A Life in the Woods: Bob Wallace

Peter Chapman: Did you have a special instrument there for spotting the fires?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yes. We had the alidade of course.
Peter Chapman: Describe that to me please.
Bob Wallace: Oh, boy, well there's a big rounded table and your map sits on the table. Your map of the country with all of the creeks. Its an aerial photograph and then in the centre you have an alidade, a sort of triangle thing you look through and you move it on your map anywhere you spot some smoke. You line it up look through the alidade thing, look through the peep holes. You look on your map. There it is. The map shows it. 320 degrees and 5 minutes or 10 minutes or whatever it is. Or 280 degrees or 115 degrees or whatever your alidade happens to stop at. Yeah. In the spring time that had to be attended by one of the astrologer guys.
Peter Chapman: They'd set it up for you?
Bob Wallace: Yeah, with the north star. Yep. That way your creeks were all in the right position. Everything is in the right degree. And then Kaslo had a map too, you know, the same kind of map, and they could just look at that one. "Oh, its 260 degrees, of there it is right there. Oh, we know now where it is."
Peter Chapman: That would give you the bearing, but would it have to be spotted from two lookouts to locate it exactly?
Bob Wallace: No. No. On [] if it was heavy smoke, that's a nice advantage to lookouts, because if it was [], it's pretty hard to tell just which way its coming from. But if you could see the actual smoke at the base, it doesn't matter. It gives you an exact reading.
Peter Chapman: And I guess you'd know which creek or basin it ---
Bob Wallace: Oh, well it was right on your map where the alidade points to. Seven Mile Creek or Ten Mile Creek.
Peter Chapman: There must be a few tricks to it. Sometimes the mist on mountains could fool you.
Bob Wallace: You're darn right. You've got to get used to that.
Peter Chapman: How could you tell.
Bob Wallace: Well, you just have to hold your shirt on. If it gets too persistent, then you have to start worrying about it. But it gives an idea by the way it moves. Smoke moved a little bit different. There are some mists that rise out of the hills like smoke. You kind of know after a bit though, that its not smoke.
Peter Chapman: What about at night during lightning storms. Do you have some ways of marking the strikes?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Use the alidade again and a lamp. So long as the fire is burning and you can see the flame. If you couldn't see the flame of course it was different. You've have to wait until the morning and find the smoke. Some fires just blaze up quick and then die down, but they're still there smoldering. Then they show up again later. Some fires of course take right off.
Peter Chapman: Did you work on other lookouts besides Bear? Did you work on Lavina?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. One year there. One year up here on Buchanan. And I was down on MacGregor for half a year I think.
Peter Chapman: MacGregor?
Bob Wallace: That's down Kootenay Lake towards Creston.
Peter Chapman: I don't know about that one.
Bob Wallace: On this side of the lake.
Peter Chapman: Below the West Arm?
Bob Wallace: Oh, way down the lake.
Peter Chapman: How could you get there?
Bob Wallace: By rail or by boat. They had a stopping place there. I can't remember the name of the stopping place. The train stopped there once in a while.
Peter Chapman: Were all the lookouts the same?
Bob Wallace: Oh, no, the manufactured ones were, all the same style. The first year we used tents.
Peter Chapman: Just living in a tent?
Bob Wallace: They blow down on you and get wet. Son of a gun.
Peter Chapman: Did you ever have your tent blow down on you when you were working there?
Bob Wallace: I was never under a tent, I was lucky, I had my cabin up at Bear Creek. On the other ones, ones that were built by the Forest Service. No I never had to camp out in tents.

Peter Chapman: What was your first job with the Forest Service?
Bob Wallace: Maintenance. Looking after boats, painting boats, trail work, things. My first real situation was lookoutman of course, up Bear Creek Lookout. That was my summers job after the spring work. I think I was three years on that.
Peter Chapman: Were you the first one? Was it just established the summer you went there?
Bob Wallace: Yup. It was me that built it. Me and a couple of other guys, Sandy Mason and Abbey, young George Abbey.
Peter Chapman: Who had decided where it would be put?
Bob Wallace: Oh, I don't know. Palethorpe maybe, or Sinclair. Sinclair was the chief forester then. Old Sinclair.
Peter Chapman: Did you have to cut the trail up to the top?
Bob Wallace: Oh, no. It was a mining trail three-quarters of the way up. It wasn't a mining trail, it was a prospector's foot path. Horses could go up. But then we had to clear it the rest of the way up from his cabin, Arvid Tapinella.
Peter Chapman: What was the lookout like. How did you make the lookout?
Bob Wallace: One room log cabin and on the end the log work went up not to high, above the roof.
Peter Chapman: Were you above tree line there?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.
Peter Chapman: How did you get the logs up?
Bob Wallace: Block and tackle. No, we were still in trees, still in tree country but there wasn't anything big, it was all nice balsam. Dry balsam. You know how dry balsam is, nice and light. It wasn't too hard to handle. Three of us handled it pretty good.

Peter Chapman: From Bear Mountain where could you see?
Bob Wallace: Huh?
Peter Chapman: From Bear Lookout where could you see?
Bob Wallace: Just up and down the Duncan Valley. It just covered the valley. You couldn't see over the ranges or nothing.
Peter Chapman: And down Kootenay Lake?
Bob Wallace: No.
Peter Chapman: Could you see Lavina from there?
Bob Wallace: No. Oh, no. No, Lavina's a good one. You can see a lot of country there. At Bear Creek, you only got the valley, the Duncan River. Behind me was all glaciers and across the river from me there was more mountains, higher ones yet.
Peter Chapman: Across from you would have been the Wagner?
Bob Wallace: Yeah. In that direction. Yup. Mount Abbott. Mount Templeton. No, it was just the valley. That's all it took in.
Peter Chapman: Were there other lookouts that they tried and abandoned?
Bob Wallace: Up there? No. No. That was the only original one. Oh, they had a site on one, but it was too high.
Peter Chapman: Where was that?
Bob Wallace: Right opposite Bear Creek, Bear Lookout. Right next door to it, only it was a way to high. In the clouds. It was too high. It was in the cloud half the time. That's no good. So they decided on Bear Lookout. Mount Boley, that's where they figured on putting it first. Mount Boley was pretty high. Lots of goats. Lots of goats on Bear Creek too. Used to get on my roof and walk around on the roof.

Peter Chapman: Were bears much of a problem on the Duncan?
Bob Wallace: Bears?
Peter Chapman: Yup.
Bob Wallace: Oh, you had to watch them. Yup. Yup, had lots of them up there where the Bear Creek Lookout is. Had five up there, grizzles. I could see them all at one time, five of them. Whenever I went down to the water hole, I had to watch. I had to go down to the water hole half a mile, pack water up. I was up to the lookout, two of us packed to the lookout up there at Bear Creek and there was a strawberry patch up there. We were picking strawberries and this bear came out of the bush, his jaws were down and he was slobbering away and he saw us and he came for us. The other fella picked up his rifle and just put it by his side you know. Bang. Lucky. Got him right through the neck. [Laughs.] Saved our day. Yup.

Peter Chapman: You had both a telephone and a radio at Bear Lookout?
Bob Wallace: No, just a radio. At Lavina we had the both. We had to string it every spring, take it down every fall. Wind her up. Put it away for the winter.
Peter Chapman: What about the rest of the phone line? It stayed in place all winter?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah.
Peter Chapman: Did you have to do repair and maintenance on it.
Bob Wallace: Not after the fall. Nope. But Tomlinson used to do a lot of this, the Assistant Ranger. And the guys that broke it had to fix it up, like any logger hit it or something. It was their responsibility. Or else they didn't have no phone.
Peter Chapman: Did you carry a hand set to hook on to the phone to call in?
Bob Wallace: No. No. Not us. Harry Tomlinson was the phone man. He never touched the lines but he worked on the phones. Put new batteries every spring and stuff like that. And tuning in the bells. That was his job being an Assistant Ranger.
Peter Chapman: What was the last thing you said?
Bob Wallace: Tuning the bells.
Peter Chapman: Tuning them?
Bob Wallace: You know the bells go dull sometimes. You have to tune them in, get them sharp.
Peter Chapman: No I didn't know that.
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. All phones. This one even, this one had to be tuned when they put this one in. Took a screw driver and [Makes sound of twisting screw driver] make it a little louder. Harry used to do all the batteries and fix the phones.
Peter Chapman: That was quite a phone system. Where did it run?
Bob Wallace: Lardeau to Gerrard, that's the old CPR line, that part of it. And then we had a branch off from Howser Station over to Howser. From Howser down the lake a piece, then cross over to the other side of the lake and then down to Johnson's Landing, Birchdale and then from this end, at Howser, it went up to Healy's landing, across the other side of the lake.
Peter Chapman: What would you do if you were patrolling between the lake and Healy's landing and you found a fire?
Bob Wallace: What would we do? Run like a sun of a gun I guess. A lot depends. Do you mean a small fire?
Peter Chapman: What if it was a small fire.
Bob Wallace: Well, we would put it out. Which we did three or four times, put our own fire out. But it was a small fire though. It wasn't blazing up. No. Otherwise you'd have to go down and get on the phone and call Lardeau or Kaslo or someplace.
Peter Chapman: Where would you go to phone?
Bob Wallace: Wherever the nearest one was.
Peter Chapman: How many did they have along there?
Bob Wallace: Oh, every house had a phone.
Peter Chapman: But there weren't many houses there.
Bob Wallace: Oh, no. no. A long way away some of them were. That's all you could do.
Peter Chapman: There was one in Healy's Landing.
Bob Wallace: Yeah. oh yeah.
Peter Chapman: And there were phones in Howser.
Bob Wallace: Yeap.
Peter Chapman: But was there anything in between?
Bob Wallace: Yep. There was one at Howser Creek at the trappers cabin. And there was a government phone at the head of the lake. There was a little cabin there, if people were stuck in the night when the lake was rough.
Peter Chapman: Did that happen sometimes?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah, you could always stop at the cabin. I stopped there three or four times. Phone up to tell them I couldn't make it. She's to rough. "See you in the morning."
Peter Chapman: Did you like the job of patrolman?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Always something different. Always something exciting. Stepping on bears and getting chased by bears and getting treed. Watching the wolves along the creek. There was always something. Packing fire fighters back up of course and all the different characters. There was never a dull moment.

Peter Chapman: Did you ever see signs of the early mining days as you were working up to Duncan?
Bob Wallace: No not really, just around Bear Creek where the lookout was. They weren't mines, just claims, just prospector's claims. Holes in the ground and tunnels. Nothing right along the trail that showed much. It was all timbered in trees. There wasn't much mining up there. Just prospecting. There wasn't a mine in the country. Unless Glacier Creek might have been the first one and that was closer to civilization.
Peter Chapman: Someone told me, and I don't know if this was a story, but they told me that the trail was so well kept that the patrolman could ride a bicycle from the head of the lake to Healy's Landing.
Bob Wallace: From the head of the lake?
Peter Chapman: From the top of the lake to Healy's Landing.
Bob Wallace: Pretty well. I think so.
Peter Chapman: So there was both the trail and the river, but you would use the river?
Bob Wallace: Oh yes, the trail was only a narrow thing. Just a footpath.
Peter Chapman: Did it have to cross the river very often?
Bob Wallace: It didn't cross it at all.
Peter Chapman: But it would have had to cross at Howser Creek and East Creek.
Bob Wallace: Oh yes.
Peter Chapman: How would you get across there?
Bob Wallace: All the time I was there, there was always a bridge. Before then I don't know.
Peter Chapman: Were there cable crossings too?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Up the Duncan River there was. Oh, where was it? East River had a cable crossing there. You used to get your rear end washed every time you went across it. [Laughter.]
Peter Chapman: They didn't keep the cable taught enough?
Bob Wallace: That one wasn't [kept taught.] There was a cable at Fry Creek of course --- oh no I'm getting over to the Lardeau Valley now. Duncan only had that one.
Peter Chapman: Did you ever build cable crossings?
Bob Wallace: No. Oh. no. No I had nothing to do with that.

Peter Chapman: When you were on the lookout, you had to make a call every morning?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we had three times of day. Special hours. We had special times. Five in the afternoon or something. Twelve at noon or seven in the morning or something like that. They were vital calls, had to have them. And the rest were standbys. You had to tell them how the night processes. How the morning processed and how the afternoon was progressing. Kind of a weather report.
Peter Chapman: What happened if you missed the call?
Bob Wallace: They got kind of excited I guess. Started chewing their fingernails.
Peter Chapman: Did your radio ever go out for a period.
Bob Wallace: Oh, I think it did. Had to yell for batteries or something. Not very often, maybe a couple of times. Maybe a couple of times. I just can't remember what it was. Oh, they were pretty good. Didn't have much trouble with them. Old sets.
Peter Chapman: Did you ever meet other lookoutmen?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah.
Peter Chapman: Did you talk from one lookout to another on the radio?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. We used to sneak them in as much as we could.
Peter Chapman: How was that?
Bob Wallace: Get 'em off the beat. Early in the night. Eight o'clock or nine o'clock at night or something. Or very early in the morning before the big shots were up.
Peter Chapman: You'd get on the radio and chat?
Bob Wallace: Yeah. See what was happening. Yeah, I used to get Nakusp, New Denver, Revelstoke, oh I forget now. There was one down near Cranbrook too. I forget.
Peter Chapman: Would your radio carry down into the States?
Bob Wallace: No, I never got no calls from there.
Peter Chapman: And could you hear --- were all on the same frequency so you would hear the calls ---
Bob Wallace: Yeah.
Peter Chapman: From the other towers?
Bob Wallace: Yeah. We had that frequency of course. Yep. They were the only ones we could get of course.
Peter Chapman: So you would hear all the other towers making their morning ---
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Peter Chapman: Were there ways to pass the time when you weren't hauling water or at work?
Bob Wallace: Oh, I could do a little trail work. You take your shovel out or pick and work on the trail a little bit. I had a radio up there. Packed my radio up. Good reception up there.
Peter Chapman: You had to pack up all your food and kerosene and ---
Bob Wallace: Oh yeah, all on my back. Everything was packed up.
Peter Chapman: How often would they come up to supply you?
Bob Wallace: Oh, not very often. One a month. Unless I ran out of something. Then they would come, but I generally had enough. I generally ordered enough.
Peter Chapman: Did you have a wood stove to cook on?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Yup. They other ones I had propane. Just Bear Creek was wood. Propane. Yeah.

Peter Chapman: What was the patrolman's job?
Bob Wallace: Taking food up, taking stuff up to the gangs, trail work, opening up the trails and the river, keeping it open, blasting out log jams, looking for fires at the same time.
Peter Chapman: Was there a lot involved in keeping the river open?
Bob Wallace: How do you mean?
Peter Chapman: How did you keep the river open, what did you have to do?
Bob Wallace: Blasted it. Give it a shot of dynamite once in a while.
Peter Chapman: What blocked the river?
Bob Wallace: Trees. At high water, trees tumbled down into it. In then days there was a lot of water. It raised three or four feet in a day. The old Duncan River would come up. Lots of trees came down the river.
Peter Chapman: What part of the river did you have to keep open?
Bob Wallace: From Howser to Healy's Landing. That's counting the lake.
Peter Chapman: You didn't keep the lower part open from Kootenay Lake to Duncan Lake?
Bob Wallace: No, we had roads there, major roads.
Peter Chapman: Were they still running logs, floating them down the river in the spring?
Bob Wallace: When they started the sawmill. When the returned soldiers came back, from the war, I think there were six of them, something like that, started up this company, a lumber mill. Then they started --- it didn't come down the river, it came down the lake I think. I don't think they [] the river.
Peter Chapman: So in the spring after the high water was over you'd have to go up and clear out the log jams?
Bob Wallace: Oh yeah, during the summer. Oh. yeah.
Peter Chapman: You used dynamite.
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah.
Peter Chapman: Did you always have to use dynamite when you worked ---
Bob Wallace: Oh, used to blow her up. You pretty well had to. They were all twisted up. We'd have six or seven sticks of dynamite on the end of a long stick. It depended on the size of the tree. Under water like. Sometimes we'd have six sticks, sometimes ten sticks, tied on the end of this long pole. A long fuse. We'd get the pole and hook it was down way down into the jam, as far as we could get down to where the stuff was. We could see the logs there. Then we let her go.
Peter Chapman: Did you have a long fuse?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Some of them were six or seven or ten feet. It depends on the depth of the water.
Peter Chapman: How long would you have to get away from it?
Bob Wallace: Oh, not too far. The water kept it down pretty good.
Peter Chapman: Did you work at it from above or below?
Bob Wallace: Above, of this here boat, worked from the boat. The dynamite was in the boat, we had long poles in the boat and everything. Oh, no, had all our tools on board. As soon as we were ready to go, we'd light it and take off down the stream with the boat. Didn't blow up very far. The water pressure underneath you know kept it down. You'd just see WOOFF, then you'd start to see the stuff moving. Then it was time to go then, get out of the road.
Peter Chapman: Then all the logs would go down?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah, you'd have to go into a sheltered spot. Let the logs go by. Hoping that they would keep going. Sometimes they didn't of course and you had to blow them again further down the river.
Peter Chapman: So would you start at the top and work down?
Bob Wallace: No, start from the bottom, unless we were up there, then we had to work from the top down. Depends where you were.
Peter Chapman: What area were you responsible for patrolling?
Bob Wallace: Oh, from Howser up to the forks, the north fork and south fork of the river.
Peter Chapman: Did someone patrol above you?
Bob Wallace: No, I don't think so. They used to come over from Revelstoke maybe, I don't know. Or Golden. We never used to worry about that part of it. It was way beyond our district.
Peter Chapman: How many of you were patrolling that area?
Bob Wallace: Just the two of us.
Peter Chapman: And the other person was Harry Tomlinson?
Bob Wallace: No, Sandy Mason, old Sandy from Poplar Creek.

Peter Chapman: What were the river boats like?
Bob Wallace: Oh, but flat bottoms. What were they? Thirty-six foot I guess, three foot, four foot beam, four foot across.
Peter Chapman: Were they easy to handle?
Bob Wallace: Yeah. We had 24-horse Johnson motors. That's the old time Johnson you know, not the new kind. The old river things. They could suck up mud and stuff. I don't think they make them like that any more. Oh, they were great old motors, 20-horse, old Johnson. Used to hammer up the river there pretty good. That would take a big load in the boats too you know. Two zero six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve fourteen, oh, something like sixteen men out when there was a fire, fourteen, sixteen men and their supplies.

Peter Chapman: Did you ever have trouble with sunken logs in the river or sand banks?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Yep. Sand banks weren't so bad but logs were a little different. You'd get stuck on them sometimes. That's why you've got to know your channels, but your channels changed during the season. At high water it would be a different place. At low water you'd swing over to the other side, see. You had to use your paddle quite often. Shove it in to feel your depths as you were going along. I used to get Sandy to do that. "Hey, Bob, getting shallow, better get over." "Okay." Yeah, channels changed. One week it could be in one place, the next week it would be on another side. Kept you busy that way.
Peter Chapman: What about logs, sunken, if floating under the surface?
Bob Wallace: I just had that one that I run on top of. That was my own fault. I shouldn't have done it. This was across the river. I was coming down there at a pretty good speed. I thought I could run over it. But I didn't. I got right in the middle of it and I got stuck. We had to saw our way out of it. We sawed on half, one side, and it let that go and then we had to saw the other side and it let go, then oh, boy! The boat went up in the air and the water went up in the air and what was left of the log was underneath us. Didn't tip us though. Pretty near did. That old log let go, you know, come up, about came up through, but it rolled out from under our boat and away we went. That was about the only time. I've had little twigs under there and broke a shear pin or something you know, but not to get stuck like that. I always had a lot of shear pins.
Peter Chapman: Did you carry an extra propeller?
Bob Wallace: No, shear pins though. Had a whole sack full of them. We would have to change maybe three or four to a trip. Underwater sticks you know. The shear pin would get [] which was a good thing, because if the shear pin didn't break, the shaft sure would. I'd sooner the shear pin break.
Peter Chapman: Are you feeling like stopping now? I would ask a few more questions but I don't want to go on if you ---
Bob Wallace: I'll try again.
Peter Chapman: I was interested to know if in your years of working along the river you had to take various people up the river: District Foresters and other crews coming from Victoria?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. I had a passenger list. But mostly they came by their own. We had two boats you know. Tomlinson would most likely bring the big shots. It depended on the motors --- whether he had a motor that was running good. Or else it would be, "Bob, come on down. We have some passengers to go up."
Peter Chapman: What sort of passengers? What sort of people came through the Duncan?
Bob Wallace: Well, you know, Forestry guys. I've got their names. District Foresters. Radio technicians, building guys, water, taking readings and everything. Once in a while get a few strangers.
Peter Chapman: Did the Forest Service provide good provisions for you?
Bob Wallace: How do you mean?
Peter Chapman: You would be out on patrol for lengths of time and carry your own food with you.
Bob Wallace: Oh yeah.
Peter Chapman: Did the Forest Service provide the food?
Bob Wallace: Nope. Only on fires. No, we got nothing from them. No, we got nothing from them. We brought our own.
Peter Chapman: Did you fish along the river?
Bob Wallace: No. We got the odd one. We never fished. Sometimes when we got going up a jam we got fish. You know, the pressure of it would push them out. They were mostly white fish. Didn't care too much for them. There were no good Dollys or nothing like that.
Peter Chapman: Do you remember George Palethorpe?
Bob Wallace: Oh yeah. Oh yes. Pretty well. [Dog barks.] You know him?
Peter Chapman: I met him once.
Bob Wallace: That was enough eh?
Peter Chapman: Why do you say that?
Bob Wallace: Well, he was a tough guy, you know. Kind of a tough man to work with.
Peter Chapman: He'd been in the country a long time.
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Yup. The Rangers weren't too bad. They were a pretty good bunch. Old Jimmy Robinson was about the best of them all, I guess. He was really a man.
Peter Chapman: Where did he come from?
Bob Wallace: I don't know where he came from when he came here. After he left here he went to Kamloops. He was there for a few years until he retired. He was a good man, boy. He would give you anything.

Peter Chapman: How late in the season would you work with the Forest Service? How late in the season would the year go?
Bob Wallace: Oh, December, somewhere around there. Yep. A lot depended on the weather of course.
Peter Chapman: Do you remember some years when you were kept on because there were fires in the fall?
Bob Wallace: No. No. Just one year kept on over the winter. We were in the East Kootenays.
Peter Chapman: Why?
Bob Wallace: Working on Christmas trees.
Peter Chapman: On Christmas trees?
Bob Wallace: Yep. Growing Christmas trees. The way they do it there, they cut one tree off you know, they cut it about four feet off the ground and they leave three branches, about three, and those three branches grow into three more Christmas trees in the next few years. That was our job, making those Christmas trees.
Peter Chapman: Were you working for the Forest Service?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Then we burned slash too of course. [] Old slab piles and stuff. No, we spent a lot of time making Christmas trees. They were nice. A good idea too, instead of cutting the trees right down to the bottom, cut them three or four feet up, up where the branched are. Leave three branches up at the top and they grow three more trees. Three more trees on one stalk.
Peter Chapman: Did you do that more than one year?
Bob Wallace: Oh no.
Peter Chapman: What did you do in the off season?
Bob Wallace: I went on Unemployment. Yup. The Christmas tree job lasted until after Christmas. It got down to 53 below zero and our camp burned down at night. The tents caught afire. So we all pulled out of there and went home. Climbed into the truck. That was the end of that. That's how I got []. So we sang all the way home.
Peter Chapman: Was the whole crew from Kaslo?
Bob Wallace: No, no. Creston, Cranbrook, no, I forget now. Trail. Guess I was the only one. Yeah, I was the only one. Three from Nelson I think it was. That was the end of that job.
Peter Chapman: When did you finish working for the Forest Service?
Bob Wallace: Oh, I wouldn't know.
Peter Chapman: Were you working for them when the Duncan Dam was built?
Bob Wallace: Oh, no. I was in the government then, I guess. Or I was with the village.
Peter Chapman: Did you work for the village?
Bob Wallace: Nine years. Nine years in the village here. And I worked for the government on the road works. See '55 is it? '42, '52. Something like that I don't know. [] Yeah. Used to haul garbage, [] like I hear this morning out there. Garbage day. When I worked, you didn't get many fringe benefits. Any place. Not like you get now-a-days. And they're still not happy, still got to go on strike. More more more. [Clock strikes.] We never got nothing but we never seemed to be beefing about it. Didn't know any better, I guess. Didn't know any better. Are you taping that.

Peter Chapman: Being on the lookout must have put you in the middle of very intense storms at times.
Bob Wallace: Oh, yes they do.
Peter Chapman: What happened?
Bob Wallace: Oh, you would get the full blast of it. Lightning strikes up there are not long, you know. They are short little strikes because you are right up in the clouds. When they come down, they come down only about three feet, then bang. In the valley, they come down from way up in the cloud. Seems like they are a mile long, they come down to the earth. The ones up there are just psht, psht. Give you a real shock.
Peter Chapman: Could you feel the electricity?
Bob Wallace: Oh yes. Knives and forks and spoons, they shake around on your shelves. Your stove pipes go blue. Sparks going up and down them
Peter Chapman: That's quite extraordinary for someone to go from here up there as a lookout man and suddenly experience that. You must have been quite amazed to see that for the first time.
Bob Wallace: I guess so. I never used to care much. I used to go outside and say, "Come on, hit me again." Do it again.
Peter Chapman: Were you ever struck by lightning?
Bob Wallace: Yeah. Twice.
Peter Chapman: What happened?
Bob Wallace: Oh, I just got knocked down. It came right through my cabin roof and set the lookout afire. That was the first one. Then I got the fire out. I was looking around for any sparks and BANG. Another one came through the roof. And that one knocked me down the stairway, down to the cabin below. Then I left the whole works and went out of there until next morning, I came back up the hill again. The cabin was all a-screw, the windows were all yellow. The stove was blown apart, the telephone was blown apart, the guy wires were all burned up, the telephone line was burnt about two miles down the mountain. Oh, yep, quite excitin'.
Peter Chapman: How did you make your morning call then if that had happened?
Bob Wallace: Lucky, just lucky I guess, my radio was saved. I turned the radio on and that works. Amazing, eh. Yep, never touched the little radio I had there. The outside trimming was melted here and there on it, the metal trim on the edges, but the radio worked. So I called Lardeau and told them. To me, I don't think they were too sympathetic. [Laughter.]
Peter Chapman: What did they say?
Bob Wallace: They said, "How are you?" I said 'Oh, I'm pretty good. My feet are a little burnt and my heads a bit burnt." I could smell the hair. I said, "I'll stick it out here for a while, try it out," but I could only stay three days after that. I couldn't sleep. In the nighttime the breeze would blow. So I give it up. That was the end of the lookout business. Then I went on the patrol, on the river, steady.

Bob Wallace: Lots of goats. Lots of goats on Bear Creek too. Used to get on my roof and walk around on the roof.
Peter Chapman: They'd walk around on the roof of your lookout?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah.
Peter Chapman: When you were inside?
Bob Wallace: Oh, yeah. Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk.
Peter Chapman: Tin roof or shakes?
Bob Wallace: Shakes. They could jump up on it. I think it was mostly the kids.
Peter Chapman: Weren't they scared of you?
Bob Wallace: Oh, when I opened the door they were. Proohu. Banga banga banga banga, they were gone. [Laughter.] They hung around all the time. Not that scared.
Peter Chapman: Were any of the animals a nuisance to you?
Bob Wallace: Just pack rats. Just the pack rats. They were a nuisances, little beggars. They'd get into my pots and pans and food. Come through the canvas upstairs in the lookout part like. It was all canvassed in, instead of having walls it was canvas. And they had ways of getting into the house.
Peter Chapman: How did you keep them out or deal with them?
Bob Wallace: Actually, at night with a 22 and my flashlight. I used to wait for them and when I knew about where they were, I put my flashlight on them. Ahhhhh. Then I lined up my rifle in the flashlight and then bang. [Laughter.] Missed them more than I hit them of course. Kind of hard to line them up in the flashlight of course, your sights. Two little beady yes. Put a few air holes in the house. No, the bears never seemed to bother us. Never tried to break in. Which was a good thing for me or I'd have been a gonner with five grizzles around. No, just the little goats stayed up there, pitter pattered around the house. And the cougars of course, they were around there. They'd yowl at night. Purr. I kind of makes you wonder sometimes. Come pretty close. When you could hear them purring outside. Gotta have pretty good nerves all by yourself.
Peter Chapman: Did you mind being alone?
Bob Wallace: Oh, no. No. Didn't bother me much.