Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
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Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Paul Emile Trudel was born July 24, 1892. He came to Fort Smith from Ottawa sometime in 1921. He had been in government since 1911, with the Department of the Interior, and had taken part in World War I. Around 1925 he was handling the accounting and bookkeeping out of the Fort Smith office. His immediate chief was J.A. McDougal, District Agent. The office staff also included Gerry Murphy and later, Mr. N.W."Wilf" Champagne. At that time, the Director, NWT and Yukon Branch, Department of the Interior, was O.S. Finnie. From 1931 to 1933 Paul Trudel acted as assistant to the Mining Recorder and Agent of Dominion Lands and Crown Timber. In 1934 he was transferred to Cameron Bay. By April 1935, according to a letter to his brother, Trudel states that the office is not very busy and that he may be returning to Fort Smith. By 1936 he had returned to Fort Smith as Assistant Mining Recorder to Division Head Austin L. Cumming; Dr. James Urquhart was the Acting District Agent. Increased activity and gold discoveries in the Great Slave Lake area created speculation that an office would open at Yellowknife. In December 1939 he received a letter from Roy Gibson, Deputy Commissioner, Department of Mines and Resources, informing him that he and Lloyd Bonnyman were to assist Mr. Gibben in opening up a Yellowknife office in the summer of 1940. He moved to Yellowknife in July 1940 working as the Acting Mining Recorder. In November 1940 Paul Trudel married Dorris Jansen, formerly of Minneapolis, Minnesota. After a period of courtship by mail, she flew to Yellowknife with the wedding cake. Dorris and Paul Trudel had two children, Karen and Suzanne. Paul Trudel was officially appointed as Acting Mining Recorder, Agent Dominion Lands and Crown Timber Agent as well as Inspector of Yellowknife Liquor Store in September 1942. The duties of staking and recording of mineral claims, issuing certificates of work abstracts and recording of transfers increased rapidly in the next two years. In October 1944, due to health problems, he and his family left Yellowknife and returned to Ottawa where he continued to work for the Department of Mines and Resources. Fred Fraser replaced him in Yellowknife that year. On April 16, 1948, Paul Trudel was appointed Mining Recorder of the Arctic and Hudson Bay Mining District of the Northwest Territories. He held the position until his death in 1952 after over 40 years of public service.