% C.M. & S Co. Ltd.
Yellowknife, N.W.T.
August 26th, 1938
Dear Mother:
I started to write a letter last night and finished about one page and then could think of nothing else about which to write; so tonight I thought I would try the machine as an experiment although I don’t know why this should affect the subject matter in my brain.
I have spoken to Tudor about my holidays and as a result will be taking them over freeze-up. Last year our last plane left on October 19th so I have nearly two months to wait yet but I am getting excited already. Perhaps I could have got them sooner but I would rather wait as it makes a longer holiday and the prospect of coming in here just before freeze-up would be more than I could bear. Also it is years since I have been home in the fall and I have almost forgotten what it is like. I hope I will be able to get a few days hunting up at Cedar Lake with Peter and Archie but beyond that I haven’t thought much about where I will go, but I certainly intend to get at least as far as Vancouver.
We have got steam heat in the office now but it came none too soon as everybody caught bad colds. One day we had three gas lamps arranged on the floor in a futile effort to provide warmth. Next time we will probably be without water as well as heat when the old lines are really torn out just before the new pipes are connected.
Burns & Co. have put up a huge building here on the property. It has several refrideration [sic] rooms so our meat troubles should soon be over. This building is one of the few in the camp which is painted and so it looks very distinguished. Most of the company buildings are either un-painted or covered with grey asbestoside. Supt. Giegerich’s palacial [sic] residence is almost finished. It is an eight room two story [sic] house an [sic] beautifully finished. I particularly admired the stone fire-place. The most recent building under construction is the apartment house. It will have four apartments. Tudor is taking one of them and his mother is coming in to stay.
In town a start has been made on the theatre. It is not a very pretentious building and does not compare to what all the rumours led us to expect but I imagine it will be a very popular rendevous [sic] even if the feature picture is some years behind the times.
Several of the company’s executives arrived here tonight – S.G. Blaylock, Archibald and Mel O’Brien to mention only three. After supper all of them rode up to the mine in our latest acquisition, A new Ford truck. You can imagine how strange a truck appears to us in this country, having not seen any of these strange vehicles for over a year. Unfortunately the truck arrived minus such accessories as seats, mudguards and cab so its appearance could have been more pleasing.
Our mill superintendent brought down two small samples of gold to show us that the mill was gleaning at least some gold from the many tons of rock it was being fed. Each nugget was worth about ten dollars.
Little has been done on the office since I last wrote and so it will be some time yet before we are moving up there. Eric and I are not particularly pleased with the design as the general office seems somewhat small and not very well blessed with window area. The daily walk to the office will do all of us a lot of good though I expect this won’t be appreciated when the mercury registers somewhere around minus fifty.
When we move up to the new office I believe I will no longer be in charge of the commissary except perhaps after supper once a week. I think the store will have to be opened more than once a week very soon as there are so many men working here now. During the winter operation of the commissary was a snap and I used to refer to my weekly sojourns there as my afternoons at the “club”.
With love from
Tony