ODDS’N’SODS — Dog days in Red Lake

Charles Henrick was one of the first men to arrive at Red Lake in northwestern Ontario during the gold rush of 1926, though not for the reasons, nor in the way, one might imagine.

He was living in Englehart, Ont., in 1925 and had come to South Porcupine on business, he once told me, starting his story of the epic trip he was to take early in 1926. He bumped into Doug Wright, who was preparing to go back to Dome Mines’ Howey gold discovery in Red Lake, at the train station. Doug remarked that he was looking for an experienced dog team driver, and Charles was happy to oblige.

Young engineers Herb Parliament, Yacht Campbell and Gordon Summers were a part of the team, as were Jack Hammell and Bill Cochenour.

One dog team was waiting for the party at Porquis Junction and the other was to meet the men at Hudson, Ont., where Jack had wired Bob Mills, the manager of the Hudson’s Bay store, to hire two more dog teams and a driver to take the group to Red Lake.

Bob hired Fred Carroll, a trapper with excellent dogs who had been to Red Lake several times, at a fee of $2.50 per day and 50 cents per dog per day — well above the average of $2 per day.

The Dome and Hammell parties reached Hudson by train and ordered four dozen roast beef sandwiches from the dining car for their first lunch on the trail.

As the waiter brought the box of sandwiches out to the platform, however, Charles and Doug were taking the dogs, who were raring to go, from the baggage car. The animals got out of hand, knocked the waiter over and, when the box of sandwiches fell and split open, snapped them up, crumbs and all.

The party started out by afternoon and made camp on Lost Lake, 12 miles out from Hudson. It was a slow start, as it took some time for the men to work off the effects of two days of train travel to Hudson from their legs.

Charles drove the lead team, with Doug and his animals close behind, followed by the teams of Jack and Fred. The three Dome engineers and Bill trotted behind each dog team.

The next day, the party made it to the Hudson’s Bay post on the Lac Suel Indian Reserve, where they slept on the floor of the company’s guest cabin. Charles got up early and went outside to find that stray dogs had chewed through the canvas cover on his toboggan and ate 20 lb. of pork chops. With that, the party’s supply of fresh meat was gone.

The third and fourth nights were also spent in camp, but the fifth night brought them to Sand’s Fish Camp, run by Dan Stewart, on Lac Suel. Dan charged travelers $1 per night to sleep on the floor and for the use of the iron stove. Just as Charles was about to unhitch his dog team, a young Dome engineer ran up and exclaimed that Doug was stuck in the slush on the trail. Charles returned to find that Jack had waded into the slush and pulled Doug’s team out, a dangerous move that showed Jack as a man who never hesitated to act.

The sixth and seventh nights were spent on the shore of Lac Suel, and the eighth night brought them to the Hudson’s Bay post at the west end of the 100-mile-long lake, where they slept on the floor again. The next three nights were spent camped on the banks of the Chukuni River. The 12th night found them camped at Sam’s Portage, and it was here the party ran out of grub and dog food.

Each driver had assumed that more food was being carried on the others’ toboggans. Consequently, supper that night was a handful of crumbs salvaged from the bottoms of the canvas bread bags, washed down with black tea.

Early next day, the party started for Red Lake, arriving that evening. At the Dome camp, they ate a hearty supper of baked lake trout, fresh bread, prunes and tea with milk, and were able to enjoy a hot bath (the first for any of them in 14 days). Charles and Fred left for Hudson not long afterwards and made the return trip in four days. “That’s all the dog driving I ever want to do,” Charles concluded.

— The author, a retired engineer living in Thunder Bay, Ont., is a frequent contributor to the column.