Flin Flon Station Museum

FLIN FLON STATION MUSEUM - by G.B. Reid

Ron Dodds

When I look at our Flin Flon Station Museum which is now nestled into what was known as the Lions Park and also the home of Tourist Information, this has slowly grown into an interesting and a very important asset to our community. When you think that at one time in the early days of Flin Flon, each and every individual that came here to visit or work, passed through the doors of this building. This building was erected in 1934 in the early days of Flin Flon, and remained operational as a station until into the 70’s. After the conclusion of the operation of the rail liner and more freight being moved by truck, this building was no more a valued part of our community. In 1984 this building was partially dismantled and moved to its present site where it was reassembled on a new foundation and became what we know today as the Flin Flon Station Museum. This building has taken on a whole new role and a whole new meaning in our community. The lights are back on. This building is part of our heritage and our future, thanks to people like Red McIntosh, who originally started a museum on the Cliff Lake Road which today is the home of the SPCA; also, the efforts of Gene Kostuchuk, Bunny Burke, Ron Dodds, and Wally Lylyk of Beech Electric and the volunteer efforts of his equipment and number of hours and contributions that he has made to our community. I felt that it was time that I sat down and talk to someone that is deeply involved with the day to day procedures that go on at our local Museum and that happens to be Ron Dodds.

This photo shows the passenger train crossing the railroad bridge that spans across Schist Lake in Channing. When you think back and realize that this was one of the two links that served Flin Flon in the early days, the only other option was a plane which back in the early days was very expensive and scheduled flights did not come until later years.

Ron Dodds was born in Flin Flon on June 17, 1937 and he has worked and lived in our community for the majority of his working lifetime. His contributions to the Flin Flon Boardwalk and the Museum are something that I feel too few people know, to the extent that he has volunteered his time. When you look at these two areas, it probably does more to tell about our past and display the things that we can be proud of. Our Boardwalk is well worth the hour or two that it takes to walk it on a nice spring, summer or fall day, evening or early morning, something that you cannot help but admire the thought and effort that has been employed by a few to make our community a more beautiful place. I know Ron enjoys seeing these projects grow for the benefit of the people and the community.

When I first came to Flin Flon, I remember each and every summer, the Churchill Excursion which was operated by CN and now known as Via Rail, would bring a train load of tourists to Flin Flon en-route to Churchill, Manitoba. They would lay over here for approximately 24 hours, and the individuals on the tour were treated to northern hospitality. I recall Ron’s father, Art Dodds, co-ordinating these events. Ron also tells a story of when he was about 2 years old making his trip to the station platform at about train time, but instead of walking on the platform, Ron looked at the track as more of a challenge. What he was unaware of was that the train was making its way into the station and the next thing Ron knew, he was being scooped off the track by a bystander known as Mitzi Stein. She loved kids, and thank goodness she was there to scoop Ron off the track, so as you can see the CN station and now the Station Museum has been a part of Ron’s life for a long time. When Mitzi found out who Ron was and returned him to his home on Church St., his mother Rae and Mitzi then became lifetime friends.

Ron has many interesting stories about many of the articles that are part of our museum today. One he related to me was about when he and Ivor Hedman rescued the old train from the beach at Phantom Lake. This train has a fairly interesting history that many people are not aware of. I understand in the beginning it was designed and built on the premises of H.B.M.&S. by their manpower, their material and their wages, like many other things in the early days of Flin Flon. I was told in the early days that this train operated in the old curling rink, beside what is the Whitney Forum of today. It was then moved to Phantom Lake where many kids rang the bell, and sat there eating hotdogs or ice cream and drinking pop. In the twilight days of Phantom Lake, the train was commencing to deteriorate. Thank goodness for the wisdom and determination of Ron and Ivor, it was removed and moved to the present Museum site. Each year at Xmas time when Ron and his Elves light this area for St. Nicholas’s visit, this small train makes a great center piece.

When Ron looks back to the early days of his career when he started as a gas jockey and tow truck driver for John Kepper, a span of approximately 2 years, he recalls one day when he was filling up a jeep for a gentleman who said to him: "How would you like to gas up airplanes"? This gentleman was looking for a dock man at the local water base in Channing, and this began Ron’s aviation career. Ron told me that in the early days, the airline company was known as Aero Airways, it then became Central Northern Airways, and then became TransAir Limited, of which I remember the old DC3’s coming in and out of Channing when I came to Flin Flon in 1957. When you look at the Channing strip, it is very much like a postage stamp compared to the runways of today. Thank goodness we had a lot of lake so the planes could get down in order to utilize the full runway. They were gravel as well... no hard top in those days. After 40 years of gassing airplanes, pumping floats, doing routine maintenance to landing gear, walking away from a plane crash and working as an expeditor for HBE&D, this has certainly made for a fairly full career and life.

After this, Ron moved onto a career with Hudson Bay Exploration & Development for 24 ½ years where he got to know every drill camp, bush camp, and everyone who needed a tent or supplies hauled. Ron was your man! He even spent time in the territories doing surveys for H.B.E.&D.

I think our community is very fortunate to have a senior who has worked in the community and retired, and has been willing to donate his time and efforts in making the community a more pleasant and interesting place to live. Ron outlined to me some of the work that he has in his shop at the Museum that needs to be done... new lights for the snowman, restoration of a 4 wheel drive truck known as the FWD that took over the freight haul to Island Falls in the 50’s. This truck was still operating and pulling sleighs to Island Falls in the winter of 1958, as I recall being pulled out of a snow bank by Frankie Blackman and Bob Hart who were the operators of this large 4 wheel drive. We were about 80 ft. off the trail and this truck hooked onto us and pulled us back onto the ice road like we were a little toy. Frank and Bob were the ice truckers of those days, pictured above with myself and Stuart Holmes wearing the tweed hat.

The old Station Museum, starting in late November and on into the first week of December, comes alive when Ron and his Elves begin to put together the display which is a centerpiece that our community can be proud of.

This here is Santa, standing on one of the sides of the Welcome Arch. It requires a fair amount of time to assemble, so as to make for the desired appearance. This is performed with a truck owned by Beech Electric which has a basket lift that is used to assemble the snowman and Santa Claus. This has been a yearly performance that Ron negotiates with Wally Lylyk of Beech Electric, and Ron said the pay is sandwiches and hot coffee, but also went on to say how much he appreciates it.

This was a train that was built and assembled by Bruce Joyner and donated to the display at the Museum, and it certainly helps to portray the Xmas spirit.

This is a perfect Xmas setting of the old Station, and the train that was once part of Phantom Lake sitting in front of the Station waiting for the arrival of St. Nicholas.

This photo illustrates the type of help and volunteer labor that Ron has been able to recruit to help this Xmas display become a reality each and every year. Ron says that Wally Lylyk of Beech Electric has volunteered his time and equipment, making this job much easier to accomplish. Without his support, it would take much longer and more difficult to perform as the volunteers are getting older and fewer.

This photo shows a Norseman Mark 5 which was part of the fleet of planes that Ron was responsible for fueling, loading and helping maintain.

This picture was taken when Ron was working on the Mid-Canada Line, based in Churchill, Manitoba. This is also a Norseman Mark 5, a very popular plane in the 40's & 50's.

The photo of this plane, known as the Blanca Air Bus, was taken at the Channing water base. You can see the CN bridge in the background. This was a fairly large, bulky, and heavy aircraft. Ron then worked for Parsons Airways for about a year as a dock hand, with similar duties as he had in his prior job. In January, 1961, Ron married Marian Strindlund and they later had 3 children, Tom, Bob & Ronilyn; and at this time, he decided to stay somewhat closer to home and took on employment with HBM&S in the Mill. This lasted for 2 ½ years, until the urge of flying and the smell of aviation fuel took Ron to HBAT (Hudson Bay Air Transport) at the Channing water base where he spent the next 3 years of his career. It was here that he decided to move onto bigger and better airplanes, and spent the next 6 years at the Flin Flon Airport. Ron then took on a bigger challenge and moved to Lynn Lake where he was Airport Manager for 3years. He loved the job and the work, but Sherritt Gordon was pulling out of Lynn Lake, and this meant no jobs and a horrendous downsizing to this community; so at that point in time, Ron packed up again and moved back to Flin Flon, and hired on with HBED (Hudson Bay Exploration & Development) where he worked as an expediter. This job consisted of moving diamond drills, supplying camps, transporting personnel... you name it, he did it. After Ron retired, he worked part time for Midwest Diamond Drilling, Raydor Resources and Murgor Resources in Flin Flon and Snow Lake, and his latest line of employment is working part time at the Flin Flon recyling depot. As you can see, Ron has had a fairly interesting career in aviation, diamond drilling and moving and locating bush camps.

This photo above shows Ron when he was working as a mechanic for Parsons Airways at the Channing water base.

This shows the HBAT water base in Channing where Ron spent 3 years. In the picture there is an Otter and a Beaver, and these were probably the two most popular aircraft used in Canada to help develop it's north.

This photo shows Ron, along with long time HBAT pilot, Bob Burgess, refueling in a remote area. Not many bush pilots have as many hours on a fixed wing aircraft as Bob has. When Bob was at the controls, you knew you were coming home.

This photo was taken by Ron of an exploration camp on the barren lands operated by HBE&D, with aerial surveys conducted by HBAT. This is at day break and the helicopter is moving over to pick up what is known as the bird, which is a rocket shaped electronic device used for electrical surveys to help them discover ore bodies.

Ron worked as a mechanic and ground crew on the above helicopter which he said he found a great experience.

I asked Ron about some of the experiences that he had in his career with all the flying in remote areas that he could recall. He said he could recall back in the fall of 1959 when they were moving a drill southwest of Thompson for Griffith Drilling, they had made four trips into the area and this was trip #5. This was a September fall day and all seemed to be going well. He was flying with a pilot by the name of Bert Warttig in a Norseman. They had fired the engine up on the plane on a river near a set of falls, and when they got the engine going, it just didn't sound quite right, but they gained rpm and it wasn't long until they were airborne. All seemed to be going well, but all of a sudden, he said there was oil coming up on the windshield. Bert called me to the front and said: “Ron, get a life jacket on, as I am going to try and make a lake and get this baby down." As we got closer to the lake, he had me helping him with the controls and I honestly believed that we weren't going to make it, as the engine was running rougher and you couldn't see anything for oil. We were getting closer to the lake but I was starting to realize that we were not going to make the water. I remember him pulling on the stick and saying “Will I see my Mother tonight?”. When you are young, this is something you never forget; however, we just made it over the trees and down into a swamp area surrounding the lake. All I can remember was hitting this swamp with a hell of a bang. We managed to still stay upright and eventually came to a stop. We got out and started to try to pull the plane to the shore as we had hit so hard, that we had split the floats. The area we came down in was rather remote. There was an old drill camp, once operated by Inco not too far away. It really did not provide us with any shelter or meet any of our needs. We sat there hoping that someone would see us or realize that we were missing. We did see one plane go over and did many things to try and get someones attention, but obviously, they didn't see us. We sat there for 39 hours... probably the longest 39 hours of my life. I only had three cigarettes and they were gone in the first hour. It was almost like being on a desert island without water. He recalls Bert sitting and wittling a piece of wood, and he appeared to be making a spoon. I asked him, what he planned on eating as we didn't have much food. We were thankful that we were down and okay, and 39 hours later, we were picked up by Rudy Hoffman in a Cessna 180 IXU, who flew for Parsons Airways based out of Thicket Portage. This was an experience that I will never forget. After that, I felt it was time for me to take on a job with somewhat less of a risk factor involved. I had many experiences with HBE&D as an expeditor, but most of it was on the ground, so one feels somewhat safer.

This shows Transair in the 70's which was serviced in Flin Flon and Lynn Lake.

This photo shows Pacific Western. Ron says when he looks back at some of the old propellor driven aircraft that were serving the north when he first became involved with aviation, and looks at the aircraft that serviced Flin Flon in the 70's and 80's, there has been a dramatic change. Today we are reverting back to turbo props and some small jets. He said it has been a great experience to have worked with them all.

This was one of the high points in Ron's volunteer service career when he received the Premier's Volunteer Service Award 2012 on April 17, 2012, from Premier Greg Selinger at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Ron also received an award from the local museum at Flinty's birthday party in the summer of 2012, and had his picture placed on the honor wall in the local museum.

I would like to thank Ron for sharing with us his memories of his career and the museum. Good luck Ron.