The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1957, Blaðsíða 24

22
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1957
Walter Johnson, Prospector
by BERTHA DANIELSON JOHNSON
Walter Johnson’s discovery of nickel
in the Mystery-Moak Lakes area, and
the sale of claims to both International
Nickel and the Hudson Bay Mining
and Smelting companies have written
a new and different success story on
the eternal rocks of Manitoba’s Pre-
Cambrian Shield. We who live in Flin
Flon are glad to welcome Walter and
his wife, Effie, to our midst, but al-
though they are new-comers to our
northern town, Mr. Johnson is an old-
timer in the North.
Born in Iceland in 1887, Mr. John-
son came to America with his family
when he was six months old, and grew
up in what was then the Logberg
district, south and west of present
Calder, Saskatchewan. As a young man,
he farmed at Togo before volunteer-
ing for overseas service in World War
I. Returning to his former occupation
after his discharge, he realized that
his agricultural enterprise was doom-
ed to failure. One year, hail lashed his
crops; the next, frost wiped him out
completely. With characteristic initi-
ative he headed north of The Pas, to
wrest a living from the wilderness,
proceeding up the Hudson Bay rail-
day to Wekusko, mile 81, and thence
to the tiny settlement of Herb Lake,
twenty miles from steel, where he ar-
rived by horse-drawn sleigh, with a
single dollar in his pocket. By spring
he had a fabulous sum of $500.
Furthermore, he had turned a fascinat-
ed ear to all the mining and prospect-
ing stories abounding in the region
where the Bingo and Rex mines were
then producing.
Consequently, in the spring of 1924,
with a partner, Angus Woods, a grub-
stake, and a prospector’s hammer,
Johnson struck out in search of his
first ore body. That summer they lo-
cated a low grade gold property near
Herb Lake, which brought them
neither fortune nor fame.
For two years Johnson worked ait
the mines, and in the fall of 1926
when they ceased operations he turn-
ed to trapping with a partner, Bill
Colter.
Inexperienced, they found -the fur-
bearers elusive.
"We just couldn’t seem to catch up
with those foxes,” he now quips.
With a new partner, Dick Ellis,
Johnson turned optimistically to the
new mining field of Red Lake, Ontario.
They purchased a horse and sleigh in
Winnipeg, shipped them to Hudson,
Ontario, where they left the railhead,
to trek 150 miles through the wilder-
ness.
That summer they prospected the
area and f if tv miles to the east, suc-
ceeding in selling claims that realized
$8000. Investing part of -these riches,
they returned to Winnipeg, where -the
big copper discoveries at Flin Flon
and Sherridon had quickened the
pulses of prospectors and mining com-
panies. They re-invested a substantial
sum in the rocks, prospecting for two
years north of tlerb Lake.
In 1930, having spent their stake
and been advised of the bankruptcy of
-the company handling their invest-
ment, their fortune was at a low ebb.
All their wordly possessions consisted
of a silk tent, an outboard motor, and
a can of gasoline, which were in their