over the falls, except | |
| during the flashes of lightning, and then that whole miracle of | |
| magnificence would shine from way up the river as though | |
| phosphorescent. Thrilling? It was just the scariest glory I've ever | |
| seen! | |
| At last Toronto, and then the sea-going chariot was given a chance to | |
| get rested, and a train brought me the rest of the way to Metagama, | |
| Ontario, through wild, bleak country, some of it that makes you think | |
| of the end of the world, and then the next mile brings you a stretch | |
| of breath-taking scenery. | |
| One of the charming allurements of Canada is that you never quite | |
| know just what it intends to do next--first there are great hills of | |
| warmly pink rock a few miles out of Sudbury--long stretches of burned | |
| out timberland--lovely little lakes set like jewels in a pine-fringed | |
| valley--lonely little stations--lumber camps built up of log cabins | |
| and a saw-mill--and then, Metagama, after all those miles! | |
| Dinner, and a good one, too, in the box car dining room, of a section | |
| gang--a visit with some old Airedale friends and their owner, Mike | |
| Bates, a rare person and our host--and eventually, with pack sacks | |
| and duffle bags, following our good friend Charlie, we start on the | |
| four-mile trail to camp. | |
| The trail is composed largely of fallen trees, over which we must | |
| climb, and rocks over which we stumble. (About this time I'm | |
| breathless and feel a good round one hundred and fifty years old.) | |
| When the four miles seems to have stretched into at least forty, and | |
| we're sure we just can't go another step--the trail turns and 'there | |
| before us is the most peacefully beautiful spot I've ever seen, and | |
| nestled down overlooking the whole of it, a log cabin which is to be | |
| ours for a week. | |
| Trout Lake, as you come upon it, seems to be a perfect rectangle, | |
| with the cabin looking south straight away, down the center of it. | |
| On both sides, with perfect balance of outline, two long tapering | |
| ridges of pine timberland, like arms, reach out as if holding the | |
| little lake close to its bosom, gradually rising to a towering | |
| background which meets behind the cabin, with here and there a giant | |
| pine silhouetted against a sky of vivid blue, and great shining white | |
| clouds. Just now it is sunset--and across the world is flung, by a | |
| gigantic and audacious hand, all the paint pots of the | |
| universe--mauve and gold daringly splashed with vivid red and | |
| orange--and against the far distance a shading of purple, green, and | |
| gray that would drive an artist mad trying to reproduce. | |
| The silence and peacefulness of it reaches down into one's soul--and | |
| all the cares and worries of the world slip away. There is no | |
| man-made sound--no intrusion into this solitude. Trout Lake is a | |
| little kingdom, where the occupants of the log cabin have absolute | |
| reign. | |
| Far off the weird call of a loon shatters the silence--safely hidden | |
| in the dusk of the timber along the lake a moose plunges for a | |
| refreshing drink. The moon has started on her majestic march across | |
| the sky, and here and there a golden star shines back again from the | |
| quiet surface of the water. | |
| Night is here, and the fresh pine-sweetness of the air makes our hay | |
| filled bunks a welcome prospect. A fire of pine wood is burning in | |
| the chuck stove--gratefully we toast our shins against its warmth for | |
| a few moments--then in less time than it takes to tell it we are | |
| under the blankets and forty fathoms deep in slumber. | |
| # August, 1925 | |
| Outdoor America, August, 1925 | |
| Dear Stay-At-Homes: | |
| After a lovely, lotus-eating week at Trout Lake, then again the four | |
| mile pack-sacking trail back to Metagama, a freight train ride to | |
| Bisco, thirty miles west--we missed the only passenger train that | |
| day--a visit with old friends, some maddening moonight over the | |
| beautiful Bisco waters that merge lake after lake endlessly, and | |
| dotted with the most intriguing islands of every size and style. | |
| A kiss goodbye to my dear comrade whose path leads east While mine | |
| wanders much, much west. Then five hundred Miles of lonely "bush," | |
| some of it so desolate you want to weep as you look, some of it, when | |
| we finally reach the crags and huge boulders that rear themselves | |
| against the sky line at Lake Superior, magnificently rugged. This | |
| certainly seems to be a hard, rocky old world about here and it makes | |
| me feel all sort of pulverized and nothing at all, at all! | |
| And then, at midnight after nearly eighteen hours of express speed, | |
| Nipigon River Camp, the long train grumbling to an unwilling stop, a | |
| sleepy porter dumping me and my luggage out into the empty darkness. | |
| A bumpy drive, with horse and wagon, over what seems to be unbroken | |
| forest for several miles, finally a cup of tea and at last, just as I | |
| am about to leave the world forever, I am so weary, a grand and | |
| glorious place to sleep! Miss Green, my genial hostess, brings me | |
| back to life in the morning by waving a breakfast tray laden with | |
| bacon and coffee before my nose, grandest smell in the wide world; | |
| and I awaken to find a far and wide lake over which I look from high | |
| up on a hill. Great hills of black rock surround the lake. Against | |
| a hollow in one of them nestles a quaint little white church, looking | |
| a bit timid and frightened at all the rocks around it. Nipigon is | |
| Fisherman's Paradise, but it is Sunday and there is much to see and | |
| do, so I desist. | |
| An unforgettable trip in a motor boat down the rapids on French | |
| River, the stars come out and the Northern Lights scamper across the | |
| sky and then once again I am on my way, regretfully leaving behind me | |
| a very splendid hospitality and a wonderful day. | |
| Winnipeg! Busy, breezy people who are so cordial and courteous. | |
| First of all, a great big room in the hotel where the Prince of Wales | |
| sometimes stops when he wanders through here, the Royal Alexandria. | |
| It's ultra modern, yet was built TWENTY YEARS AGO and has the largest | |
| lobby, or rotunda, as they call it here, of any hotel in the North | |
| American continent. How's that for progressiveness? | |
| Right near the hotel is the Immigration Office, and the station as I | |
| passed through had been filled with immigrants just leaving a | |
| colonists' train. "Poor souls," thought I, "it must be terrible to | |
| come here with hardly any money, unable to speak the language. What | |
| will they do?" | |
| I found out that it might be well to save my sympathy for someone who | |
| needs it more than they do. This is what happens. John and Mary, | |
| with little John and Mary, from Central Europe or England, or | |
| Germany, all treated exactly the same, decide to come to Canada as | |
| farm help. Special rates are given to them on boat and train, a | |
| place to cook their meals is provided, and they finally arrive, tired | |
| and dirty, at Winnipeg. They are registered at the Immigration | |
| Office, given a hot meal, if they have no food with them which they | |
| wish to cook in the kitchen which is provided . Last year over 61,000 | |
| beds and 160,000 meals were provided to the immigrants just at | |
| Winnipeg. They are taken to their rooms, where they find beds with | |
| good mattresses on them, clean sheets, pillow cases, and nearby is a | |
| well-equipped bath-room with all the HOT WATER they want (probably | |
| the first they've ever seen). Down-stairs is a good laundry with | |
| stationary tubs and hot water where the family wardrobe can, within | |
| the next day or two, be made fresh and clean. | |
| In the meantime, on the desk of Mr. M. E. Thornton, Superintendent of | |
| Colonization and Immigration, there is a carefully indexed folio of | |
| requests from the farmers throughout these provinces asking for | |
| helpers on the land, giving minute descriptions of just what | |
| nationality, religion, age, experience, and sex they want, as well as | |
| thorough information regarding the farmer himself, his family, his | |
| religion, and what accommodations and wages he can offer the newcomer. | |
| So John and Mary are sent, when they are rested and ready, to Mr. | |
| Farmer up in Manitoba, who has been waiting for just them, and | |
| everyone is happy. In case, for any good reason, John and Mary do | |
| not like the place to which they have been sent, they return to | |
| Winnipeg, the Immigration Office takes care of them until they do | |
| find what they want. Or if they are ill and cannot go on, they are | |
| nursed and cared for as though they were at home, probably much | |
| better. Miss Cook, a sweet-faced splendid woman who speaks six | |
| languages fluently, matron of the building which harbors the peasants | |
| from middle Europe, while taking me through the women's wards told me | |
| that by hook or by crook she manages to get the girls new hats to | |
| replace the usual head shawls before they leave for their new homes, | |
| and somehow, I think that bit of womanly understanding must be more | |
| treasured than food, don't you? There doesn't seem to be any | |
| institutionalism about it at all. It's just their home for awhile. | |
| Mr. Thornton told me an interesting and unusual story of the | |
| eagerness of these pathetic children of the Old World to become a | |
| part of this new one which is to bring to them the peace and | |
| opportunity for which they search. | |
| It seems that during the frightful struggle of the Bolsheviki to kill | |
| off the rest of the world who might disagree with them, they drove | |
| down into Manchuria the remnant of an Anti-Bolsheviki army and their | |
| families. Eventually, not daring to return to Russia, without money, | |
| but having among them several well-known intellectual leaders, | |
| arrangements were made to have the entire colony brought to Canada. | |
| With their priest they came here, were sent on to where their land | |
| was waiting for them. At the station they were met by the Rotary or | |
| Kiwanis Club, (I've forgotten which, perhaps it was both) with | |
| automobiles, given a good dinner, and taken out to their land where | |
| the Canadian Colonization Department had tents, beds, and necessary | |
| supplies for their use until their cabins were built. Within three | |
| weeks the land was being plowed, their community building plans well | |
| under way, logs cut for their homes, and every day as their priest | |
| prayed with them, a pledge of loyalty to their new home and | |
| government was given. They are perfectly happy and no work is too | |
| hard, nor hours too long for them now. | |
| And so, these people who so badly needed a new country found a warm | |
| welcome in the country that so badly needs people, and let's hope | |
| they live happily ever after! | |
| It was hard to leave Winnipeg. There's something about the place | |
| with its thousands of trees (in a prairie country too) and flowers | |
| everywhere one turns, indoors or out, its warm-hearted friendly and | |
| so interesting people, that makes even the most vagabondish person | |
| want to linger just a little longer! Nice unexpected little | |
| adventures were always popping out from some corner, too, like being | |
| taken bag and baggage out to a farm thirty miles from Winnipeg to | |
| help take a hand with the harvesting, by a lovely lady of whom I had | |
| never heard until the day before. I tried hard to earn my bed and | |
| board, and kept my ear open to find out how this farming thing was | |
| done so successfully. (Will tell that part of it in another letter.) | |
| Then, meeting Mrs. Rogers, the only woman member of Parliament in | |
| Manitoba, a witty, clever woman, and awfully good scout was a bit | |
| larky. We had tea together and then she took me over to have a look | |
| at the $10,000,000 Parliament Building. (Wrigley's advertising | |
| ideas, has Winnipeg) and her office, and her children's pictures, and | |
| the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mr. James Evans, a sturdy | |
| Welshman, who rolled his rrrr's most delightfully, and has a way with | |
| the ladies, bless his heart! With charming courtesy and remorseless | |
| energy he took up the burden of my education where Mrs. Rogers left | |
| off. I was taught how to tell good wheat from bad (I'm going to | |
| hound my baker to death when I get home), and was told of how Dr. | |
| Charles Gardner had produced Marquis wheat which because of its early | |
| ripening enlarged by fifty miles across Canada the wheat growing | |
| area. I was invited to attend the dinner at the Agricultural College | |
| in honor of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. | |
| "Rather interesting," said my nice Deputy Minister of Agriculture. | |
| My dears, at breakfast that morning I had read over a half page of | |
| Sir This and Sir That amongst those present, and had wished ever so | |
| devoutly that I could hear them cast their pearls, and not only did I | |
| see 'em and hear 'em but I called them by their first names! It was | |
| truly thrilling to hear the speeches by the great scientists but the | |
| one I liked best of all was given by Premier Bracken of Manitoba, and | |
| whom I had met before dinner, an enthusiastic, sincere, much-liked | |
| person, who spoke in gratitude of the help the United States had | |
| given Canada through her experimental farms. Then, too, there was a | |
| Doctor of Science from Calcutta, India, all bound round with a white | |
| turban and an English accent, who sat next to me, and Professor Barr, | |
| of the University of Glasgow, inventor of the Barr and Stroud naval | |
| range finder and other very scientific instruments. His very | |
| charming little wife whispered across to me that Canada seemed so big | |
| and endless that she didn't quite know how ever she would be able to | |
| squeeze herself back into Scotland again. | |
| Furs? I saw, as they were being unpacked, thousands of prospective | |
| coats just as they were received from the trappers in the faraway | |
| northland. | |
| At last, however, I could no longer endure the way my time-tables | |
| turned on me, so dutifully I "went into conference with them all" | |
| (sounds like Chicago advertising men), with the result that I | |
| awakened one fine morning in Dauphin, the horn of plenty in the great | |
| mid-west. One speaks in respectful whispers of their wonderful grain | |
| and mixed crops produced in this territory, so thought I, I'll see | |
| for myself. At the Saturday morning market I find busy, alert, and | |
| smartly dressed farmers' wives, briskly trading their wares, baked | |
| goods, and such vegetables and flowers that I wished I could send | |
| baskets of them to you. It seems odd that the favorite hobby of | |
| these people up here in this real prairie country is flower growing. | |
| And I wish you could see the result of their work and this wonderful | |
| soil. Among the farmers at the market, as I chat here and there, I | |
| find a man from Illinois, born and bred near Plainsfield, Mr. Walter | |
| Lockwood... I never saw nor heard of him before, but we were awfully | |
| glad to see each other anyway, and he and his wife took me out to see | |
| how Illinois farming ideas have worked out in northern Manitoba. As | |
| we drove into the farmyard, I thought I was back home again, corn | |
| fields and prize winning Holsteins, just like Illinois. Mrs. | |
| Lockwood and I shelled peas for supper as she told me about the | |
| country. | |
| Next morning a hurried scramble aboard a cattle train so that I could | |
| connect with the Canadian National Continental Express at Portage la | |
| Prairie a hundred and twenty-five miles away. The trainmen were ever | |
| so nice to me and let me help them cook dinner in the caboose. You | |
| get hungry anywhere up here, even on cattle trains, and you needn't | |
| turn your nose up either, for it was a VERY good dinner. After we | |
| washed the dishes a friendly game of rummy passed the time away until | |
| at last we reached Portage la Prairie, light of heart and smelling to | |
| high heaven. A trifling wait of seven hours, a hot windless day, and | |
| I wondered if I hadn't better bury my clothes. Cattle trains are not | |
| flower gardens. | |
| A young school teacher on her way up to Nelson House in the Hudson | |
| Bay Country, eight days' travel, four of it by canoe, tells me of her | |
| work among the Indian children at the mission, the sun sets at ten | |
| o'clock at night, the dog-team taxis, the wonderful gardens of | |
| flowers and vegetables phenomenal in size, flavoring and coloring | |
| (somehow I always had a hazy idea the diet up there was nice fresh | |
| snow-balls every day). | |
| She was a avery conscientious little person and was greatly perturbed | |
| because of having danced an innocent fox-trot or two with one of the | |
| traders, and feared she had been a bad example to the Indians who | |
| were there to see the goings on. I tried to reassure her that her | |
| value to the munity at large had probably been much increased by said | |
| fox-trot. We solemnly ate a chocolate soda and wished each other | |
| God-speed. | |
| Awaiting my train at midnight, alone in the deserted, darkened | |
| station at Portage la Prairie, wondering if I'll be able to get a | |
| reservation when the station agent has gleefully informed me there | |
| isn't a chance, I remembered this bit of verse I picked up Heaven | |
| only knows where. | |
| "Yonder the long horizon lies and there by night and day | |
| The old ships draw to home again, the young ships sail away. | |
| And come, I may, but go, I must, and if men ask you why-- | |
| You may put the blame on the stars and the sun, and the white road | |
| and the sky," | |
| Au revoir until I get to Edmonton, Alberta | |
| # October, 1925 | |
| Outdoor America, October, 1925 | |
| Dear Stay-At-Homes: | |
| Peace River, from the first moment I discovered it (on a time-table | |
| map) made an instant appeal as being a hard-to-get-to place... | |
| somehow it seems so detached from all the world... and it is, too, | |
| nearly 400 miles north of Edmonton. Then the name sounds so restful | |
| ... I was quite sure whoever named it had had an eventfully hectic | |
| time to find it. | |
| There are only two trains up and down from Edmonton each week--and I | |
| had just missed one, so I waited for three days for the next one, and | |
| while I waited, again and again I was told of what a hard trip it | |
| was, and I got all the thrill and scarey feeling one might have | |
| starting out upon an uncharted sea for some point four thousand miles | |
| away instead of a few hundred miles of new country. It seems that | |
| once upon a time the railway up there was nicknamed "Ever dangerous | |
| and badly constructed" (Edmonton, Dunbegan, and British Columbia) and | |
| until about four years ago, or less, five days were sometimes | |
| necessary to make the trip on account of so many derailments! All | |
| very reassuring new items, especially as the trip has some pretty | |
| stiff gradings for a large part of the way. However, all this had | |
| been before the road was taken over by the Canadian Pacific, and I | |
| felt reasonably sure in assuming that things certainly had been | |
| patched up a bit, anyway. In the meantime, I sightsee Edmonton, a | |
| thoroughly modern city set high on the bluffs overlooking the | |
| Saskatchewan River, once full of placer gold. The MacDonald Hotel, | |
| built beautifully of shining white marble, with every last word of | |
| up-to-date service, offers all the comforts of home to the weary | |
| wayfarer... automatic phones have been used in Edmonton for ten | |
| years. | |
| When I go to see the Parliament Building, I ask a direction of two | |
| gentlemen who turn out to be Mr. D. W. Warner, born and brought up in | |
| Keokuk County, Iowa, and Mr. L. F. Jelliff, born near Galesburg, | |
| Illinois, and whose brother edits a newspaper there now. Both are | |
| now members of Federal Parliament, and both successful farmers in | |
| Alberta. We chatter of Illinois and Chicago and I am invited out to | |
| see Mr. Warner's farm. Whee--what a lovely place it is. Beautifully | |
| landscaped around the house, with all the native shrubs and trees and | |
| every kind and color of garden flower. His farm provides even coal | |
| and wood for his home. I wish you could see the wonderful wheat | |
| fields--much of it averaging fifty bushels to the acre. Mrs. Warner | |
| is American born also--a simple, motherly woman who moved into this | |
| new country twenty-five years ago, with three little children--a log | |
| cabin their home for many years. Now they are independently | |
| wealthy--her husband a great statesman--yet she still loves best to | |
| be where she can look over the waving wheat fields--and tend her | |
| garden. | |
| At last train day finally did arrive, I climbed aboard, short on | |
| baggage, ready for a walk, if necessary, but long on determination to | |
| find out the reason people like to live so far away. | |
| Now, being a vagabond is really a delightful business. It gets | |
| better better as one learns how to lean on the wind a little and not | |
| to arrange things too much. I had sent the porter over to get a | |
| reservation to wherever along the trip might be a good place to stop | |
| off to visit around a bit. And I did't look to see where I was | |
| supposed to get off. | |
| Now, it happened that the manager of the railway, a delightfully | |
| interesting Scotchman, name of MacGregor, was making an inspection | |
| trip. When I noticed the private car at the end of the train, I | |
| wanted to know the who's, the why, and wherefores of such elegance on | |
| the way to Peace River. I was told about Mr. MacGregor and that he | |
| knew all about Peace River long before the Lord made it, so I decided | |
| to have a bit of a chat with the kind gentleman. Which I did. | |
| It seems on the very day that Mr. MacGregor had taken over the | |
| management of the railway, four years ago, there had been twenty-two | |
| derailments that morning. And, as the train weaved its leisurely way | |
| through the very sparsely settled country--the only signs of human | |
| life being a log cabin at long, long intervals--he told of how most | |
| of the track--or large portions of it--had to be dug out of the mud | |
| and swamp and $2,000,000's worth of kinks taken out of it. There | |
| were plenty left, he assured me. I was feeling quite sea-sick and | |
| couldn't argue with him agout it, and, anyway, he was so charming and | |
| courteous, a few kinks meant nothing at all to me. He asked me to | |
| stay to dinner (there isn't any diner on this twenty-six hour trip | |
| and less forunate travelers had to run like mad to a restaurant, | |
| while the train waited twenty minutes for them; and then if one | |
| lingered too long--one had to wait three days to continue his | |
| travels. Now, none of my folks have private railway cars and it was | |
| an important moment as I sat dining with Mr. MacGregor, his assistant | |
| Mr. Latter, and Mr. Beatty, his secretary. | |
| At nine o'clock I went back to my reservation, after a very pleasant | |
| and entertaining evening, and listened with a quaking heart to | |
| several school teachers tell of their trips in, during past few | |
| years. I never did like the idea of being squashed--they assure me | |
| no one ever gets that way in spite of all the exciting scenic | |
| effects--so I crawl into my berth with the car pitching like a top | |
| heavy boat wallowing through a bad, bad night at sea. I slept--not | |
| so much! | |
| Morning comes. I'm still un-squashed. The world around me is just | |
| like the movies of the great West--I begin to like the swaying motion | |
| of the train--Mr. Beatty comes to escort to Mr. MacGregor's car for | |
| breakfast--all is well! | |
| All day long the train passes through homesteaders' country. Log | |
| cabins are now the only buildings we see--many, many of them | |
| forsaken. Many, many of them are homes--bravely flaunting even lace | |
| curtains--nearly all of them with a patch of lovely flowers | |
| somewhere. Many homesteaders have secured their patent and have gone | |
| back to civilization to wait development of the country. Canada is | |
| no place for the weakling--but for those who have courage to face the | |
| hardship and loneliness of the settler's life--there is great | |
| opportunity, for the soil is generous--and the cost of it is very | |
| low. Of course, the handicap of distance from market must be | |
| reckoned with--but all indications point to a practical solution to | |
| that difficulty. | |
| In the meantime, I have decided to go to Grande Prairie first and | |
| then go by road or trail to Peace River, from there, a distance of | |
| about a hundred and fifty miles. | |
| In the late afternoon we come into Grande Prairie country--rich, | |
| black soil, as smooth as the surface of a ball--stretching endless | |
| beyond the horizon. Grain fields stand ripening--some of it, | |
| heavy-headed, in stocks. They tell me that in this district last | |
| year the crops were so great that the farmers could not measure it as | |
| it was handled. | |
| Grande Prairie is most picturesquely western frontier. The streets, | |
| after a three-day rain, are a sea of clay mud that sticks like glue | |
| and is as slippery as grease. Wild roses are in bloom along the same | |
| roadway, from which spring luscious mushrooms, as large as saucers. | |
| I pick both--the wild roses for the good of my soul--and the | |
| mushrooms--fresh mushrooms are good for anything you may have! | |
| Next morning I go out into the large farming country and hear of how | |
| these settlers, just ten or fifteen years ago, ame down over the | |
| Edenn Trail by oxen team (two hundred and fifty miles from the "end | |
| of steel" in those days) to build their little world in this valley | |
| of great promise. Twice a year trips had to be made "out" to get | |
| supplies--and it took three months. When I looked around me--and saw | |
| for miles and miles cultivated lands and great herds of fine cattle, | |
| much of it pure bred--homes, even though built of logs, of a very | |
| brave and courageous people, I humbly bowed before the spirit of | |
| empire building that had made it possible in this new, untried | |
| country. | |
| I shall take you with me to Peace River in my next letter. | |
| Faithfully yours, | |
| The Little Lady | |
| # November, 1925 | |
| Outdoor America, November, 1925 | |
| Dear Stay-At-Homes: | |
| There had been three days of rain in the Grande Prairie district, and | |
| when we came to the Saddle Mountains on our way to Peace River, Henry | |
| Ford's masterpiece stuck in the mud, and all hands got out and | |
| pushed. We reached Spirit River late that evening, after a really | |
| wonderful drive over roads that were surprisingly good, considering | |
| the recent heavy rains and the fact that, mostly, they were just ruts | |
| worn through the fields. | |
| On the way Sergt. Murray told me of the adventures of a provincial | |
| police in the north country (they were taking the place, to some | |
| extent, of the "mounties") and I could feel my hair standing on end | |
| as he told of having to cut off a dead man's head and carrying it | |
| forty or fifty miles through bush, in summer, to find out what had | |
| been responsible for his death, so that the dead man's partner could | |
| be cleared of any suspicion. And a lot of other cheerful news items | |
| of the same order. | |
| At Spirit River there is just one hotel--and that run by a Chinaman! | |
| One sleeps there, or counts stars. Gosh! There were a lot of 'em on | |
| hand that night. So, with a prayer to the Heaven that takes care of | |
| vagabonds, after being reassured by the kind and very courteous | |
| police that I really need not worry a bit, I put a chair against the | |
| door, the water pitcher on the chair, and slept the sleep of the just. | |
| The snorting of Henry down in front of the hotel the next morning at | |
| nine o'clock was the next sound I heard from the world... and I could | |
| see the handsome officers ready to continue the journey, so I | |
| scrambled into my clothes... a cup of coffee ... and then over the | |
| hills and far away. | |
| At Dunvegan Hill we looked up the next valley for sixty miles and | |
| could see Peace River country ... the mountains, in tones of red, | |
| orange, yellow, and green, subtly overshaded by the purple of | |
| distance. These mountains are not rocky, built up entirely of soil, | |
| and the outline of them is pleasing soft and colorfully marked, like | |
| a tremendous tapestry wove for miles and miles. | |
| The road down Dunvegan is very, very steep, and the brakes screeched | |
| in protest all the way, and when we reached the bottom, were very | |
| weak. | |
| As we ran down the last incline onto the ferry that takes the | |
| occasional car or horse across the Peace River at Dunvegan, I got the | |
| thrill of my life and almost a drowning when the bounded against the | |
| steel wire that stretched across the open end of the ferry. As I saw | |
| the bolts on both sides bulging er the wooden top rail with the | |
| strain ... I hoped my hair wouldn't be stringy when I was fished out | |
| and that I'd look natural! The river here is very deep and swift ... | |
| and while I had burned with zeal to see the place, I wasnt keen about | |
| drinking too much of it. | |
| Miles and miles of the most glorious wheat fields I have ever seen | |
| ... fulfilling a long time wish of mine, too, to see it standing | |
| ripened as far as I could see; dust that choked and blinded ... | |
| dinner with Ma and Pa Dodge, two of the greatest comedians in the | |
| whole wide world, who sent us on our way chuckling and laughing for | |
| twenty miles as we reviewed the jokes and funny stories they had told | |
| us. ... More dust ... less wheat ... a few people on horseback ... a | |
| carful of Sunday visitors ... and then at last we twisted down the | |
| last dangerous curves on the cliffy mountains and came upon Peace | |
| River, the town. | |
| It is like going into a new planet ... all shut away from the world. | |
| The town sits high above the Peace River ... some homes built right | |
| up to the mountain top. The mountains close it in on every side ... | |
| glowing in the sunset. It was just supper time when we arrived, and | |
| afterward, the officers, their duty done, left me to my own devices, | |
| the first of which was watching the day fade from this wild and | |
| beautiful spot. | |
| It was very quiet along the bank of the river. One could picture the | |
| noiseless glide of Indians in canoes loaded with furs, as they made | |
| their way, from the great, uncharted wastes far, far north of where I | |
| sat dreaming. A band of coyotes snarled and yelped in battle among | |
| themselves from high up the mountainside ... a lone wolf howled in | |
| query to the uproar. A church bell rang. A choir lifted earnest | |
| voices in praise ot the Lord. The evening star shown out against the | |
| still glowing sky. It was night ... in Peace River. | |
| Next morning a nice little school teacher and I took horses and rode | |
| to the top of the mountains ... and there we saw, shining like silver | |
| ribbons in the bright sunlight, the joining of three great rivers, | |
| the Peace, the Smoky, and the Hart. The three valleys, merging into | |
| one, made a wonderful, unforgettable picture. Here, high, | |
| overlooking the whole panorama, is the grave of an oldtime trapper | |
| and trader, Davis by name, born in Vermont. His body was brought | |
| back here by his partner, who had promised to carry out Twelve-Foot | |
| Davis' wish to await Gabriel's call at this magnificent spot. | |
| Labor Day there was a celebration at which I saw some Indians race, | |
| swallowed lots of dust, and--Oh, glorious!--heard some Highland | |
| bagpipes; that night I was invited to the dance, and went ... dirty | |
| and grimy, in an old tricotine that had been my only apparel, except | |
| my heavy shirt and breeches, since I left Edmonton. Everyone else | |
| was beautifully dressed ... and the women do know how to dress up | |
| there, but my style was not cramped a bit. I was made quite at home, | |
| and a grand time was had by all, I assure you. The bagpipes, by my | |
| special request, gave me the treat of my life as I danced to their | |
| music. Just like dancing on air ... and my toes still tingle when I | |
| think of it. | |
| I was invited out to lunch and had an interesting time talking to | |
| some of the earliest settlers there, one of whom, Mrs. Anderson, had | |
| a daughter named Peace, who was first white girl born in that | |
| country. Social welfare work is being done, especially for | |
| homesteaders, who have classes and instruction in millinery, cooking, | |
| and every kind of domestic science. Visiting nurses are stationed in | |
| various communities away from the town. And I fpound out that rents | |
| were ten dollars a month! Did you ever hear of such a thing? Neither | |
| had I. | |
| To overcome the handicap of distance between Fort Vermillion and the | |
| nearest markets, which are reached only by the infrequent boat trips | |
| in summer, or by dog team, which takes two weeks, in winter, the big | |
| farmer of that section has built his own flour mill, lumber mill, a | |
| hospital, a store, and his own at which he aarere, and his own | |
| school, at which his fifteen children--all remarkably healthy | |
| children too--are the main pupils gauldren. His produce he trades | |
| with the Indians for furs, and last year, I am told, he brought out | |
| $21,000 worth of fur to sell. Not bad, I'd say, six hundred miles | |
| north of Edmonton, besides taking care of a family of fifteen | |
| children. The garden truck in Fort Vermillion is just a miracle. | |
| Melons, twice as large as the ones we have down in the states; | |
| squash, tomatoes; everything, because of the intensive sunshine and | |
| the the long day hours, in six weeks are full size and of wonderful | |
| flavor. | |
| On the train coming down from Peace River are two of the girls from | |
| Fort Vermillion, who have never seen a train before! Both of them are | |
| grown up, one just recently married. I never talked with two more | |
| interesting and well bred girls; and I truly hope that all the world | |
| outside will keep them as sweet and clean as Fort Vermillion has | |
| given them. | |
| I also met Bishop Robbins and his wife, who have spent many years in | |
| this country. The Bishop's diocese covers 200,000 miles of the far | |
| north, with all of which he manages to keep in touch. Services are | |
| held in almost every section at least once in two weeks. | |
| Some day I am going back to Peace River. In the meantime are many | |
| thousands of miles I still must ramble. After a whole afternoon of | |
| scribbling and writing I got ready to leave Edmonton again, and then | |
| another happy adventure in another letter. | |
| Faithfully yours, | |
| The Little Lady Vagabond | |
| # December, 1925 | |
| Outdoor America, December, 1925 | |
| Dear Stay-At-Homes: | |
| And, now, comes the great moment when I tell you all about the Dutch | |
| journalists, their guardian angel, and our adventures together, and | |
| my only regret is that you were not with me to meet them. They are | |
| quite unforgetable, I assure you. | |
| It was like this. The night was at Edmonton, dark and late. I had | |
| managed by the kindly help of a very nice man, to reach the station, | |
| with only an unimportant few of my belongings strayed and it was | |
| nearly time for the Calgary train to start. Just then a man came | |
| hurrying down the platform, almost passes us, when the nice man calls | |
| out to him, and into the picure steps Mr. A. B. Calder, the Canadian | |
| Pacific guardian angel, a rare delight and a joy forever, and at the | |
| moment guiding the footsteps, or rather the carwheels of the Dutch | |
| Journalists who are touring Canada. | |
| Mr. Calder represented the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway | |
| as host when the Prince of Wales was up here a few years ago, and | |
| quite by accident the other day I picked up a book written by W. | |
| Douglas Newton, "Westward With the Prince of Wales," dedicated to Mr. | |
| Calder, which describes him thusly: "A. B. (Calder) was not merely | |
| our good angel, but our friend, He is a bundle of strange qualities, | |
| all good. He is Puck with the brain of an administrator, the king of | |
| story tellers with an unfaltering instinct for organization. A poet, | |
| a mimic and a born comedian, and a man of big heart, great humanness, | |
| and big ability, whom we all loved and valued from the first meeting." | |
| This is only part of what Mr. Newton said, and I'm thinking of | |
| writing a book about him myself! | |
| Well, after a rehearsal outside Mr. Calder's private car on how to | |
| pronounce the names of the Dutch journalists, during which I | |
| swallowed my Adam's apple in a most alarming fashion, awful names to | |
| even think, I was impressively led to a big chair and seated therein | |
| ... and one after another the five Hollanders were presented. | |
| There was Mr. Van Reimsdyk, vice consul for the Netherlands, Baron | |
| Can Lamsweerde, Mr. Brusse and his son, Henke, and Mr. Cnossen; all | |
| in the quaintest mixture of Dutch and English, expressing great | |
| delight that I was among them. We all loved each other at sight, and | |
| the party was a complete success when Mr. Calder's man brought in a | |
| big plate of fruit cake. | |
| The next day at Calgary, the Hollanders looked me up at the hotel and | |
| invited me to go with them to see a big fox farm near. I was | |
| delighted to go and had a very interesting day of it. Fox farming | |
| seems to be a rapidly growing industry here in Canada. This farm is | |
| managed by Mr. A. Rankin (who stands 6 feet and 6 inches high) and | |
| the day we were there, 960 black and silver foxes were on parade. | |
| Mr. Calder took his Hollanders to Banff that night and I was left | |
| alone in Calgary. As the train was leaving, they called out for the | |
| ninety-seventh time, "Pleease, pleease, come up to Banff tomorrow." | |
| So, like the weak woman that I am, I recklessly cancelled several | |
| engagements, bought a new dress, the first one I tried on, sat up | |
| half the night to pack, and at noon next day, descended in glory on | |
| Banff Springs, eighty miles from Calgary, and had my first real look | |
| at the Canadian Rockies! Like every other human sufferer of the | |
| world's woes, I've often wondered why I was born. That Sunday | |
| morning I discovered that to see the Rocky Mountains was reason | |
| enough for anyone. | |
| As the train leaves Calgary behind it and settles down to its long, | |
| and speedy climb up into the mountains, the Bow River, of the most | |
| wonderful green color, weaves in and out between the ever higher foot | |
| hills. | |
| There is some wonderful swimming at Banff Springs. Hot sulphur water | |
| piped from Sulphur Mountain, in graduated pools, protected on three | |
| sides by huge plate glass windows, through which one gazes in | |
| meditation at the mountains as one languidly swims in the warm water. | |
| The motor roads through these Canadian Rockies are truly amazing. | |
| Threading their way in hair-raising curves (accidents are very, very | |
| rare, I am told), they climb higher and higher into the clouds, so | |
| that one can sit luxuriously in a motor car and yet satisfy the | |
| hunger for height that many of us have. A long and very happy drive | |
| with the Hollanders and Mr. Calder on the afternoon of my arrival | |
| among the different mountain peaks and through the valley of the Bow | |
| River left me without an adjective to work with. All my old standbys | |
| were in tatters. | |
| The Banff Springs Hotel, very luxurious and modern, owned and | |
| operated by the Canadian Pacific, is really beautifully located high | |
| on a bluff overlooking the Bow, and that evening after dinner, to | |
| which I am invited by the Hollanders we all promenade in the terrace | |
| and I learn much of the ways of women in Holland. The dinner is | |
| really one of life's great moments for me. There I sit, all done up | |
| in my best bib and tucker, with six charming men around me, much to | |
| the wonder and envy, I am sure, of the feminine audience in the | |
| dining room. Hollanders may be serious-minded, but I never in my | |
| life listened to a neater "line" of gallantry. The Baron kept to the | |
| head of the class all along, though. | |
| The following day I started very early. At 7 o'clock I was called | |
| and invited to make a trip to Lake O'Hara with a charming man by the | |
| name of McDonald. (Woods up here are just full of nice men.) Train | |
| leaving at 7:30. In exactly fifteen minutes I was downstairs with my | |
| ears pinned back. We breakfasted on the train with the rest of the | |
| party, reached Hector about 9:30, found our ponies waiting, and | |
| within five minutes were in our saddles and on the ten-mile trail. | |
| Up, up, higher and higher climbed the slippery and rocky path. | |
| Through miles of timberland, through noisy little glacier streams, on | |
| every side surrounded by majestic God-made temples, peaks | |
| snow-covered, lost to view in the clouds. Somehow, after the first | |
| few miles one becomes subdued by the quiet dignity of it all. | |
| Lake Louise is so perfectly beautiful that it almost hurts one to | |
| look at it. I reached there the night of my O'Hara day, not half so | |
| weary as I expected after my twenty mile horseback ride, and found | |
| that the Dutch journalists and their guardian angel had left a light | |
| shining bright in the window for me. There they all were (with a | |
| Scotch couple added to the party), the quaint darlings, and I was | |
| given the prodigal's welcome. | |
| As we all sat before the log-filled fireplace, I told of my wonderful | |
| day and they of theirs. The warmth of the fire, to say nothing of a | |
| hot toddy in a quiet corner, made me so sleepy I forgot my manners | |
| and fell asleep right in the middle of one of Mr. Calder's really | |
| clever jokes. (He will never forgive me for it.) | |
| My room looked right over Lake Louise and it was moonlight. I cas | |
| but one sleepy eye out over all this rare beauty--scenery is always | |
| nicer in the morning anyway--and gone frmo my bones are the | |
| fifty-seven kinds of kinks that have come on during the last hour. | |
| Sleep! | |
| Faithfully yours, | |
| The Little Lady Vagabond | |
| # September, 1927 | |
| Outdoor America, September, 1927 | |
| Fire Patrol by Aeroplane by Hale Kane Clements | |
| Being the story of a flip, a flop, and a forest fire. | |
| Neither Colonel Lindbergh nor Columbus in their wildest moments knew | |
| a greater thrill than that which swept over me that day last July | |
| when I first saw the wonderful flying boat that was to carry me on a | |
| flight up to James Bay, the far northern boundary of Ontario, | |
| hundreds of miles from the last sign of civilization... a region | |
| which less than a dozen white men have visited, to say nothing of a | |
| woman flying there. | |
| Through the courtesy of Capt. W. R. Maxwell, Director of the | |
| Provincial Air Service in Ontario, I was to be included on a special | |
| flight being made, so that I might study at first hand the remarkable | |
| way in which Canada is developing her resources, by aviation in | |
| inaccessible territory. | |
| Two years before this, while camping at Metagama, Ontario, the | |
| unexpectedness of hearing and seeing an aeroplane in that vast | |
| stretch of wilderness had so intrigued me that I knew that somehow | |
| sometime I would have to see for myself the hazardous pioneering work | |
| that is being done in cutting such great distances into so few hours | |
| by air. | |
| Dreams came true and at last I was at Sudbury, Ontario, one of the | |
| flying stations of the Provincial Air Service, ready to soar away, | |
| from one end of Canada to the other, taking part in the various | |
| activities being carried out by the Royal Canadian and the Provincial | |
| Air Forces. | |
| This included forest patrol for fire and blight, map-making and | |
| surveys by aviation, transportation into the gold mining districts, | |
| aerial photography, fisheries patrol and the special trip to James | |
| Bay where I hoped to find some unusual species of orchids while the | |
| rest of the party were making their survey. It was a great privilege | |
| and I fairly ached with happiness over the glorious adventure it was | |
| to be. | |
| Capt. Maxwell, who was personally going to pilot the party, had been | |
| delayed on another flight because of bad weather, and while waiting | |
| his return the air engineer attended to every last detail toward | |
| hastening our start-off. Changing the oil was yet to be done, and I | |
| was practising around with him one day in the plane. Then, one of | |
| those unexplainable, freak accidents that might happen only once in a | |
| lifetime of flying. The temporary pilot for this operation, | |
| unfamiliar with the air yacht, Capt. Maxwell's pet machine, not | |
| realizing the terrific power and speed of this, the fastest aircraft | |
| in Canada, started taxiing across the water entirely too fast. In | |
| far less time than it takes me to tell you, there was a terrifying, | |
| unexpected swoop into the air at a rate of 150 miles an hour. Then, | |
| when we were more than 300 feet high, a more terrifying swoop | |
| downward, as the pilot tried to bring the plane back to the surface | |
| of the lake. | |
| We sideslipped, helplessly rushing, roaring, diving straight toward | |
| what seemed unavoidable death on a rocky island toward which we were | |
| headed--a miraculous swerve carried us by the smallest possible | |
| fraction of a second beyond the island--and I found myself turning | |
| head over heels, down, down, down through the water as though I had | |
| been shot out of a cannon. As a matter of fact, I *had* shot right | |
| through the light but strongly built side of the fuselage. | |
| When, at last, I opened my eyes I was much surprise to find myself | |
| still in the same old world. No one yet has found out why we were | |
| not all instantly killed, but there we were, rather a bit mussed up, | |
| perhaps, but hanging, with vim and vigor to whatever wreckage of the | |
| hydroplane that promised to be good to us and keep us from a watery | |
| grave. | |
| Eventually we were fished out, taken to the hospital and neatly sewed | |
| together again. Within three weeks we ready for a fresh start, and | |
| according to my schedule reported at the Royal Canadian Air Force | |
| headquarters in Winnipeg. | |
| And so, four weeks to the very hour of the crash at Sudbury, I at | |
| last got started, this time on a fire patrol with Flight Lieutenant | |
| George Mercer of the Royal Canadian Force, high over the Lake | |
| Winnipeg region in northern Manitoba, in an Avro plane. I only hope | |
| he never knows how scared I was that day! | |
| Forest products comprise one-quarter of Canada's total export trade, | |
| and the United States uses up four-fifths of this, so perhaps your | |
| evening newspaper tonight comes from the great timber tract over | |
| which we patrolled searching those miles and miles of green forest | |
| for the first wisp of smoke that means a forest fire. | |
| The Air Force and Forestry Division in Canada have Worked out a very | |
| simple plan of action. The patrol order covers a definite area, | |
| marked on a colored map, always carried by the pilot. For instance, | |
| Patrol D is as definitely mapped out for the pilot to follow through | |
| the air as a roadway would be to a motorist. On board the plane is | |
| carried a wireless telephone, over which reports are sent at fifteen | |
| minute intervals. Back at the flying station a powerful receiving | |
| set picks up messages and reports them to the Chief Fire Ranger on | |
| duty during a patrol. | |
| Then, as Flight Lieutenant Mercer points a gray plume of smoke in | |
| some heavily timbered area still miles ahead, but easily visible from | |
| a height of 2,000 feet, he reports it at once to the station seventy | |
| miles away. By the time the fire is reached, which already has a | |
| good start, he is informing the fire ranger there of the extent of | |
| the fire, which way it is traveling, and the accessibility of water | |
| with which to fight it. | |
| Back at the station, the suppression aircraft, always waiting ready | |
| while the patrol is being carried out by the scout plane, is equipped | |
| with a small fire engine, hose, ropes, picks and shovels, food, and | |
| tents for the fire rangers, loaded up with men, and long before the | |
| scout plane has returned to Lac du Bonnet, the flying station, the | |
| suppression aircraft has landed the men and equipment at the fire, | |
| and if necessary has gone back for more help. Some idea of the value | |
| of this quick action in saving the forests of Canada can be gained | |
| when I tell you that on the first patrol of the season last Spring, | |
| nineteen such fires were reported within a flight of forty miles. No | |
| one knows how many millions of dollars have been saved to the | |
| Canadian government through the practical work that is being done by | |
| these lonely sentinels of the air. | |
| It is a sublime sight, especially to those of us who love trees, to | |
| look down upon a forest that stretches unbroken, rippling in the wind | |
| like the waves upon a sea, for miles and miles and miles--a forest | |
| that has taken hundreds of years to grow, and which will take | |
| hundreds of years to replace. A rare and unforgettable beauty is | |
| there--untold wealth--and death! | |
| The value of the Canadian production of pulp and paper for an average | |
| year is tremendous, and four-fifths of it is absorbed by the United | |
| States, which uses this source of supply for two-thirds of its | |
| newsprint. | |
| Spruce, balsam, and pine are most extensively used in the production | |
| of pulp and paper, and this seaplane flight we were taking with Mr. | |
| Dunn, the entomologist from Ottowa, Ont., and Mr McDonald, the | |
| Forestry Inspector from Winnipeg, as passengers of the Royal Canadian | |
| Air Force, was to map out the extent of deadly destruction that is | |
| being wrought by the spruce bud-worm amongst all the beauty below us. | |
| Looking for tree bugs from thousands of feet in the air! It does | |
| sound a bit far-fetched, but it's being done--too easily done. | |
| Throughout that vast stretch of lovely, living green, there runs the | |
| tragic marking of death--a strange bluish-gray that means the spruce | |
| bud-worm has passed that way. In Quebec and New Brunswick, alone, | |
| enough pulp wood to keep every mill in those two provinces busy for | |
| fifty years has been destroyed by this one blight--an outbreak | |
| covering thousands of square miles--in which ninety per cent of the | |
| entire balsam growth in that territory was killed. | |
| Before the days of aviation, it was a hopeless sort of fight against | |
| this terrific loss. The distances were so great--the almost | |
| immeasurable depths of the forests so inaccessible--so many thousands | |
| of square miles to be watched for the first signs of the blight. The | |
| only means of control is by keeping the balsam growth to young | |
| cuttings, for it seems that the older tree is more susceptible and | |
| less likely to recover. So, time is a most important factor. | |
| But from our seaplane we could accurately mark upon the map we had | |
| with us, the extent of that blue-gray shadow, over 2,000 square | |
| miles--a flying distance of 250 miles, a short day's work. And it | |
| took Mr. Dunn five weeks of hard canoe travel to only partially | |
| accomplish this before the Department of Agriculture in Canada began | |
| to make practical use of the Air Force. | |
| My entomological education was much helped along by hearing of the | |
| very interesting way that wheat rust also is being fought through the | |
| use of aviation. Each day spoor tests to discover the direction of | |
| travel for this costly blight are made by having the patrol pilots | |
| suspend from their seaplanes in flight a simple apparatus that looks | |
| like a long handled spool, to which is attached a microscope slide, | |
| lightly smeared with vaseline, which holds whatever germ it comes in | |
| contact with. When the spool is brought back into the plane, it is | |
| put into a corked bottle and turned over to the Department of | |
| Agriculture for examination. They are also trying out the | |
| possibilities of dusting the wheat fields plagued by the rust blight, | |
| by flying over the crop with an enormous spraying apparatus attached | |
| to the aeroplane so that great tracts of land can be thoroughly | |
| covered in this manner in a very short time. | |
| It is estimated that the development of Canada has been hastened a | |
| whole generation through the introduction of flying in far northern | |
| areas where until the last few, very few, years, the dog team and | |
| canoe were the only means of travel. Great credit for this is due to | |
| Group Captain J. Stanley Scott, Director of the Royal Canadian Air | |
| Force, who has carried on his experiments in spite of every | |
| discouragement. | |
| The Air Force in Canada, instead of working on air services for mail, | |
| express, and transportation almost exclusively, as most other | |
| countries in the world have done since the Great War, have chosen an | |
| entirely different and wider development--that of protection and | |
| co-operation in developing the natural resources of Canada. | |
| # Hazel Clements (1891-1967) | |
| Outdoors Unlimited, Fall, 2024 | |
| Long considered a mystery in OWAA circles, her signature on the Bill | |
| of Organization is the only evidence of her participation in the | |
| organization's founding, and only then as Mrs. Hall Kane Clements. | |
| The story she likely would have told that 1927 spring evening in | |
| Chicago happened eight months earlier when a plane she was aboard in | |
| Canada crash landed into a lake from a height of 300 feet. | |
| "How far, gentle reader, have YOU fallen?" she asked in an article | |
| she wrote on the accident for the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. "Have you | |
| ever stood and gazed thirty stories to the street below and wondered | |
| what would happen if you were to find yourself falling through the | |
| air at the speed of something like 150 miles an hour?" | |
| "There is, I have found, at least one thing about an airplane crash. | |
| It doesn't take long." | |
| She watched it unfold from a seat next to the pilot, who lost control | |
| of the plane while trying to turn it around in high winds. | |
| "I didn't know much about flying then," she wrote, "and if I had | |
| realized the awful helplessness of the pilot to swerve a falling | |
| plane, I might not have been quite so thrilled as the great, gray | |
| rocks of the small island leaped up at us." | |
| Everyone on board miraculously survived the harrowing experience, but | |
| not without injuries. Clements, who was catapulted through the | |
| fuselage on impact, suffered three broken ribs, and her scalp was | |
| ripped from the crown of her head to just above the neckline. | |
| Misfortune turned to good fortune when the picnickers on shore revved | |
| up their motorboat and came to the rescue as Clements and the others | |
| clung to the plane. | |
| "In the silence which hung over the mess of the wreckage, human and | |
| mechanical, that was strewn over that section of the lake, we could | |
| hear the staccato put-put of the boat coming nearer and nearer," she | |
| wrote. | |
| They were rushed to a hospital, where Clements stood by "shaking with | |
| a nervous chill" while others were treated for their injuries. | |
| Seeing that Clements also was injured, a hospital worker picked her | |
| up and summoned help. | |
| "I found myself, to my surprise, with the whole hospital staff | |
| gathered around the bed into which I had been bundled," she wrote. | |
| "My teeth were chattering so that the staff couldn't or wouldn't | |
| understand my protests that I was perfectly all right." | |
| Clements got the impression that the hospital staff thought she was | |
| going to die from shock. | |
| "However, being an altogether unamiable person, I decided that wasn't | |
| my day for dying, and after the scalp had a few tucks and neat seams | |
| taken in it ... I wanted to get away from that place," she wrote. | |
| She succeeded three days later and in four months began a 40-day tour | |
| flying with the Royal Canadian Air Force. | |
| Flying became her passion with multiple trips into the Canadian bush | |
| that she called "gorgeous fun." She helped do aerial mapping of | |
| timberland, flew fishery patrols over Hudson Bay, and fire patrols | |
| over northern Manitoba, and had more than 50,000 miles of airtime | |
| doing roundtrip mail delivery in harsh winter conditions to the | |
| remote village of Seven Islands, almost 600 miles north of Montreal, | |
| Quebec. | |
| "Somehow, in spite of a whole-hearted enthusiasm for flying for | |
| several years, this flight to Seven Islands was my most vivid | |
| realization of what a miracle air travel can accomplish in overcoming | |
| the handicaps of distance, storms, and inaccessibility," she said. | |
| "We had come through a wilderness which for hundreds of miles at a | |
| time showed no sign of civilization or mark of any kind of travel." | |
| Clements also delivered written accounts of her aerial exploits to | |
| magazines and newspapers as "Letters of a Little Lady Vagabond." | |
| She was born Hazel Philomenia Kane in Olean, New York, and married | |
| shortly before her 17th birthday in 1908 to George H. Brenner, a tool | |
| shop worker. They had one daughter, Enid, in 1912 and divorced four | |
| years later. She remarried in 1921 to George Clements, who worked in | |
| newspaper advertising. | |
| Clements also worked in advertising for the Cleveland Plain Dealer | |
| and Illinois State Journal before turning to writing. To make her | |
| stories more saleable in a male-dominated industry, she disguised | |
| that she was a woman by using a byline of Hal Kane Clements. Over | |
| time she adjusted it to Hall Kane Clements, perhaps to avoid | |
| confusion with Hal Clements, an actor and silent movie director of | |
| the same era. | |
| In 1929, she launched a radio show--the Women's Aviation Hour--on a | |
| New York station. Among her guests were pioneering female flyers | |
| Amelia Earhart, Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie, and Elinor Smith. | |
| As hair-raising as her own flying adventures were, Clements found | |
| them less traumatic than standing before a studio microphone. | |
| "I have never felt the least bit nervous flying over some of the most | |
| hazardous country I have ever seen, hundreds of miles from | |
| civilization," she said. "But when I get up before the mike, my | |
| knees wobble. My hands shake. Maybe I seem frightened! I'm going | |
| up one day soon and try broadcasting from a plane to see if I can | |
| only get over being afraid of the mike!" | |
| Clements continued writing for newspapers in Chicago, Cleveland, and | |
| New York but went a different direction once the United States got | |
| involved in World War II. She participated in the Victory Book | |
| Campaign, a program started by the American Library Association, | |
| American Red Cross, and United Service Organizations to collect and | |
| distribute books to members of the armed forces. | |
| In 1942, the USO hired her as associate director for its station in | |
| Port of Spain, Trinidad, where she worked 14- to 16-hour days. She | |
| was quoted in a short news item that circulated widely about a | |
| Maltese cat that adopted the USO station as its home and was fitted | |
| with proper identification. Clements said it was "the only cat in | |
| the army wearing 'dog' tags." | |
| Before retiring in 1963, she wrote a series of articles on Latin | |
| America for the U.S. Information Agency. | |
| She died of a cereberal hemorrhage in 1967, leaving a legacy of | |
| adventurous spirit. | |
| tags: article,history,outdoor,travel,vagabond | |
| # Tags | |
| article | |
| history | |
| outdoor | |
| travel | |
| vagabond |