[theme music playing] [ ♪ ] >> announcer: from beautiful northern vancouver island it's john lovelace's wings over canada. >> john lovelace: hi, i'm john love edition of wings over canada. you know, the north west territories are chucker block full of great mining legends.

and on today's show we tell the story of gordon lake. oh, yes, i almost forgot. we'll be flying around in one of the finest norseman still in the air today. so join us on our flight into the north west territories wilderness. >> announcer: closed captioning for this program is brought to by the pcas xrx portable collision avoidance system from zaon, a new level of safety for general aviation. affordable and portable. >> announcer: visit pcas.ca or call 1-888-pcas-123. [ ♪ ] [loon calling]

>> john lovelace: today's flight will take us from whitehorse all the way into the north west territories. our destination is gordon lake, and that's 80 kilometres north of yellowknife and 30 kilometres south of the tree line. come aboard and join us on today's adventure on wings come aboard and join us on today's adventure on wings over canada. [ ♪ ] [ ♪ ] from whitehorse to yellowknife. we'll flying along the 61st parallel over three major mountain changes - the pelee mountains, the logan mountains, and the selwyn mountains. this wild remote area of canada was virtually unmapped until after world war ii. today it's still virtually uninhabited except for the odd trapper and outfitter. they share the land with

numerous large animals including dall sheep and moose and caribou, and black and grizzly bear. they also share the land with fish, because the selwyn mountains are the headwaters of a number of rivers, including the stewart and the mcmillan, and these rivers contain sport fish that have never seen a lure, including speckle and rainbow trout, and arctic grayling. our destinat the lake. you can pretty much be guaranteed that flying for more than 600 miles anywhere in canada means that you'll end up poking your nose into a low pressure system. and today is not exception. funny, eh? >> yeah. >> john lovelace: not as advertised. we get within 30 miles of yellowknife airport and weather caves in with rain, low visibility and mist. the idea of diverting to another airport is not that simple up here in the north, because the diversion here means that we'd have to head across great slave lake and the into hay river, which would be at least a 40-minute flight.

so, the plan is to divert to the east and then see if we can circle around back into yellowknife ahead of the front. the nice thing about flying is when the plans work out. the visibility is opening up. not a lot, but enough to get us into yellowknife with a special. good, there we go. now i can see. there we go. hey, we're laughing. ha-ha-ha! and i'm glad that i had flight planned to have well over an hour of fuel in the tanks. [plane engine humming] >> john lovelace: okay. >> john lovelace: air tindi runs a floatplane operation here at the docks in yellowknife's old town. we have offloaded everything from the navajo and jumped into a twin otter for another round with the low pressure system and low ceilings.

are destination on this week's show is sandy point lodge. it's located on pristine gordon lake, carved out of the canadian shield 80 miles north east of yellowknife. the north west territories is known around the world for its remote fly-in fishing. and sandy point lodge is one of the best. it's 30 miles long. it has 800 islands. it has 2 million fish. and it has 1 lodge. now this lodge is sandy point lodge. >> duncan cooke: welcome. >> john lovelace: hi, how are you doing? >> duncan cooke: i'm duncan. >> john lovelace: and it's no wonder the owner has a smile on his face all day long. his name is duncan cooke. he's also the manager, which is a great excuse for him to get one of the best wilderness regions in canada. well one of the hottest places to get fish in all of canada - north west territories. and one of the best places to catch fish in the north west territories is gordon lake,

and we're right here. now, according to the department of natural resources there's two million fish in this lake, and 50% of them, or a million fish, are lake trout. and with those kind of numbers, even i can catch a fish. but, duncan is going to show us how to do it. >> duncan cooke: you bet. we're gonna catch lots of lake trout. >> john lovelace: okay, let's go. >> duncan cooke: alrighty. go. >> duncan cooke: alrighty. >> j [ ♪ ] [ ♪ ] >> duncan cooke: there's 800 islands on this lake, and about 800 shoals, i'm guessing. and it runs from the shallow bays into deep water of 120 to 220 feet, which is ideal for lake trout habitat.

they're obviously the predominant fish on this lake. they will test the bait to see >> john lovelace: so, in these cold northern waters the fish grow very, very slowly, right? lake trout will grow at about a half a pound a year for the 30-pound fish is well over 100 years old. the fish finder and the depth finder is telling us what depth the fish are at today. they're at about 55 to 65 feet. we're gonna count out 80 to 100 pulls, and with a six ounce weight that'll get us down to the depth that the fish are at. >> john lovelace: and you're going by the depth finder so you can see. >> duncan cooke: yeah. >> john lovelace: and you can see it right here. >> duncan cooke: yeah, so what we're watching is the depth of water that we're in and where the indicator is showing some fish.it's a good workout. [water splashing] >> john lovelace: i'd just feel better if there was a fish on the end of this. i'm gonna bring mine in then. >> duncan cooke: yeah, you should reel in. >> john lovelace: fish on? >> duncan cooke: i don't know if it's on or not.

i'm down very deep and it was tugging away. he came up to see what was going on and then he turned around and headed straight back down. there he is, right there. yeah, he's a ni-- >> john lovelace: oh, nice fish. >> duncan cooke: he's a nice size. oh, it's a nice fish. look at that guy. >> john lovelace: nice fish! >> duncan cooke: okay, we got ourselves a... >> john lovelace: oh, man. look at that! >> dunca>> john lovelace: yeah,! ooh... >> duncan cooke: think this guy's only ten pounds. he might just >> john lovelace:. >> duncan cooke: 32 inches? there we go. >> john lovelace: that's a nice fish. so he's just-- he's about ten pounds. [ ♪ ] [ ♪ ]

[ ♪ ] >> john lovelace: mmm... it's good. you don't have to look very hard in the north west territories to see signs of gold. i've got a piece of quartz here in my hand, and if you look right here, i'm scratching, and it looks like gold, but that isn't gold. that's pyrite. but right here, on this side, is visible gold. it's called vg and you can know it's visible gold because it's softer than the pyrite and it

scratches differently than the pyrite does. now you might say, well, i'm just gonna come up here and just get enough of this and become very rich, but the process actually, of getting this out of the quartz is very difficult. these people were called hydrators, and when we come back, we're gonna tell you more about that and actually show you a claim and how hard it was back 60, 70 years ago to make a a claim and how hard it was back 60, 70 years ago to make a living with this. [ ♪ ] [loon calling] >> john lovelace: joe mcbryan is a living legend in canada's north. he owns buffalo air and i think he operates more piston engine airplanes than anyone else in canada. he also flies his dc-3 on the last scheduled airline service of a dc-3 in north america. i've known for years as a determined, independent, and driven man. he thinks clearly and has a way of talking that has been carved

out of a lifetime in canada's wilderness. he doesn't drink or smoke, and he lives to work and fly airplanes. he flies a fully restored norseman, and today, he's bringing it into the lodge to pick me up and take me to his old homestead just up the shoreline here on gordon lake where he grew up with his mother and father. [plane engine roaring] [ ♪ ] >> john lovelace: how old were you when you had your first flight? >> joe mcbryan: according to my dad i was ten days old.

>> john lovelace: and you were the youngest norseman pilot. >> joe mcbryan: i was, yes. i didn't know it at the time, it was just something i wanted to do. i was 17, going 18 that year. i know i was in grade ten. i did better flying the norseman than i did in school that year. the norseman's still here but school ain't. >> john lovelace: so when you were here, there was, in this cabin, you were the three of you, eh? >> joe mcbryan: well, no. my sister mary, myself, mom and dad - we all lived in this cabin here. >> john lovelace: the four of you, right here. >> joe mcbryan: that's it, right there. >> john lovelace: in the 40s. >> joe mcbryan: i left here in september of '49 to go to school. >> john lovelace: six years old. >> joe mcbryan: that's right. >> john lovelace: what was happening in the depression?

what was it like up here? >> joe mcbryan: depression didn't happen. the black thursday, the dust ball... didn't really happen here because they were very, very happy and very secure here. you gotta realize this is-- here is security. the abundance of water here precluded any drought. and they had all the water, all the fish. they had caribou, moose. they had all the wild meat they wanted. they had the forest for heat, which was needed. they had lights and they had their freedom. there was no taxman. there was no welfare man. there was nobody knocking at the door threatening to take your house away. >> john lovelace: so with you've had a good dream, you've had a good run at it. those people had start off with a dream and a thought and a rumour there's gold, there's mineral, and so they would chase it down through all the different, like, the hints or the clues, you know, the quartz goes into the different types of rocks, and then they'd find a little bit of free gold, you see? then they could set their charges with their dynamite. so they'd hand ste

hole. by god, look what we've found. so each day they're finding more and more. if they don't find the gold, they find a clue that's gonna lead to the gold, which is just as good. involved. their friends would come in to make a syndicate, 'cause everybody could contribute to it. there'd be a blaster, a cook, a miner, a driller. >> john lovelace: and that'ssmae all these little mines around yellowknife here on this lake, it would syndicate and everybody was part of the action. >> john lovelace: okay, and then what happened? they went down to toronto. >> joe mcbryan: well, they would pull this gold out, fill their pockets... >> john lovelace: [chuckling] >> joe mcbryan: and then the... like my grandfather, the doctor of the rock... >> john lovelace: there was one-- doctor of the rock, what does that mean? >> joe mcbryan: well, that means... >> john lovelace: geologist. >> joe mcbryan: geologist, yeah. he'd be the rock doctor. >> john lovelace: so they're down on bay street, they'd come out of here, physically come out of here, go down to bay street with gold in their pockets. >> joe mcbryan: took the train out and all the way to bay street, and with gold that they were gonna sell and raise money for development. like, dad would say, after

they've made their presentation on the rock, how much of rock was there, what it was like, how to drill it, how to blast it. jim would come would say to me, "the money would rise out of the floor. it would just rise and we'd be scooping it in. that's our development money." jimmy would be just talking and the money would-- and he was the promoter. and he said, "then we're first cabin all the way back there. we're no longer in the back of the train. we were first cabin all the way. we sold." he'd say, "we got development money." we're no longer riding the box carts. we were riding first cabin, smoker, you know. that's the way it was in those days, and they're back and everybody's happy. they can develop some more. they can take what they learned here and mined here and move down the lake and do it over again. so that was the syndicate. that was freedom. so that was the syndicate. that was freedom. >> john lovelace: okay, [ ♪ ] >> john lovelace: now we talked a lot about what it was like. what about somebody coming up here today? could he do this? >> joe mcbryan: oh, yeah, yeah. the country hasn't changed, the people haven't changed, and there's still gold and minerals. ground's abundant with it.

and whenever a new person comes in and whatever they put into the land, like farming a field, that's what they'll take out. >> john lovelace: and they're still doing it, right? >> joe mcbryan: oh, all through the north west territories and the yukon, yes, there are prospectors, there are people. there are people that are very, >> john lovelace: are they making any money at it? >> joe mcbryan: you make as much as you put in. it's hard to guarantee any money, but it's hard to guarantee a good hand in a poker game either. so the longer you stay at the table, which is the longer you stay on your ice pick and your rock pick, the more chance you got at hitting the big one. >> john lovelace: so gold exploration, then, could be a lot like playing poker. >> joe mcbryan: oh, yes. if you're gonna be looking for gold, then consider yourself at the table. stay at the table long enough you're gonna get a good hand. you'll get some bad ones. you'll get some that you gotta bluff through. you'll get some that you gotta really pull your markers in on. but, you're gonna get the good hand. as soon as you leave the table it's like leaving the rock, like leaving the north, no longer a chance. stay there, you'll get it. the good hand will come.

lady luck will put the right cards in front of you. and you just gotta realize how cards in front of you. and you just gotta realize how to play 'er and when. [ ♪ ] >> john lovelace: you know, there's a lot of things you can learn about the wilderness. all you gotta do is keep your eyes and ears open, and this is a real case in point. now, first of all, i know that there used to be a milling operation here 60 years ago. so, i've walked out here and i see what is obviously sawdust. now growing out of the sawdust is black spruce. the black spruce is about 30 feet tall. so, i look down and i can see that the black spruce has taken root in the sawdust, so i know that that black spruce is around 55 to 60 years old. so that's how big a black spruce will grow in the wilderness. just a little detective work. i'll be right back with more right after this.

[loon calling] >> john lovelace: walt humphries is also a living legend up here. i met him a few years ago. he's prospected for minerals for more than 25 years, and prospecting means working alone in harsh environments, remote from any human settlement. so walt has developed a prospector's intimate acquaintance with the land. in yellowknife, walt writes a newspaper column. he calls it "tales from the dump." he's also an artist, and if you google him, you'll see some of his watercolours online. so, tell me, once gold fever hit, how do they get into a place like this? >> walt humphries: well, back in those days, in the summertime it was by canoe, or in the wintertime they walked. and there's a great story, and it's true, of darcy arden and his son; he was about 17. they heard about the discovery

here, so they walked from great wintertime - took 'em a couple months. and they're quite adventurous and they had no idea what was at the end for them. >> john lovelace: and what was at the end? >> walt humphries: well, they didn't find any gold here, but they went on to other properties and other things, and did okay. >> john lovelace: and how did the son do? >> walt humphries: he actually made quite a bit of money at the pine point rush, so he did okay. >> john lovelace: so after the people spent all this time, the early prospectors, walking into an area like this, then they'd have to set building up their buildings. >> walt humphries: yes, and for gordon lake this was era of luxury accommodations. this would have been the cookhouse and mess hole for the burntisland goldmine. >> john lovelace: well, what i don't understand is how that roof possibly kept them dry, 'cause i don't see any tarp or anything. there's probably enough of a slope on there that most of the water drained off. >> john lovelace: what do you think it would have been like to spend the winter in there? >> walt humphries: quite cozy, actually, you know, compared to

a tent, or... it was probably quite nice. >> john lovelace: and when you consider the options, because this was during the depression. >> walt humphries: that's right. and a lot of the people were quite happy to be up here, and if you read their letters and their diaries, they quite enjoyed the experience. and the wintertime a lot of them would be out trapping and they had lots of fish and caribou. so it was... they were quite well-off by depression standards. >> john lovelace: so they ate well they worked hard... >> walt humphries: yup. >> john lovelace: and the gold was a plus. >> walt humphries: the gold was a plus, and... some of them were working for themselves, so anything they got they just split among themselves. others were working for companies and getting wages and probably a bonus, so, they did pretty good. >> john lovelace: let's go to the mother load. >> walt humphries: [chuckling]>p and look at the shafts. >> walt humphries: there was actually a surprising number of women in the camps up here, often as the cooks, and men who had wives, they'd bring their wives up here. >> john lovelace: and they'd actually raise families too. >> walt humphries: and there's actually families raised at these sites. >> john lovelace: you know, and this-- and you see something like this. >> walt humphries: mm-hmm. >> john lovelace: you know, you see these little flecks of

pyrite, fool's gold. but, you know, you see it everywhere. so, like, where does this come from? >> walt humphries: well, this would have come in with the original volcanic sediment when they were laid down as ash bed. >> john lovelace: so that would have been an ash bed, like, it would have been up this high at one time, or maybe-- >> walt humphries: oh, miles. >> john lovelace: yeah. >> walt humphries: and, uh, as it compressed and turned into a rock, the iron and the sulphur that was in the rock grew the pyrite crystals that you see in there. so, in this rock, there's no gold, but there's fool's gold, pyrite. >> john lovelace: well let's go and see the real gold. >> walt humphries: that's right. >> john lovelace: we said we were gonna find gold and we did. >> walt humphries: mm-hmm. >> john lovelace: and so there is what is obviously pyrite, fool's gold, nice and shiny. and here is what we figure is... >> walt humphries: is real. >> john lovelace: is real gold right there. >> walt humphries: there's very small specs of it in there, but it's a little richer in colour. and this looks sort of brassy yellow where that looks more buttery yellow. >> john lovelace: and, well, i guess we should reveal now that you are the proud owner of all

of this. >> walt humphries: i own the mineral rights. >> john lovelace: the mineral rights, so technically, this is your gold. >> walt humphries: that's my gold, but-- >> john lovelace: so, on behalf, may i present you with gold. >> walt humphries: thank you very much. and this was a very rich little vein here. it did quite well. it's not that big, but it's very rich and it continues on down. it's been mined to about 120 feet, but it just continues on going, so there's still gold in the ground here as well. >> john lovelace: and there's one other way of getting gold and we're gonna do that next. we're gonna pan for it, right? >> walt humphries: that's right. >> john lovelace: let's go and pan for it. >> walt humphries: first thing you gotta do is get rid of the organics and the rough material. now, as you said earlier, gold's one of the heaviest substances with a very high specific gravity, so it'll sink to the very bottom of the pan and all the lighter material... >> john lovelace: what is the specific gravity, 19? >> walt humphries: uh, it's about 19. it's the same as platinum and palladium, so if we have any of that here we'll recover it. >> john lovelace: and, uh, pyrite or fool's gold is not nearly as heavy. i think it's about six. >> walt humphries: that's right. >> john lovelace: you look like

you've done this before. >> walt humphries: yeah, i've done this a few times. >> john lovelace: would you recommend this life as a prospector to other people out there? >> walt humphries: if you like the outdoors and you like the wilderness, it's one of the best jobs there is. okay, and i'll see if we've got anything here. i'll just swirl it around. >> john lovelace: holy smokes. we've struck at rich. >> walt humphries: well, i don't know 'bout rich, but there is some flakes of gold right in there. >> walt humphries: there's some sulphides. >> john lovelace: yeah. oh, there it is. look at that. >> walt humphries: and that's why we still take pans out with us to test showings and that. and you can see it's quite bright. and you can see it's quite bright. >> john lovelace: that's great. [ ♪ ] 300 years ago, henry david thoreau wrote in a book, "walden's pond," that life spent

in the wilderness is seldom time wasted because it rejuvenates the soul. gordon lake, carved out of the precambrian shield and only 50 kilometres from the tree line, is about as wilderness as it gets. the last word goes to the young pilot who flew in here with us from vancouver. his comments may be less poetic, but just as poignant. i had no idea it was so beautiful in the north west territories." i'm john lovelace and thanks for joining us up here in wilderness canada. [ ♪ ]

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>> john lovelace: is that a loon call? >> duncan cooke: john, what i love about the north west territories is the pristine wilderness, the history that we can see and touch, a sense of solitude, peacefulness and adventure all wrapped up in one that's getting really hard to find in today's world. and this little part of canada that we call home, well, it just

doesn't get any better than that we call home, well, it just doesn't get any better than this. [ ♪ ] closed captioning performed by: broadcast captioning & consulting services inc. www.closedcaptioning.com l