Showing 28 results

Authority record
Robinson, Norman
Person

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.

Norbert, Nap
Person

Nap Norbert was born in Tsiigehtchic (Arctic Red River) on January 29, 1917. His parents were Manual and Caroline Norbert. Nap had two sisters, Agnes and Mary Anne, and one brother Harry. Nap's mother, Caroline married Louis Cardinal after Manual Norbert died. Caroline and Louis had four children, Sonny, Billy, Alma and Rose Cardinal. Nap's stepfather, Louis Cardinal had six children with his first wife Catherine Firth: Agnes (Cardinal) Blake of Fort McPherson, Ethel Cardinal, Violet (Cardinal) Jerome of Inuvik, Rudolph, Alice Margaret and adopted son John. Nap attended school in Fort Providence for approximately five years, returning home to Tsiigehtchic in 1929. He married Mary Norman in 1940 and they had seven children: Henry, Caroline, Bertha, Agnes, Archie, Lucy and Annie Rose. After Mary Norbert died, Nap married Annie (Moses) Niditchie of Tsiigehtchic in 1952. Annie and Nap had three children: James, Lawrence and Dennis. Nap Norbert spent approximately 15 years working on boats operating on the Mackenzie River. During this period, he spent some time working on the "Pelican Rapids", a Hudson's Bay Company boat. During the winter, Nap earned a living as a hunter and trapper. Nap Norbert passed away in 200[3?].

Lindberg (family)
Family

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.

Kraus (family)
Family

Gus Kraus was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA on October 28, 1898. In 1916 at the age of 18 he left Chicago and headed north to Alberta with his brother Joe to homestead in the Peace River area. After about ten years Gus travelled further north to the Northwest Territories, where he prospected and trapped in the Nahanni region beginning around 1934.

Mary Kraus (nee Denya) was born in 1912 near Fort Liard. Orphaned at the age of two, she was raised by family for several years until she went to a convent [Fort Simpson or Fort Providence?] for six years. In her earlier years she primarily lived on the land with her family in the Nahanni region. She was fluent in English, French and South Slavey.

Mary and Gus met when a forest fire in the Nahanni region in the summer of 1942 destroyed much of Gus' belongings, while they were able to save Mary's goods on an island on the Liard River. They formed a partnership and were married, eventually adopting a son, Mickey. They resided at Gus' lease at the Liard Hot Springs (now named the Kraus Hot Springs) in winter, where they trapped, and Nahanni Butte where in the summers they cooked for oil exploration crews. Their hospitality was well-known, and they received many visitors, including Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. When the Nahanni National Park was created in 1971, the Krauses resettled at Little Doctor Lake, where they continued to receive many of the tourists and visitors who came to the region until they resettled closer to Nahanni Butte in 1989.

Gus Kraus died at the Fort Simpson hospital on December 1, 1992. Mary Kraus died in Fort Simpson in November 2007.

Lang, Knut
Person

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.

Knox, John
Person · 1885-1976

John Armour Knox was born on April 13, 1885 in Ireland to John Leon Knox and Julia Knox (nee Ellis). He moved to the Northwest Territories and became a trapper in the Fort Resolution region in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1929, he was appointed Game Officer of Fort Smith. He died in December 1976.

Conibear (family)
Family

Frank Conibear was born in Plymouth England on August 23, 1896, but moved to Ontario with his family when he was three. His family settled in Fort Resolution in 1912, becoming the first independent white family to settle in the Northwest Territories. In 1916, the Conibear's relocated to Fort Smith. At this time, he set up his own trapline on the Talston River, which gradually became extended 320 km into the barrenlands. He earned extra income by acting as a guide during the summers for mineral and survey crews. While in Minnesota, in 1923, Frank Conibear met and married Cecelia Powell, returning to Fort Smith to live. In their time, Frank and Cecelia also owned and managed a hotel and cafe. While operating his trapline Frank became concerned with the use of leg-hold traps. He considered the leg-hold trap to be inhumane and following his discharge from the Canadian Army in 1919, he began work on a replacement to the leg-hold trap. By the 1950s, he had perfected his trap and in 1958, a company began mass production of the Conibear trap utilized by most trappers. He died in March, 1988 at the age of 91.

Faille, Albert
Person

Albert Faille was born in 1888 and was raised by foster parents on a farm in New Salem, Pennsylvania. He never knew his real parents and at the age of 8, left the care of his foster parents and ended up in Tower, Minnesota where he was looked after by a hobo who taught him how to trap. Faille spent his youth employed in lumber camps, as a tourist guide on canoe trips and trapping. During World War I, he went to France with the United States Forestry Engineers. Upon his return in 1918, he married Marion Carlson and moved to Winton, Minnesota where he continued to trap, guide and cut timber for the St. Croix Lumber Mill. Marion gave birth to a baby boy named Harry but when the lumber mill closed Albert Faille and his partner Fred Mayo left Minnesota and moved to the Northwest Territories where they spent the winter trapping on the Beaver River. Faille sent for his wife and son during this time, however, she refused to move to the north. He spent almost 50 years as a trapper and prospector in the Fort Simpson - Nahanni Butte area. He was known as an excellent woodsman and for his navigation of fast flowing mountain streams. In the winter he trapped fur-bearing animals in order to pay for his supplies and equipment. In his later years and after a back injury prevented him from travelling on the Nahanni in his search for gold, Albert Faille, worked for Dr. Truesdell, the Indian Agent in Fort Simpson, as his boat engineer and handyman. After the doctor retired, Albert took odd jobs as a river guide, store clerk, caretaker and weekend jailer, however, once his back was healed he began to travel the waters of the Nahanni again. In 1961, the National Film Board produced a film documenting Faille's repeated attempts to find gold in the upper reaches of the Nahanni. There was no script, the crew merely filmed what took place during the eight week trip. Albert took his boat through heavy six foot waves at Figure Eight Rapids and carried his gear including a 70 lb. motor around Virginia Falls. The eighteen minute short film won numerous awards and brought the Nahanni Region into the spotlight. Albert Faille died on December 31, 1973.