Some memories from a long time ago.

My uncle with a Lynx he trapped.

That is the house I grew up in, the rifle is Dad's model 99 Savage 250-3000

Dad's trapping partner with three Wolf pelts and two Coyote pelts.


My dad threading a beaver pelt into a hoop stretcher.


My little brother playing with the day's catch. Fisher and Weasel.

He is gone now, died of exposure January 22 1973, on the trapline.

Me in my line cabin, (Main trapline cabin) January 1985


My trapping partners winters catch, March 2004


My neighbor with a wolf he shot in his front yard. October 2011

He now guides full time and specializes in Wolf hunts.

awesome pictures! Thank you for sharing these!

nice!

very cool

Wow
Just awesome pictures

Thanks for sharing them and very sorry to hear about your brother.
That is horrible.

Back in the day, thanks for sharing.

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing!

This^^^^^

Thanks so much for sharing something so alien to me and my life. Fascinating to see….greatly appreciated

He was the second. My older sister drowned befor I was born.

Ben, the brother in the photo was my best freind in the world. He was 16 when he passed.

I still miss him but the pain has lost it's edge.
I now have a grandson older then he was.

I wish I had more photos from back then but we lost most of them when our house burnt to the ground while I was in High School.

Even to me the way we lived back then seems almost alien now,

So much has changed. I go back to the old homestead many times a year but now all that remains of that time are the memories, a few old photographs and a few old relics pushed into the bush to rust away with time.

Most of the game is gone, very few trappers remain, the whole country is cris-crossed with seismic lines, logging roads and highways.

It's still pretty remote compared to the southern cities but not so remote that tecknowledgy didn't find us.
Even most trappers have TV these days, and cell phones and ATVs.

In many ways it was a better life then we have today.
We had no bills, no boss, and seldom saw any government personnel. No one had a lock on their door, we eat all organic, home grown and home cooked.
There was always plenty to eat. If we didn't grow it or raise it, we harvested it from the wild.

I recall helping butcher two Moose dad shot from the front step one morning befor school. Us boys kept the table stocked with fresh fish all summer and in the fall there were clouds of ducks to hunt and Moose were easy to find, and most of the time, within a mile of home.

We picked hundreds of quarts of wild berries. Mostly Saskatoons, (I believe you folks call them Service Berries) as well as wild Blueberries and wild Raspberries.
We picked wild mushrooms and a few plants for the table as well.

Plus there was always a big garden, about as big as a city block.

Now most of the land around the old homestead is farm land. The forests were cut down to make room for more and bigger fields.
There is still a lot of forest, but now it's no longer right outside the door.

Life was much simpler back then. Hunting season ran from September first to December thirty first. A Moose tag cost three dollars and was good anywhere in the Provence for cow or bull.
Bag limit on birds was thirty for Ducks and Grouse.

I don't recall what the daily catch limit on fish was but I know we were allowed at least ten Pike and ten Walleye.

Most notably we and our neighbors were the only ones to hunt or fish anywhere within a hundred miles.
Mostly because we didn't have an all weather road until 1965. And because the closest town was 100 miles to the south of us.

But all that is changed now. These days there are more hunters from Calgary, 700 miles to the south of us, then there are locals. And they don't believe in sharing.

Last fall I went to one of my favorite spots and found it posted, "Private Land. No Trespassing." Only It's not private land and never will be. It's part of the flood plain along the river and is closed to any development.
I know because dad and others tried to get title to that land. Plus we did a title search to make sure that hadn't changed. It hasn't.

But that's just the way it is. No point in crying about it.

Still it feels good to remember another time. A time when strangers were welcome. A time when there was enough for everyone and plenty left over.
A time when our biggest worries were how to keep the mosquitoes at bay and how to get the old truck to run long enough to drive to town and back.

Love seeing these old hunting/ trapping photos. Especially with a little bit of background. Thank you for sharing these awesome photos.

Great old pictures and memories.

Pretty cool old photos. Thanks for sharing.

great photos

Thanks for sharing! Awesome

It's like you grew up in a Jack London novel!

Some more recent photos, to add some context.

The old school house as it looks today. That is my pickup in the foreground, three pickups ago. 2002


Teaching my grandson how to fish, at the old fishing hole. At this point the river is a little over half a mile from shore to shore. 2003


Working the fields. Not the best photo but it does show the hills that border the valley. The river is between the trees and the hills. 1994

For you farmers, this was taken from the drivers seat of a 9180 Case International.

Clearing away ice at the ferry crossing. Thirty miles downstream of where I grew up. That is a Cat D6D. 2001


Looking upriver from close to the old fishing hole. That's a neighbors house on the hill. 1998


Bull Moose on the edge of a field, My bud's field. 2014


Fishing at midnight. At the big lake. 2015


Chopper fighting fire along the river valley 2016


Two years ago we were ordered out of our homes because of a forest fire close by.
No one here lost anything but further north one community lost 14 homes to a different forest fire that same year.

And since this is a hunting site I'll add a couple of hunting photos.

My kid sister with a small buck she shot in their pasture. 2016


Another small buck my kid brother and I took at the homestead. 2016

Some beautiful country around there, thanks for sharing.

Wow what great memories and a look at life of people that actually lived off the land in what is as close to the wilderness as it gets, thrived and enjoyed the simple life.
What is the closest town that y'all lived by?

Thanks for sharing!!

Loved the stories. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for posting, I enjoyed it.

The closest town was and is Manning Alberta.

This is Manning


Another view of Manning.


The Manning Sawmill, I worked there for several summers.


A water bomber landing at the Manning airstrip.


And just for fun, a Bear in my yard.Not very big, just a yearling.

A few more photos from the north.

She don't like me. Nesting goose.


Fog in the valley. The old homestead.


Crossing the river. Tompkin's Landing ferry.


Elk in the feild. If anyone is wondering that is Canola, An oilseed crop commonly grown around here.


Lynx at the fishing hole


My imediate family. I'm the third one from the left.


Frost on the window. A -55 morning.