Uranium City kid's adventure with a Gunnar cadaver

A Uranium City kid – now an adult – contacted me yesterday, on the second year anniversary of publishing Sun Dogs and Yellowcake. He recounted some tales of his time around Lake Athabasca, including an adventure involving a plane and a cadaver, but first some background.

Norseman plane picks up cadaver — A northern workhorse. The Norseman planes operated by McMurray Air Service Limited supplied Saskatchewan’s northern mining communities.

Brian Hemingson arrived in Uranium City, Saskatchewan – 25 air miles distance from Gunnar Mines, and a few short miles from the border with the Northwest Territories. It was 1956 and he was eleven years old. Uranium City was the ‘big smoke’ for Gunnar people until they wanted real action and flew to Edmonton.

The Saskatchewan government intended Uranium City, which would eventually reach about 5000 people, to serve northern mines indefinitely. No one realized that its survival depended on the continued operation of federally-owned Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited. When that corporation announced it was closing its uranium mines in 1982, Uranium City effectively shut down. Brian describes how, mere days before the announcement, mine personnel were touring new employees around Uranium City and pointing out the foundations of their future homes.

Gunnar became a ghost town in 1964 and Uranium City limps along with perhaps seventy residents on a good day. The stories, however, live on. Like every teenaged boy in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, Brian had his share of adventures in Uranium City and some of those involved Gunnar Mines.

A short camping trip

One summer, Brian and a friend decided to walk from Uranium City to Gunnar. That involved some detouring and a fair bit of bushwhacking as there was no road linking the two communities. By the time they reached the mine, they were hungry and stopped in the cafeteria in the community centre. They had just ordered hamburger and chips and apple pie when the mine’s security guard walked in. Gunnar was a company town, closed to outsiders unless invited and apparently that applied also to kids. He asked questions:

“What are you doing here, where are you staying?”

“Came for a visit, going to camp by the airport,” they answered.

“Your parents know you are here?”

“Yes.”

The guard left and the boys felt any concerns had been addressed. When they finished their food, however, the security guy returned. He wanted to know if they wanted a ride back to the campsite. From his tone of voice, they knew it wasn’t optional. When they were dropped off at their proposed campsite, the guard said, “You boys have a nice safe trip back to Uranium City in the morning.” And that was the end of their Gunnar visit.

Gunnar Cadaver

When Brian was fifteen, he had a part-time job working at McMurray Air Service Limited. One day, he was asked to put gas in the Norseman for a flight to Gunnar. The pilot asked if Brian would like to go along on the trip and he said yes.

Then he watched as not one but two RCMP officers arrived with a large tin shipping container and boarded the plane. The plane landed on floats in St. Mary’s Channel and a boat approached and waved them in closer to the shore.

“What are we doing here?” Brian asked as the two police officers donned hip waders and jumped into the water.

“Got a floater,” was the answer. And then Brian saw a body on the beach. The men were having trouble getting the body into a body bag.

The pilot said, “Get out there and give them a hand – I want to get home for supper.”

Brian jumped out of the plane and waded through waist-deep water to the shore. The drowned man had been in the water for a while and various aquatic creatures had partaken of his bloated flesh. Brian describes the experience as ‘like handling a slimy jackfish’. The group eventually managed to wrestle the body into the bag then struggled again to get the bagged corpse on board. Then Brian realized the purpose of the tin container: it was the coffin.

He had the dry heaves and the young cop was sick.

“Enjoy this trip, did you?” the pilot asked with a grin.

…

Brian told me yesterday, after reading Sun Dogs and Yellowcake, that the book “really brought out the spirit of the people up there.” That was the best praise possible as I knew from the outset that the story could only be told through the words of the people who lived there.

Brian spent his working life flying aircraft all over North America. He even flew a Twin Otter to Burma. He took the long route from Anchorage to Yellowknife, then Frobisher Bay, then through Europe. After many stops, he finally reached Burma. My thanks to Brian for sharing his stories.

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Author: Patricia Sandberg

A former mining and securities lawyer, Patricia relied on her family’s history and interviews of over 150 people to write about the Cold War uranium mining town in Northern Canada that residents said was ‘the best place they ever lived’. She is now working on a novel. Sun Dogs and Yellowcake has won two international awards, was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Fred Kerner award, and was finalist for Whistler Independent Book Awards 2017. View all posts by Patricia Sandberg

2 thoughts on “Uranium City kid and Gunnar cadaver”

Great story Pat!
Terry

Patricia Sandberg says:
September 11, 2018 at 1:40 pm
Thanks Terry. It was a great conversation with Brian that led to these stories.
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Reader Reviews

I'm happy to report (and also embarrassed about the delay) that I started reading and am well into your book now, and I have to say that I am very impressed.

I thought it was going to be just another memoir of a small town girl, but the addition of the Cold War context, and the amount of historical research that you have done is simply remarkable. I love and read a fair bit of history, but I'd forgotten or didn't know a lot about this era. Very informative.

The photos are great, and the anecdotal sidebars give it personality and bring it alive. And from a copy editor's standpoint (I used to be one) it is flawless as far as I can see. You might know otherwise. 🙂

Anyway, you have produced an important book, and it deserves a place in every library and bookstore in the country. I hope you're working on that.

Congrats on a job well done! -David Tycho, writer, editor and artist extraordinaire.

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It's an amazing true tale of the men and women who built and lived in a uranium mining town on the shores of Lake Athabasca, Sask during the 1950s - 1960s. Yes, uranium! The ore that was key to the manufacture of nuclear bombs during the height of the cold war. This is an elegantly told, respectful story ... It is also about fearless pioneers, risk-taking and commitment to building a community - all values worth remembering. — Simon Johnson, best-selling author of House of Wives

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.....My sincere thanks and congratulations for this great little book. One of my first tasks when I moved to Watson Lake, Yukon, was to go over to Cassiar BC and empty our church there prior to its being sold and moved out. All around me homes and two story apartments were being dismantled. Cassiar was a mining town. Its life was the asbestos mine. The town, like Gunnar, had every recreational facility and resource; every building in this neat, properly laid-out town, complete with sidewalks, was heated from the mine's steam plant. In winter, the doors would be open because it was still too hot inside.
When I held the Rite of Deconsecrating the church I invited any and all remaining members to attend. All declined. It was too emotional for them. So my congregation was just my son.
My father was a bush pilot flying out of Yellowknife after the war, but had left there before Gunnar opened. My daughter lives in Yellowknife and just recently the Giant head frame was knocked down. The town was divided between those who wanted it kept as an historic site and those who wanted to be rid of the memories it brought up.
Thanks Patricia for making Gunnar come alive with the residents' memories. John Tyrrell

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Sun Dogs and Yellowcake is more than a story of a mining town, it is a story of the Canadian experience and heritage whose parallels exist in small towns throughout the country. Ms. Sandberg unfolds the experiences of the Gunnar community in which the reader assumes a front-row, central seat as the story evolves. What sets this work apart is the superb story-telling and comprehensive research into the historical mining community of Gunnar. Crafted with readable script and supported with excellent graphics and images, it presents the community’s issues, voices, and personalities clearly. Ironically, the enduring significance of what the town represented outlives its eventual demise. A delightful addition to the Canadian library of historical mining communities, Ms. Sandberg has preserved the account of a story almost lost, and added a delightful addition to the Canadiana library! KH

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I’ve finished reading your book. Fascinating; brings back long ago memories for me! It must have been a huge amount of work to track down and contact the many ex-residents and obtain their input.

My interest in this story dates from a summer spent camped near the mine. In the summer of 1954, I joined a small crew from the Geological Survey of Canada as camp cook (sort of under false pretences!). It had two senior geologists and two juniors, working in pairs, doing general geology in the southern part of the Crackingstone Peninsula. We were camped along the shore about 2.5 kilometres west of the open pit site from early May to late September. Looking at the map on page 29 of Sun Dogs, it appears that the west townsite eventually extended to within 1/2 km our campsite. We had an arrangement with the mine for our fresh meat and veggies, for which we canoed over to the mine about twice a week.

The memories of a lot of it still remain vivid. An adventure, a summer job after first year of engineering studies at the U of A. Excitement mixed with loneliness amongst a tiny five-person world. This was somewhat relieved by brief trips to the mine for supplies; the excitement of the monthly canoe trips into Bushell and U-City for canned and dry food supplies; deep disappointment at missing out on one such trip. Precious mail, received via the mine. The strange call of the loons, the ravens and foxes, all this new to a prairie boy. Regards, Des Williams

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P.S. It was a pleasant surprise to find that my teenage grandson was interested and has begun reading some sections of the book. Maybe I should do some sort of a write-up of what I still remember!

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What I’ve read in your book so far is fantastic reading from both a personal and historical perspective. Mining history is a particular passion of mine as I was a brought up in a small coal-mining village in Scotland. Saskatchewan mining in general has been a large part of my business in my current position for more than 25 years and our youngest son will soon graduate from the University of Saskatchewan as a geologist.

I will most certainly pass along your website to my colleagues and friends and recommend they read your book.

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It is interesting that in the process of your childhood you 'rubbed up against' one of the most crucial components of the twentieth century—specifically, the mineral that fueled so much of the Cold War.... The book is a vivid, compelling read, and even things that might have become mundane details are interesting—for example, when you get into the parts of how the government became involved in the search for, and in the ownership of, uranium. Very, very interesting. Neil

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Beautiful format, pictures, and artwork. Just an amazing telling of the history of Gunnar. — Laurie

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Truly, the heart and soul and love and time you invested was well worth it.
I’m enjoying each and every story you collected and wrote. — Sheila J