The family of local author and historian Ray Olson came to B.C. in 1950. Ray briefly explained his family history in his own words as follows:
"We were living in Edmonton and my father, who as a child lost both hands to a feed grinder in a farming accident, worked as a farmer, mechanic and a welder. He was a very talented, capable and hard working individual. He was lured to Crescent Spur to work in the sawmill by his cousin Alvin Leboe with promises of a better job and better pay. We lived in Crescent Spur until 1957, moved to Penny and lived there until the mill closed due to the mill bankruptcy.
"Since the school at Penny only went to Grade 8, I took Grade 9 by correspondence and went on to finish school in Prince George. My family moved to Cornel Mills; I stayed in the dormitory in Prince George, attended school during the week and took the train back home for the weekends."
Gail Warburton's family moved to Prince George from Vancouver in 1954. The road trip through the Fraser Canyon and their introduction to their new home at Six Mile Lake was an indescribable cultural shock. Her father was an equipment owner operator and he, along with two other partners, purchased the Six Mile Lake Lodge. They continued to live at the lake and operate the lodge until it was sold to the Sons of Norway in 1966.
"I met Gail on the school bus in 1961; we were attending different high schools, Gail was going to Duchess Park and I was at the Connaught high school. In 1962 I stayed at the high school dormitory at 955 Wainwright St. and we both attended PGSS which was in the location where the new Duchess Park school is now located.
"That summer, I worked at Cornel Sawmills. Wayne Mueller and I were employed by Cornel Mills to dump decked logs into the Fraser River upstream from Sinclair Mills. The logs were end painted for identification purposes so they could be sent out of the Sinclair boom and continue downstream to Cornel Mills.
"Gail and I were married in 1963, we moved to Sinclair Mills for the next three years; during that time our son Dale was born. We moved to Prince George in 1966 and one year later our oldest daughter Kathleen was born.
"I worked in logging and construction for a short period until I went to work at the Canfor Pulp Mills; eight years later I went back to school and took a two year upgrading course at the College of New Caledonia. During that time I worked nights and weekends as a waiter at the original Log House Restaurant and at the same time I leased and operated the Bonnet Hill Drive In for one season.
"During the summer break from college in 1975, I was employed as a loader operator working on the decommission and reclamation of the Giscome town and mill site. In 1976, we moved to Fort Nelson where our youngest daughter Thea was born in 1977. Our stay in Fort Nelson was rather short as Thea was an asthmatic and the cold weather in the north was not conducive to her health so it was back to Prince George, where I was employed by Northwood as a production supervisor working in their sawmills in Huston and Prince George.
"My son Dale and I operated a fox farm on Shelley Road for a number of years. Dale became a paraplegic as a result of a plane crash on Williston Lake in 1992.
"I retired in 2003 after spending 37 years in the lumber industry. For the five years prior to my retirement I worked as a First Aid Attendant/Protection Officer at Northwood Pulp.
"Gail worked in the home raising the children. When they were older, she worked for the School District as a library clerk at Blackburn and Pineview for over 20 years. She was not terribly fond of computers and when it was time for me to retire she decided to do the same so we both retired the same week. She retired on a Friday and I retired two days later on a Sunday.
"During our retirement, we stay busy with our seven grandchildren and one great grandchild most of who are here in Prince George. Gail walks and is an avid reader when she is not involved with grandchildren. We like to travel and our next trip will be to Iceland, England and Norway to work on tracing our ancestral roots.
"Over the years I volunteered at community sporting events, senior games, the Road to the Roar curling play downs and served as president of the Prince George Umpires Association and as a softball umpire working the Provincial, Western Canadian and Canadian Championships. I still volunteer at the Cougars hockey games working with guest services and the Salvation Army Kettle Campaign each winter.
"When I am not golfing, I am active in recording and preserving the local history of the communities that once existed in the area East of Prince George. I have written and self-published three books on that topic. My research into those topics has resulted in the acquisition of a large number of old photographs pertaining to those areas, some of which, I have donated to The Exploration Place and the University of Northern British Columbia. Recently, I received 50 photographs taken during the 1920s and '30s in the Longworth and Hutton area; pictures that were found after lying in a trunk for the past 70 years.
"I have used a number of the photos in my book, Hutton, however virtually none of the people in the photographs are identified. My hope with submitting this write up to Kathy's column will result in someone being able to identify who the people are in these photos.
"If you think that you can help identify the people or the places in these photographs please contact me at 250-963-7488 or email me Ray Olson at [email protected]. I would like to thank the Prince George Citizen for this opportunity to reach out to their readers to help identify the history left behind in these photos."
