A Granduc Story

Photo - Granduc Bunk Houses

Submitted by Art Vibert -
A personal travel diary to Granduc Mines

We decided to stay in Stewart overnight so we called the town's one and only taxi. The driver turned out to be a well made-up squaw named Joan. She informed us there were no vacant rooms in town as one of the two hotels had burned down. We got into the 1964 Pontiac, with a front seat that wasn't bolted to the floor, and headed for Stewart, a half-mile away. Joan suggested we try for a room at Hyder, Alaska, a distance of two miles from Stewart.

Time was about 2 p.m., so we had Joan stop at Stewart's remaining hotel for lunch. The dining room crowd had overflowed into the kitchen and we ended up eating our boiled Alaska Cod there.

We bedded down in a new motel in Hyder and slept until 6:30 p.m. We then had supper and drinks, including a new one called Snake-Bite (one oz. of 100% overproof alcohol - the only ingredient).

Went to bed early and awoke at 7:30 a.m. to a peach of a day - something for that part of the country. Had breakfast in Stewart, then went on to the mine office at the Airport where the three Otter Aircraft were busy flying supplies into Portal Camp as well as Tide Lake Camp.

Harold Fowler, in charge of getting supplies, etc., from Stewart to Portal Camp, said, "Better get you boys in while this weather holds. Your compressor left last night by tractor train." We flew up to camp along with a mine doctor, mine worker and various supplies. On the flight up, the pilot had the throttle at 3/4 position. We flew from sea level to about 6,000 feet in one-half hour, landed on the glacier and were met by tractor train and snowmobile.

Time 10:30 a.m. Rode the open snowmobile down to the camp about a mile away; checked in at the office and were given rooms #5 and #9 in Bunkhouse #1.

Walking the trail to the bunkhouse with a suitcase was tricky. The snow was waist-deep and the narrow trails were never shoveled. With three shifts of men using the trails, the continually falling snow was kept well packed.

After changing into work clothes we went for dinner at the cookhouse. After dinner we walked down to the powerhouse which was about one-half mile and 500 feet lower. The banks of snow along the switch back road were about 30 feet high. We walked part way down on the new enclosed stairway that was being built for the miners to use. Can you imagine a miner climbing a half mile of stairs after doing an eight-hour shift? Half way along this stairway was a large building called a 'dry.' This is where the miners change their clothes and have a shower after coming off shift. Down at the powerhouse we checked the compressor that was running. Spent the afternoon doing odd jobs around the compressor and at 4:30 p.m. rode up the hill to supper on the snowmobile. After supper we took in a show at the cookhouse and bedded down at 10:00 p.m.

Diary - Continued