Item N-2022-003: 0870 - 96 C Hansen's first sawmill out Fort Simpson Airport road, Sawmill Creek, ca. 1942

• Graphic material

1 photograph : b&w negative ; 124 x 68 mm

Charlie's photo description: The shack is in the background with a window in it. That was
where the Brother was sleeping when we went to town one night. They wanted some little
lumber and some timbers. They sent a Brother out. He come there and he skidded logs for us and
then we sawed them. Kind of a deal we made and he maybe took out some for us too. He come
back there one night and here's one of them big trees fell right over the comer of the shack and
where his bed was. Of course, it couldn't bust the logs in the shack. He laughed and said, "You
see Charlie, somebody up there is looking after me". The other boys, they liked tents so they
stayed in tents. I had a little lumber shack on skids. We don't see it anyplace. Anyhow, I'm filing
the saw. My father-in-law is sitting there on the slab, part of his back to me. I can't see who's
over by the tractor there. But Isadore used to come out and he was the throttle man. He was
crippled with [suffered from] rheumatism and so on. Some days he would feel real bad and I just let him go and
run whatever his own speed was. So when he was like that I put him on the tractor seat there and
he pulled the throttle when he seen the saw going into the log. Gas was expensive in them days. I
ran out of gas and the Army sent me-I'm sawing some for them too---a truck down with two
barrels of gas. I didn't know it was truck gas and the tractor wasn't made for that type of gas. All
at once bang, sputter, bang. It bmned all the valves out ofit. Too high octane. Well I put new
ones in.
Caption Source: Charlie Hansen interview.
Photographer: likely Isidore Villeneuve but with a new sharper camera.