Alouette National Historic Event Update.

The finally agreed text for the commemorative Plaque was passed by the Parks Canada Inscriptions Committee meeting in December and approved later in the month by the full Historic Sites and Monuments Board. Parks Canada can now proceed with casting the Plaque in bronze. In the meantime, Friends have forwarded comments with respect to the text that CRC's Communications and Promotions staff have prepared for an Interpretation Panel to be located adjacent to Parks Canada's Plaque. Our next task is to contribute to the Unveiling Invitation List. We will need help in locating addresses for the families of deceased Alouette Pioneers who we felt should receive invitations.

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E-mails Received:

From: Frank Palmer
To:donross@magma.ca
Sent: December 11, 2008 17:12
Subject: Missing alumni
Hi Don:
Long time, no see!
It’s hard to believe that Céline & I have been living on the West Coast for the past nine years already. We have one daughter living in New Zealand and another out here on the Coast, so we decided not to put up with freezing winters and muggy summers any longer. The rain? Oh, well. Actually, its not nearly as bad as Easterners think mostly it’s a story put out to dissuade people from moving here.
I’m winding down my consulting business a bit so I have more time for fun things. We have a sailboat and have spent up to a month at a time cruising around Georgia Strait which we have a nice view of from our house. Other than that, we go to plays and concerts in Vancouver, Céline teaches French and I teach the Canadian Power & Sail Squadron Boating Course once a year.
Say hi from me to other alumni, and if you have time let me know how life is at your end.
Frank Palmer fpalmer@e-field.ca

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From: John Gilbert mailto:jgilbert@ca.inter.net
To: donross@magma.ca
Cc: gandkb002h@sympatico.ca
Sent: January 19, 2009 11:08
Subject: Headingley Ionosphere Station
Don: Further to your "missing persons" enquiry in the December newsletter, I had a coffee on January 17 with George Butler. He and I served together as radio operators at Eureka from 1957-58. George stayed on at Eureka until 1959 when his contract was completed. I had always assumed he had then rejoined Department of Transport in 1959-60 as I used to see him from time to time when he was at the Ionosphere Station not far from the present-day entrance to CRC. However, he tells me that he was a DRTE employee at that time. He served at the Shirley Bay Station for a year or so and then went to the Churchill Ionosphere Station, then to the Resolute Bay Ionosphere Station (where he was Officer in Charge). Finally, around 1964-65, he worked at the Headingley Ionosphere Station, near Winnipeg. George recalls that the Headingley Station was on the grounds of the Headingley Correctional Centre. There is a reference on the Spectralumni web site, in Lorne Greenwood's story, to the same facility. George left DRTE around 1965 and worked for the City of Belleville until his retirement. I wonder if any of the Friends of the CRC can tell us more about the Headingley Station?
John Gilbert

We have also received e-mails from the following members but due to personal information I will not include them the newsletter. The members are: Marion Mills, Bob Hahn, Mike Palfreyman, David Andean, Peter Bouliane, and Don and Bev Selin. Thanks for your support.
A few people have been added to the mailing list this month. If you start receiving a newsletter and do not wish to be on the list please let us know and we will remove your name. Also, if you can receive the newsletter by email, let us know.

From: Lang, Janice
To:crcfriends@igs.net; donross@magma.ca; aek@mondenet.com; iq4u@storm.ca
Sent: January 8, 2009 19:52
Subject: FW: Arctic Circle, Jan 13
Hi,
Next Tuesday evening Emily Cowall will be the guest speaker at The Arctic Circle meeting at the RCAF mess downtown on Gloucester St. Ms. Cowall is interested in speaking with anyone who knows about the history of DRB Arctic research in the 50s, 60s and 70s. If you know of any of your members that she could speak to, please let me know, or bring this to their attention. She is visiting from Monday to Thursday evening next week (January 12-15), and guests are always welcome to attend the Arctic Circle meeting if they are interested.
Thanks very much!
Janice Lang
Janice.Lang@drdc-rddc.gc.ca Telephone 613-998-2815; Facsimile 613-998-2675

CREATING A MUSEUM AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD: TANQUARY FIORD, JULY 2008
The Defence Research Board’s scientific activities on northern Ellesmere Island from the early 1950s until 1970 left behind equipment, machinery and other articles of daily operations. Emily Cowall spent July 2008 at the former DRB base camp in Tanquary Fiord, now the gateway to Quttinirpaaq National Park, as a volunteer visitor services and heritage presentation worker for Parks Canada. Her role was to assess the collection of DRB artifacts and initiate development of a museum that will not only be a permanent record of DRB’s “Operation Tanquary” but will also attract the attention of park visitors to part of our Arctic heritage.

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Deaths:

GARROW, Emmett Peacefully, in hospital on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008, Emmett Garrow in his 69th year. Beloved husband of Michelle (Mimi). Loving father of Shelley (Donald Legare) and devoted grandfather of Brandon. Pre-deceased by his father, Percy Garrow and mother, Margaret Garrow (McIntyre). Survived by step-mother, Irene Garrow (Gauthier), sisters, Suzanne (Kevin Healey), Brenda (Tom O'Connor) and brother Terry. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Memorial Mass will be held at St. Gabriel's Roman Catholic Church, 55 Appleford Street, on Wednesday, December 10th at 11:00 a.m. Reception to follow. As an expression of sympathy, memorial donations can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society. Online tributes may be sent to www.mem.com

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Until next month, sincerely,
Jim Sawtell

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POSTSCRIPT, Jan. 18, 2009

Creating a Museum at the Top of the World at Tanquary Fiord

On 13 January, 2009, Emily Cowall gave a talk to the Arctic Circle (a long-standing Ottawa club) on her work at Tanquary Fiord on northern Ellesmere Island. From the 1950’s to the 1970’s, DRB conducted research in the area and left behind equipment, machinery and articles of daily operations, much of which is still there. Tanquary Fiord is now the gateway to Quttinirpaaq National Park. Ms. Cowall worked there in July 2008 as a volunteer with Parks Canada assessing the collection of DRB artifacts and initiating development of a museum to display the artifacts.

Before her visit to Ottawa, Ms. Cowall expressed an interest in meeting anyone who had been in the North and could assist her in identifying artifacts. The obvious person for her to talk to was John Keys, one of the team who spent many years at Tanquary and was able to provide the history as well as identifying artifacts that remain there.

As John recalled, the camp was set up in 1962 by Moira Dunbar and Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith on a site chosen by Ms. Dunbar who travelled at the time on the icebreaker, Sir John A. MacDonald. They belonged to a geophysical research group at DRB Headquarters. Hattersley-Smith enlisted Harold Serson from DRTE. About 1967, the group was transferred to DRTE where there were the resources necessary for providing logistic and mechanical support. John Keys spent the summer of 1965 at the camp and was transferred permanently in 1967. The camp was maintained and used until the mid-1970s when Hattersley-Smith and Serson were moved to Esquimalt . When the camp was abandoned, Keys made arrangements to have it transferred to the Polar Continental Shelf Project. A couple of years later it was sold to Parks Canada for $1.00.

A great variety of research projects was carried out and the camp provided all the logistics for them as well as another camp at Lake Hazen. Serson and Keys with two summer student were involved in oceanographic measurements. Scientists at McGill were deeply interested. Studies carried out included all sorts of marine biology, the albedo from the ice, mosses, Paleo Eskimos and, at Lake Hazen, the reproduction of insects, particularly mosquitoes.
When the camp was abandoned, a lot of equipment was left behind. In addition, a lot more equipment was left by people heading for the North Pole. Parks Canada is in the process of converting a storage building into a museum to preserve and display the artifacts. With the aid of their slide sets, Keys and Ms. Cowall identified many of the artifacts. There were 8 to 10 snowmobiles, generators, 2 tractors, Coleman stoves, lamps, heaters, and gear such as tools, spare parts, ropes and pulleys. A large boat equipped with a diesel engine was not used because it was too heavy to haul out on the shore. Two freight canoes with 5 and 10 hp motors were more practical. In addition there were tons of food, some of it preserved by a freeze-dried process developed by DRB Medical Labs in Toronto. Consumables were acquired from Devines in Ottawa, a high end food store. Sardines and pilot biscuits were staples in their diet. Ketchup gave them problems because it quickly froze, breaking the bottle. All in all, it was a profitable fishing trip for Ms. Cowall and a chance for John Keys to reminisce about his adventurous life in the North.