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Page 12, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, March 7, 1984 A Step Onto History 'Wrong Way John and the Aguasabon Log-Drive' by PAUL BARRY A few years ago, an interviewer spoke with the late Willie Hein- DIANE DAVIS OWNER MAIL ADDR. BOXS9B POT 2WO richs about the early years in the local area. The conversation was recorded on tape and THUNDER BIRD CRAFTS ORIGINAL INDIAN HANDMADE ¢ GAUNTLETS* GUN CASES "BEADWORK*MUKLURS og *MOCCASINS eVESTS FUR HATS C.0-D. CUSTOM ORDERS ACCEPTED Teyeree 825-9592 later a written trans- cript was made. Pre- ceded by a brief intro- duction, the following Cal.. small segment of that oral history is written just the way that Mr. Heinrichs said it. The following story is entertaining but it also holds within it several historical facts that are appropriately _ revealed in one individual's per- sonal recollection of a seemingly insignicant event in his life. " Before 'the pulp mill was constructed in Ter- race Bay, there was no town and no real high- way east of Schreiber, Willy Heinricks in his sixteen-foot square stern canoe. the 95 au DISCOVER DAYS Men's Sport Shirts assorted shades EZS reg. 18.00 12.99 Sale March 7, 8, 9 & 10, 1984 Men's Plaid Shirts assorted colours L/S reg. 22.98 Sale | 16.99 Sale Toddlers Flannel Shirts assorted plaids reg. 7.98 Stoneware Mugs various designs , reg. 3.49 2/4.99 Ladies Costume Earrings assorted boxed original price 3.50 Ladies Velour Tops assorted shades reg. 25.00 26 16.99 Now @ Sale = Men's Flannel . . . Shi Ladies Sweaters Ladies Skirts irts assorted styles assorted styles , assorted plaids original price to 28.00 original price to 28.00 + reg. 11.98 799 |= 9.99|s 9.99 Sale : - Girls Flannel Men's Tops Nighties Combs assorted styles assorted colours assorted eed pkg. original price to 28.00 reg. 7.98 reg. |. Now 9.99 | sa. 5.99 | sae 99 Men's Sweaters assorted styles original price to 29.98 14.99 Men's Pull-On Winter Boots tan colour originat price 85.00 39.99 Customer vs wie we guarantee it at the Bay from coast to coast Sale Hudsons Bay Company . SCHREIBER Girls Dresses assorted colours reg. 24.98 16.99 * sabon River. but each summer pulp logs were brought down from Long Lake to Lake Superior via the Auga- At the mouth of the river the logs were tied into large rafts and from there towed either to the Slate Islands or to Jackfish Bay, and then, loaded onto lake-freighters for export to Wisconsin, U.S.A. From 1938 to 1946, the summer log-drives attracted workers to three river camps along the Aguasabon: one lo- cated near the Falls, another called, The Ra- pids Camp, located ab- out fifteen miles up- river, and a third called, The Upper Camp, or Camp Three, located about thirty miles up- river. A. simple foot- trail connected the camps. The Pulpwood Supply Company, a con- sortium of American for- log jam, anything like that, I took the men back and forth to clear the jams. Sometimes they had to be dynamited. Sometimes they had to be pulled out. As long as you found the right start - the right key-log, you know, then, you didn't have too much trouble." Many French-Cana- dians worked on the drives. "I worked most- ly with the French- Canadians, because they were terrific woodsmen. You just can't beat them. There are no better. Oh, there are the Finns and the Swedes, too, but the French-Canadians, they are good." He chuckled when he recalled a story about Wrong-Way John, the bullcook at the Rapids Camp. "We didn't have him for very long. We only had him two weeks but there, there was This appears to be a shot of the Falls Camp and is entitled "The camps at Black C.P.R."' . Can anyone help to identify the site? It looks like the site of today's Aguasabon Trailer Park. est companies, ran the operation. Of course, today the logs travel no farther than the hydro dam which was installed on the Aguasabon in the late 1940's. Also, the foot-trail has since been superseded by a net- work of gravel roads over which a year-round traffic of large trucks now carries pulpwood to the modern Kimberly- Clark pulp mill. In the Old Days, Wil- lie Heinrichs worked on the log-drives as assist- ant to Malcolm Spidell, the River Boss. Mainly, he provided a courier service with a 16-foot square-stern canoe. "If there was a river jam, a something wrong with him. So, he decided to quit. "But I wasn't able to take him downstream because we were run- ning wood and I wasn't, I couldn't run the boat. So, he didn't want to stay any longer. He decided to walk down. He had to walk down fifteen miles to the rail- road, to Black Siding." 'So he left early in the morning, after breakfast. He was gone. "It was evening, in the evening, and I was still waiting for the wood to stop running so I could go downstream. But the winds were good continued on page 13 These two photos [above and below] are scenes at one or another of the three river camps. Can anyone say which camp? Can anyone help name the people in the bottom photo?