“I remember when the engineer started the fire in the powerhouse; I was the second guy in there with a fire extinguisher! The pickup fuel-up hoses were right next to the powerhouse so when he fueled up and pulled away the hose caught on his rear bumper. There were channels about a foot wide throughout the powerhouse for washing the floor and all those channels had gasoline in them. It darn near burned up the whole works; we got all the extinguishers from the hill, from all the machines, and finally put the fire out.

“One time they blasted on the hill; had the siren going and all the Eucs were parked down there by the shack. There were seven truck drivers sitting around a table in the center of the shack. I said to them, ‘you guys had better come out and get under the Eucs because they told me this is going to be a pretty good one.’ They said, ‘Oh, no, we’ll be okay here.’ When the blast went off a lump of ore came down right through the middle of the shack down, through the center of the table but miraculously none of the guys were hurt! They figured it weighed 300 pounds. After that blast, whenever they had a warning of a blast, they went under the Eucs right now!

“The Argonaut Mine shut down in about 1954 to 1955; I think everyone knew it was nearing the end. The equipment was taken to Texada Island. I worked for Harry for a short while up at the Strathcona Dam changing the swing shaft or some other jobs that needed to be done. Strathcona Dam rented some of the Argonaut equipment to use up there. Jackie Renwick monkey wrenched at the Spit, and years later he ended up as mechanical superintendent for Island Copper. Some of the Argonaut miners moved on to Texada Island.

"After the Argonaut I went to Menzies Bay but I was only there about a year and then I went to Camp 8 and then on to Elk River Timber. Angus is currently enjoying his retirement".

Glossary