It was late September 1977 when we  arrived back in Yellowknife, having finished  two tanks in Ft. McPherson NWT. BUT now there was Sachs Harbour to complete before the Arctic winds howled.

 I stayed in Yellowknife with the children, who were in the  most beautiful  and modern  school they ever attended, in their travels.

Sachs Harbor, is situated on the south coast of Banks Island, the most northern  

community in the Northwest Territories .  It was known as the White Fox capital and also has half of the entire Musk Ox population.  Population is 125, not sure how current that is.

Alex must have flown in there earlier in the year, because I know his original coil un-winder was shipped in there, and actually never came out again.  I wonder what the hamlet  did with it. Is it rusting on the tundra? are the musk ox checking it out?

On his first trip he was privileged to stay with an elder whose name was Suzy. She graciously served him southern breakfasts of bacon and eggs, and he had delicious meals of musk ox, which was as good as beef, in Alex’s opinion.

Suzy brought out her photo album and Alex being very curious and not shy, started firing questions to her.  He saw a photo of a smartly dressed couple in suits, unmistakably  on the streets of San Francisco. His impression would have been  a professional Asian couple,but he asked who they were.  She said    “this is me and my first husband, Fred Carpenter”.

“What year  was this , Suzy”?

Her response of 1937, sent Alex’s  brain into a tailspin trying to decide if there would have been planes out of this most remote place in that year.

“How did you get there?” he asked.

  “Oh the North Star” said Suzy.  What was the North Star?

Alex felt privileged to learn first hand, about the fascinating history of this community on the southern side of Bank Island,  325 miles north of Inuvik.  The Arctic fox were abundant on the Island  and once a year a large 600 ton ship, the Patterson, came from California and bought their furs, for a fashion crazy world., with US dollars.  She told him,  we didn’t know we were Canadian at that time. Canada Revenue Agency hadn’t found them. It was the same captain that came every year, and of course the whole community was dependent upon him coming, in late summer, when the ice had melted and before it froze up again.  Only a window of several weeks was available.

 One summer  this beloved captain’s wife arrived to tell them her husband had died and would not be coming.
What a gracious effort on her part. The Patterson a large ship  obviously, brought  the North Star, a triple mast schooner on it’s deck  to Sach’s Harbor.

It was in 1936,( think  of the turmoil in Europe with Hitler rising to power) that Fred and Suzy started the yearly  trip with the furs, up around Alaska all the way to California, charting with a sexton  and the stars. Who taught Fred that?

Alex was humbled not having any knowledge of this.  While in Victoria in  the 1990’s, imagine how surprised we were to find this very ship in the Victoria Harbor .  The current owners lived in it and according to my research  it is now harboring in Vancouver area. ( Isn’t history grand?)

 Now getting back to the rest of the story, mobilizing his crew  up there to build the tank,  before winter.

Apparently, Ernie, our welder,  complained anxiously the whole flight to Inuvik, because Alex had not made any reservations or confirmed where they would stay in Sachs Harbour. As they sat in the Inuvik airport waiting for the flight to Sachs, Ernie  threatened,

“I am not getting on that plane until I know there is a place to stay!”. I am certain Bob Whiteway, the third member of the crew was ‘cool” as usual.

Alex sheepishly admitted he had called the White Fox Inn and the number was disconnected (out of business ) As time went by, Alex realized he might have a mutiny on his hands but assured Ernie he could get back on the plane they had arrived on, to return to the “south”  in this case  south  being Yellowknife.

Just about then, a gentleman  with a clerical collar strolled through the tiny terminal and noticed they were waiting on the bench that was for the Sachs Harbor plane.

 ” I see you are going to Sachs, where are you staying? “asked the priest.  Alex admitted there were no arrangements.

 “You can stay with me in the manse, there is lots of room and I can cook for you.!!” Alex once told me,  so often I make the right “mistakes” Not many people would fly into such a tiny Arctic place with no arrangements. He did not know that he could call the local Catholic priest for bed and breakfast.

“How is that Ernie?”   Ernie shrugged and grinned, wondering , how does he, Alex, do it?

One day, while waiting for the  use of the hamlets front end loader, Alex decide to take a stroll onto the tundra. Well, when he got back, he got quite a tongue lashing, seeing he carried no gun.

“what were you planning to do if you saw a polar bear, “they grilled him?  “Run” said Alex,   He got a look of total disgust, that one could be so dumb.  You would never out run a polar bear.

“If you did have a gun, where would you aim?”   “At his head”, Alex probably shrugged.

NO, NO,  his front leg,  said the experts, ” so that he would be distracted  with his leg and then you aim for his head.”  How ever would a East York boy know that?

I think it was Bob Whiteway who shared this. One morning at breakfast,  their  hospitable priest, said ,

“Well I have to go out and baptize some babies, I can just see Alex rolling his eyes”.  I take from that they had been some discussions of a doctrinal nature.

Again, it had been a rich experience for Alex, having heard some very remarkable stories of the old days, when the whole community waited to “hear” where the caribou or other animals (food supply) were. They sensed they were connected with the Source.

I like the first hand story of  Alex’s brother Dave ,who was on a hunt with snowmobiles and a group of Inuit men,  in  another community. They were looking for a cache of gasoline left on the tundra and the sun had gone down and they hadn’t located it.  Now, to his amazement and consternation they stopped to build a fire and make tea.

“Why are you stopping now,?” asked the  anxious southerner.

 “Waiting for the stars to come out”, was the reply.

Sure enough ,after dark, they drove directly to the spot  in a vast wilderness of nothing.I love it!  We have to admit we have great gaps in our education.

 I tell our Inuit son Tim, that he may very well have remarkable gifts that his white father couldn’t teach him.

                     ALL PHOTOS ON THIS POST FROM THE WEB                                                                                                                                                       Musk Ox Grazing  (right)