Norman Lubbock (Robbie) Robinson was born on July 18, 1890 in County Wicklow Ireland. He spent over two years with the Northwest Mounted Police prior to World War I, and then five years in the army; first with the 19th Alberta Dragoons and then with the British Army in 1915. After returning to Edmonton in 1919, he worked as an Inspector with the Soldiers Settlement Board before traveling to the Northwest Territories where he spent five years working as a trapper, guide and purser aboard the steamer "Mackenzie River." In 1925, he returned to Edmonton with the intention to rejoin the Northwest Mounted Police, however, due to poor eyesight he was denied a position. He moved to British Columbia where he married in November 1928 and operated a timber business near Kamloops. During the Depression, he accepted a position as a Game Warden with the British Columbia Provincial Game Department. He held this position until 1938 and worked in Kamloops, Quesnel and Lillooet, British Columbia. In 1938, Robinson and his wife moved to Ireland for two years where he worked for the Turf Development Board on Clonsast Bog in Leix, Ireland. They returned to Canada in 1940. At the time of his May 1952 death in Calgary at age 61, he was an employment claims officer for the Unemployment Insurance Commission.
Ole Lindberg moved to Canada from Sweden in 1910 and traveled west across Canada by working on the railway. He moved north from Edmonton in search of gold. Ole met Anna in 1921 and spent one winter living with her family. Eventually Ole and Anna married and had four children. Ole did some prospecting with men such as Dick Turner and Albert Faille, however he was primarily a trapper. In the 1940s, Ole began operating a barge to haul freight on the Mackenzie and Liard Rivers. Edwin Lindberg was born on June 16, 1929 near Blackstone. The family was forced to leave the Nahanni region in 1950 because of the tuberculosis epidemic. Ole and one of Edwin's brothers died during the epidemic and Edwin spent eight years in hospital in Edmonton. Following his release from hospital Edwin worked briefly at a power plant in Fort Simpson. He soon left that job and returned to the work of hauling freight on the Mackenzie River. In 1963, Edwin married Susan, a nurse in Fort Simpson and they lived on a tugboat until 1970. Edwin continued to run the freight business until 1978, when he and Susan returned to the Liard River and Nahanni Butte region. They were visited by many people and decided to turn their home into a lodge for tourists.
A.K. "Lex" Miller was born in northern Alberta and grew up in Edmonton. After graduating from high school, he joined the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), in order to earn money for university. He was hired by the Mackenzie River Transport Company, a division of the HBC, and worked as a checker and stenographer during the summers of 1940 to 1942. Following World War II, he returned to Edmonton to become a Chartered Accountant. Among his clients were the towns of Hay River and Fort Smith. In 1987, Miller was the spokesperson for the One Canada Party, a Conservative fringe group of the 1970s.
Knut H. Lang was born on July 21, 1895 in Silkeborg, Jutland, Denmark. He worked his way to Canada via land-clearing in England and as a farm labourer in New Zealand. In 1928, he came to the north by cutting timber for a ship's fuel as it travelled down the Mackenzie River. He eventually settled in Aklavik where he operated a small trading post and also worked as an independent trapper. He was elected to the Northwest Territories Council in August 1957 to represent the Mackenzie Delta and remained a member until the last session which closed in November 1963. He died on April 13, 1964 after a long illness.
John D. Nicholson was born in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1863. In 1885, he joined the North West Mounted Police and was stationed in Regina. Following his initial training, he was sent to Edmonton. As a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Officer, he was stationed in a number of locations including Battleford and Fort McLeod. In 1916, his station with the RCMP was taken over by the newly formed Alberta Provincial Police, whom he served with until his retirement in 1927. In 1929, his attention was directed toward the mineral surveying and prospecting industry in northern Canada and he accepted the position of Field Manager with the Mineral Belt Locators Syndicate. Following the discovery of pitchblende in the Great Bear Lake area in 1931, John Nicholson organized the Camsell River Mineral Syndicate. Using a large fishing boat and barge, he transported goods to and from prospecting camps and occasionally sold his services for information concerning possible discoveries. In 1934 W.G. "Bill" Stewart took a half interest in another barge and joined Nicholson in his transport and prospecting endeavors. He continued to work in the Great Bear Lake region until the discovery of gold near the Yellowknife River attracted him to Yellowknife. With the onset of World War II in 1939, John Nicholson rejoined the RCMP.
John Davids was born in Stornoway, Saskatchewan on July 23 1915; he was the eldest of seven children. His father was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as a maintenance man and tracklayer. Early in John's life, CPR transferred the Davids family to Hartney, Manitoba. In 1931, John developed an interest in constructing airplanes when he assisted Maurice Fry with the construction of Peintenpol CF-ARH. Later they constructed a Monocoupe. Although he enjoyed building airplanes and barnstorming, financial considerations required he take a job with Continental Auto Supply. During his employ with Continental he moved from Brandon to Regina and finally to Edmonton as Branch Manager. In World War II, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force where he served as a staff pilot and later as a conversion instructor. Soon after the war, John Davids began flying with Associated Airways Ltd., which later became Pacific Western Airlines. While working with Associated Airways, he met and married Coral Enzenauer. He was eventually promoted to the position of Chief Pilot of PWA's Northern Division, VFR Department. With a keen interest in the history of aviation, he researched and taped interviews for the Canadian Bush Pilot Flying Story Project. He was Secretary-Treasurer for the Edmonton Quarter Century Aviation Club (EQCAC) for many years and later became the Club's President. An avid writer and photographer, he published the EQCAC Newsletter for many years and compiled a collection of over 20,000 photographs including 10,000 slides and a few hundred feet of movies.
Curtis Leroy Merrill was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, on April 20, 1917. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts in Geology, and was a pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Merrill took part in two Canadian Expeditions to the Arctic Islands, and was a member of the 1949 Foxe Basin Expedition.
In 1952, Merrill began working for the Defense Research Board. In 1954, he was seconded to the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources to head a survey team which was sent to the Mackenzie Delta to find a location suitable for a new town site to replace Aklavik. The survey crew commenced work in March 1954 and focused their efforts upon three possible locations, the Husky site located at Husky Channel, East 3 and East 4. East 3, which was renamed Inuvik in 1957, was eventually chosen as the location of the new town site. Merrill led the project until 1956 when he was appointed District Administrator of the Mackenzie District and was transferred to Fort Smith. Merrill was transferred to Ottawa in 1963.
Curtis married Mary and they had six children: David, Bill, Robert (Bob), Greg, and Janice. After being transferred to Ottawa, the family lived near Wakefield, Quebec, and then along the Gatineau River. Curtis Merrill retired from the federal government in the late 1970s. In the mid to late 1990s, Curtis and Mary moved to Deep River, Ontario. Curtis Merrill died on September 22, 2010.
Carlton R. Appleby was a deckhand on the riverboat the 'Beaver Lake' during the summer of 1946. He traveled along the Athabasca and Slave Rivers for the summer and then boarded the 'Dease Lake' on September 1, 1946 and traveled to Fort Rae. During his time in the north, he also worked on the Yellowknife Hotel. He now resides in California.
Captain Lewis Royal Morton was born on January 18, 1883 in the County of Morton, Ontario. He joined the Northern Transportation Company (NTCL) in 1907. He served as port skipper for the NTCL and was skipper on the "Radium King," "Radium Queen" and for the Hudson's Bay Company boat the "Mackenzie River." His service with the Northern Transportation Company was broken only by a four-year service as a Lance Corporal in the Royal Engineers during World War I. Over the years he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Transportation Company Ltd. and the McGinnis Fish Company. He assisted in the building of many barges and boats, such as the "Porphyry," "George Askew" and "The Great Bear." He also assisted in the designs for the "Radium Gilbert" and the "Yellowknife." He traveled virtually every mile of waterway in the northwest, from the lower Peace River to the Mackenzie Delta. Captain Morton died in Surrey, British Columbia in 1980.
Brock Hagen Parsons, nicknamed “Rocky”, was born to Frederick and Mary Parsons in Rainy River, Ontario on October 22, 1926. Frederick was a railroader and the family moved to various small towns in Manitoba and northern Ontario as he was transferred every few years. In 1943, following his graduation from high school, Rocky enlisted in the Canadian army and served in World War II. After the war, he tried various things, including attending the University of Manitoba, mining in Flin Flon, and trapping.
Rocky started training for his private pilot’s licence in August 1949 at the Winnipeg Flying Club and received his licence (P-417) the following month. From 1949-51, he flew for Severn Trading in Ontario. Rocky was also the owner of his own Tiger Moth.
Rocky received his Commercial pilot’s licence (C-5667) in May 1951 and flew for Superior Airways from 1951-52 in the Port Arthur-Fort William (now Thunder Bay) area. In 1952, while in Port Arthur, he met his future wife, Mary. The two were married July 20, 1953 and had three girls, Catherine, Gwendolyn, and Elizabeth.
Hoping for a more stable life, Rocky joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1953 and was stationed at Claresholm, Alberta. It was here that Rocky was trained in navigation, something that became a point of professional pride and personal interest.
Rocky did not stay in the Air Force long, but accepted a job with Associated Airways. He and Mary moved to Yellowknife in the fall of 1953 and were transferred to Hay River a few months later. When their first baby was born and required medical treatment, the Parsons moved back to Ontario.
Later in 1954, Rocky accepted a job with Arctic Wings (Trans Air) and the family moved to Churchill, Manitoba, where they remained until 1964. Rocky achieved his Senior Commercial licence (WGS 635) in October 1960 and ran his own company, Arctic Airways, out of Churchill from 1960-1964. Notable experiences included flying Anglican Bishop of the Arctic Donald Marsh on his 6-week tours of the Keewatin and flying medevacs from various communities to the hospitals in Chesterfield Inlet or Churchill. Parsons is also remembered for making Christmas deliveries, as is told in the story “Baseball Bats for Christmas”, written by Michael Arvaarluk in 1990.
When the Parsons family left Churchill, they moved south to Sioux Lookout for a brief time. Rocky studied for his Airline Transport rating (WGA 869) in Winnipeg, earning it in December of 1964.
During 1965-66, Rocky flew for Nordair Ltd., based out of Montreal’s Dorval Airport and servicing mainly Iqaluit and the DEW Line. The family lived in Lachine, Quebec. In 1967, they returned to Yellowknife, when Rocky began working for Bob Engle and NWT Air. Yellowknife remained Rocky’s home for the rest of his life.
In 1970, Rocky moved over to Wardair, then became Chief Pilot of Northward Airlines from 1973 to 1977, during which time he was responsible for training young pilots. Although still living in Yellowknife, Rocky began doing more flights in the high Arctic, flying for Bradley Air (1977-78) and Kenn Borek Air (1978-83), including several trips to the North Pole. On a notable trip May 15, 1982, the Twin Otter went through the ice and although the aircraft was lost, Rocky was able to evacuate the passengers and crew in time. Rocky was also involved in a project with the Geological Survey of Canada, in which they landed on the ice about every 50 kilometers to take readings, all the way to the North Pole.
As he aged, Rocky reduced his work schedule and took contracts with several companies, including Laronge Airways, Nahanni Air, and North-Wright Airways. Throughout his career, Rocky had a strong work ethic of doing things properly and well. He took his responsibility for himself, his aircraft, and his passengers very seriously. This conscientiousness led to his decision to retire at the age of 65. He did not fly again.
Rocky was best known for his extensive experience with the Twin Otter aircraft, but he also piloted many other types of planes, including the Tiger Moth, Norseman, Bellanca Skyrocket, DC3, DC4, C46, Beechcraft Model 18, Single Otter, Bristol Freighter, Gulfstream 1, and Fokker F27. Rocky travelled to various locations for intensive training courses on many of the aircraft he flew.
In his private life, Rocky was a member of the Canadian Legion, Masonic Lodge 162 (Yellowknife), and Holy Trinity Anglican Church (Yellowknife). He enjoyed being outdoors camping, fishing, and canoeing, even toward the end of his life. Rocky was also an avid reader and enjoyed music. He took a keen interest in navigation, even while on the ground, collecting and using bubble sextants. He took great pride in his family and spending time with his grandchildren. Rocky died on July 30, 2019 at the age of 92.