Barney Mulvaney
I have at hand a record of some of the old history written by Barney Mulvaney, the founder and once owner of Burns Lake and I will quote from his account.
“I first camped at Burns Lake in 1906 when I was making a dog team trip from Hazelton to the Nass River and back to Quesnel with inspector Ned Charleson. First Nations here at that time were Tommy Michell and Alex Michell with their wives and families. They could speak very little English and only a smattering of Chinook, which I was conversant with. These First Nations were in a destitute condition, living on fish, meat and dried berries. One horse was on the verge of starvation, so I bought it for dog food.”
It was until 1917 that the sale of lots was held in Burns Lake and the first hotel was built by Barney Mulvaney at about the same time. It was called The Cheslatta after Boss Carpenter and his sons who were the first settlers in the Cheslatta valley.
George McKenzie took over the hotel and sold it to Andy Ruddy in 1921. Another quote from Barney’s records.
“That night after a wild poker game in the drying town of Priestley I found myself the owner of all the tents with their contents and all their equipment.”
This was and still is the original site of Burns Lake. There are not too many towns that can boast having had the town site won in a poker game. I am left to wonder who the guy was who lost the game or how honest was the game. I have only quoted a very small part of this report of Barney’s and its all very interesting.
When I got into the taxi business in the 40s up to the 60s poker was the game, big time in Burns Lake. Every week there would be a big game either at ‘The Bucket of Blood’ downtown or on the island at Jack Wilkinson’s place. Three finger Jack was the nick name that Jack went under.
All the boys with the big money played at Jack’s. Jack McDougal was living at Francois Lake and he was my best customer as every weekend I would take him in for his big time poker game. Jack had been a big time gambler in the Yukon gold rush.
The story has it that he was at one time married to the lady known as ‘Lou,’ mentioned in Robert Service’s book of poems that are so well known. Service tells of the lady known as Lou in the shooting of Dan McGrew, one of my favourite poems.
Sometimes during the big games I would get called in to visit the bootlegger and pick up a few bottles of whiskey and maybe a case of beer or so. Lots of the players I would know very well but that was a secret I was sworn to keep and I did. I still remember the names. I never saw so much cash laying on the table in my life. This had always been an eye opener for me.
Brother Peter was driving cab for Carlson Bros. at the same time and he would take gamblers to different games. At one time there was a big team of horses, harness and all, put up in a game. This team had been won and lost so many times they almost could load by themselves. The team and harness were put up for a $1000.
Peter gave me the man’s name who had owned the team to start with but he would rather not mention it. Lots of the players would be drinking which was not very smart in a poker game. Jack McDougal told me he would never drink during a poker game and I guess he was smart. It’s interesting that both these two big time gamblers Jack McDougal and Jack Wilkinson were missing fingers on one hand but were still good poker players.
Jack was good to me and generous too. I never ever saw him smile or heard him laugh. He had a poker face which I guess goes with being a poker player. He only had a thumb and one finger on his right hand but he could do things with a deck of cards that would make your eyes pop out.
I asked him once how he had lost his middle finger and he would not tell me. I did hear he lost them in a big poker game at a big game in the Yukon. Jack was a real character and a kind of a guy if you met him you would not forget him.
Save water
I notice in our last paper about saving our drinking water. And telling us why we need to protect it? And why should we. There was a person on TV talking about this very thing and one thing he said and I quote “One of the greatest things that will be facing our world in the future will be the shortage of drinking water.”
A bit scary. I know we all ask how can this be? We look out and see our beautiful lakes, how can this happen to us. We are so fortunate to have our water. So many folks are now buying drinking water and I for one think to myself, how can this happen to us?
After coming from Saskatchewan where we came through the big dry where water was almost like gold.
When the rains came at last and things were normal again we would still have to be careful how we used water.
This last visit to the home place I noticed a large pond and in the middle was a big pipe running full bore clean, fresh water and I just could not believe what I saw. I was told as they were drilling for oil they hit an artesian well and they were selling water to the big oil drillers. And to think we were on top of an artesian well from 1906 when our dad homesteaded the Eyehill place to the time we left in 1941, over 60 years.
Nice visit
Last week we had the pleasure to have the Decker Lake choir come in for a visit to the Tweedsmuir House. It’s so uplifting to hear all the old hymns again. Thank you all.
Slow down as the roads are getting busy with the summer traffic. Remember the life you save could be your own. No matter what God loves you and so do I.
