Yellowknife, N. W. T.
Sept 19th, 1939
Dear Mother:
I received your letter tonight along with the Courier and these give me my final impression of Kelowna’s reaction to Canada’s entry into the war. I don’t imagine there will be very much enlisting for awhile, that is not by men who already have jobs. Some of the boys returning from holidays offered there [sic] services for enlistment in Edmonton and were advised to go back to their jobs. Still there seems to be six leaving every week though not all for the war. Otherwise things around here are the same as ever except that war is the only topic of conversation. There are rumours here that the CAL and MAS will have to diminish their plane service considerably and that only CAL will have a plane here during freezeup.
I do believe that I will be taking my holidays over freeze up again. Eric now prefers to go out at Christmas so I should be out of here in less than a month now. I have not asked Tudor yet and although I anticipate no trouble I did mean to hold this news until I was positive. Staff now get three weeks holidays with pay and holidays are an addition to the 10% leave and on this assumption I have 58 days leave coming to me.
Doug. Wilmot came in three days ago having been out in the bush since before breakup. He found nothing spectacular all summer but in the last fortnight made a strike which is the most promising of any made this year and as all strikes made last year have not proven up, his may be the best discovery since that of the Ptarmigan mine. Doug. has now left this company probably for good if the war doesn’t spoil his plans. He went out in the bush again this morning on a two seeks contract job for somebody doing assessment work. After that he is going down to Vancouver till March or so, so perhap [sic] we may leave here about the same time.
Winter is beginning to set in here again and there is a frost every night. One day there was even some snow falling.
There is a bit of construction work being done but none to compare with former years. A Third boiler is being added to the power plant and various alterations and additions are being made to the mill. We have also got a covered curling rink but may have difficulty in getting the stones. We had ordered some second hand stones from Toronto and the Toronto club was to get some new ones from Scotland. They were on the Athenia.
Town has now got a water system. They built a water tower on the rocky top of Yellowknife and have distribution pipes leading down on three sides. I am afraid they will not be able to use it in winter as the pipes are quite open and could not be protected with a steam pipe alongside as is done here.
With love from
Tony.