As it turns out our nice orderly question and answer session turned out to be a story swapping session for six guys who have not seen much of each other since 1957, when the mine closed and all the equipment was barged out from the Spit. What you will read in the following pages are excerpts of two hours of chatting over coffee and doughnuts, with some photos passed around to spark memories. The guys were in such a playful spirit by the time we came to the end of the session and we tried to take a group photo, the guys were acting more like a group of high school boys then the tough guys who had mined the Argonaut, almost fifty years ago. We hope you enjoy the following stories as much as we did.

Our thanks are extended to Angus Krug, Bob Jordan, Ernie Fedorkie, Stan Wall, Renner Hamilton and George Knowles for sharing their experiences, the fun times and the hard times working at the Argonaut. We regret not having the time to sit down individually with each of the guys, but we enjoyed every minute of the group interview and had just as much fun as they did, if not more.

The guys tell us about when they started at the Argonaut.

Ernie Fedorkie:

I started in 1951 and worked at the Argonaut until 1955.  When I started working there I was driving one of the, what do you call them mules and he, Vern, approached me right away and said, “are you going to drive?”  I said it was better then packing powder so he said, “you have to join the union because you have a machine there.”  Ten dollars to join and two dollars every pay check so I joined the Teamsters Union in 1952.

Renner worked at Argonaut from 1951 to 1957.  He mined in the beginning when the mine was in operation and then towards the end, when they were busy dismantling the mine and shipping out the equipment. He worked at the Spit with the outgoing equipment.  Renner worked the shovel at the mine while he was there. After the Argonaut closed he worked the copper mine at Mount Washington, did a stint in a coal mine in Alaska, then off to Port Hardy to work Island Copper for a bit and finished his career at Westmin.  Renner worked for Westmin for twenty years and retired on the very day he had put in twenty years, in 1986.

George started at the Argonaut in 1952 and was doing the last of the drilling in 1955 before they started to take the mine apart.  He worked as a drill helper and was trained by the company as a powder man and a driller. George was a member of the 602 Union.  When the Argonaut closed he went to Camp Five.

Stan Wall:

As a blaster at the Argonaut, Stan started working at the mine in 1951, continuing on there until 1953.  He was certified as a blaster with a certificate that was issued by the Workers Compensation Board and belonged to the Mine and Mill Workers Union, the Labourers Union. After his time at the Argonaut Stan worked at a few different places and at one point was an electrical foreman at Westmin

From 1951 to 1956 Bob worked at the Argonaut.  Of the three unions that were at the Argonaut he was in the Operating Engineers Union, Rock and Tunnel. Bob ran shovel, loaded ore and then went on to be a drill mechanic. He also repaired the pumps and all their rock drills, which were wagon drills, and were pushed around by hand.

Angus started out working down at the Spit and moved to the mine itself in 1952. He was there for about a year. After the mine closed down he worked at the Strathcona Dam, which a lot of the guys that worked the mine did. Angus was a shovel mechanic and had the distinction of being the youngest in the shop.

Ernie tells us a story about how the rumours of 'who went where' are not always as true as they sound.

Ernie:

Sometimes you wonder where the guys went.  Most of the guys are dead now.  I was up in the Peace River Country, I went north working on the dam, and there was this guy. . . I walked into the cookhouse around dinnertime and I looked around, and by God, there is someone I recognize, Harry. I went over and talked for a while, he had been there for two years, and I had never seen him. Someone told me later that he had died. I never saw him again until one day I was walking down the street, and who do I see walking down the road - Harry.

Pranks were apart of the social life at the mine just as much as getting work done.

Stan:

Sherman used to drive that little blue and green truck; he used to snoop all the time

George:

When he was on night shift he would sit behind the floodlight and watch to see if the drillers were working. He would sit there by the hour. We would turn on our mine lamps and be working around the drills, then take them off some place else, turn them out, leave them, and run back to the drills He would take his little truck and race down to try to catch us away from the drills.

Renner:

The first superintendent do you remember him? His name was Ryan. They had to send him back. 

Ernie:

They sent the wrong one back. There was one foreman that was there on the road and buses were picking up crew making sure that they all got on the bus. All the guys were getting on the bus and one was left on the side of the road. “How come you are not getting on the bus?” one fellow asked. “There is no room,” he replied and the foreman said, “just a minute.”  He got on the bus, looked around and said, “hey you, get off the bus, and turned around and said, “you get in.” He was a little guy, only about eighteen years old. This guy would choose anyone and he was the foreman so he had to do something.  The little fellow was working there, so he drove up on the bus and the foreman said “Hey mister, you try that one on me and you will not be here very long,” and the little fellow said, “you know what, I like that guy.” Oh yeah, that was the way it was you know.  Did not matter who you were and what your specialty was, if he just did not like you, you got kicked off the bus.