Achiements in Story Form
How can one tell the achievements of a great story teller without telling the stories that were behind the many personal and business achievements?
For Dave, leaving home at 12 years old also meant he left his schooling behind at grade 8. It didn’t stop nor did it hinder the man who had big dreams in his heart. Not many young men even in these days of extreme fitness can lay claim to have climbed 42 mountains ( +3000 ft or higher ) in one summer. Dave set that personal record in the summer of 1957. Physical challenge was something he loved but for him there had to be reason for it - guiding and topographical surveying were his reasons that summer.
Dave’s greatest gift was his visionary abilities. If he could visualize something; it seemed he could create it or make it happen. As a young man working for others in the big game guiding and outfitting business Dave dreamed of owning his own guiding outfit. His dream came true in 1958 when he set up his first operation called “Dave Harder Guide and Outfitting” in a remote and northwestern section of BC. This area extended from the Alaskan border to Atlin Lake and was one of the largest Guiding and Hunting areas in the North and part this area now falls into the Tatshenshinni World Heritage Site.
The operations of the hunting and guiding business brought in a large contingent of hunters from all over the USA and beyond. Many of these men were very wealthy and well educated. Dave developed many personal relationships with these people and long after the guiding and hunting operation was sold he and Carolee continued to hear from them by phone, letter and sometimes even in person.
Dave visualized owning a working ranch for wayward children and by 1962 that dream was coming to life as he and Carolee purchased Ten Mile Ranch. The consequences of leaving home at a very young age sometimes created problems for Dave and caused him to wander from the paths his parents had taught him. Consequently Dave always felt blessed that many people showed up in his life to help him find the higher road again - he wanted to do the same for other kids. While living in Carcross at that time he and Carolee saw many young people who needed a connection and guidance.
After selling the guiding business in 1964 a new form of income would have be in place there to sustain his family and keep the ranch going. While garden vegetables and hay were sold off in the fall the monies were not enough meet the needs of the family and the ranch. During these years the family lived at the ranch from May to late September and then moved back to Carcross for the winters because the first ranch house was not a winterized home. Also the children needed to go to school and by then Lee-ann was in grade 1.
In the late sixties Dave purchased several old army houses (cemestos – cement and asbestos) and moved them from Whitehorse to Carcross. Once they were settled onto a newly dug basement Carolee had the overall job in the inside of cleaning and painting. Five of these houses were sold and/or rented out and one became the family home for many years in Carcross
Dave was always active in his community in one way or another. He helped with the building of new log curling arena and skating rink and volunteered as a fire fighter for a few years. Coming from a past with having so little he always strived hard to bring his family the good things. He purchased the first B & W Television in Carcross and set up the antenna up on the roof in order to have good reception. Even at that sometimes it was necessary for someone to hold tinfoil near the rabbit ears inside the house so you could distinguish who the person on the screen was. On Sunday evening the living room at the Harder house was often wall to wall people for Walt Disney. Most were there for the TV shows but others for the hot chocolate and cookies that would be served thanks to Carolee.
In 1971 a neighbor named Noofie who needed a car traded Dave his Oldsmobile car for a double track ski-doo. This Bright yellow ski-doo started a whole new Carcross community event that never had an official name but it never needed one since the participants were always eager join in. Whether it was Sunday afternoon or right after the supper hour on any given week night all it took was the sound of a ski-doo for the front doors of homes to fling open and kids with sleighs to be eagerly headed roadside for the next 'hitch up'. One circle around the town with the double track and 2 or 3 sleighs full of kids were hitched up behind the ski-doo. The second circle around town added another 3 or 4 sleighs and by the 4th and 5th rounds the trail behind the ski-doo grown so long the driver was not unsure himself who was at the tail end. Those were moments that put big smiles on Dave's face.
Dave and his family were actively involved in the local Mission Church – helping others in need – bringing food, water, wood or whatever was needed. Sometimes it was a ride to Sunday School or morning church. He and Carolee often took youngsters into their home in Carcross when troubles were brewing in their home life. It was not very common for the Harder family sit at a dinner meal without 2 or 3 extras. Nobody minded.
Speaking of going to Sunday school the one mode of transportation from the ranch to Carcross in the summer was a pontoon boat. This boat was for the most part very safe and reliable. It consisted of 2 Fairchild pontoons separated with a plywood deck and driven with a 25hp Mercury. That said, when one travels in areas of waters called Windy Arm (notoriously dangerous during the Klondike gold rush and just past Bove Island, boats were teased into Sucker Bay and known to have smashed many unsuspecting voyagers) you can expect some unexpected moments. Carolee tells the story about tying her children to her for fear of what might take place. With Dave at the helm the family made it through some rough waters but I am pretty sure Dave would admit he was praying some big prayers.
One winter Dave worked as an employee (much to his chagrin as a seasoned entrepreneur) at Artic Mines because of the lack of projects to create income. It was a time where steady income was appreciated. Not only did he come home with regular paychecks, he came home with a starving cat (the family named Anna) and she remained in the family for 20 + years.
Starting in the early seventies another potential income came to Dave and Carolee and that was to ferry a group of geology students from the University of Wisconsin down Tagish Lake for their yearly practicums. This was done for some years by way of a 16 foot fiberglass boat with a Volvo engine and canoes with 25 hp kickers What a glorious experience for these young adults , some who had never been out of the city.
One year during this time Dave decided that a larger vessel would take less time and give a greater experience to these geology students and their esteemed professor Dr. Lowell Laudon. Dave arrived home somewhat apprehensive when it came time to announce he had purchased a 70 foot paddle-wheel boat called the Hootalinqua. "This", he said confidently to Carolee, will be the cat's cradle for transporting the students down the lake and would do a much better job than the 3 canoes and Volvo boat.” To say he and Carolee initially were not on the same page with this newest project would be a great understatement. It was will versus practical and good common sense and when the home courts were done Dave was determined to prove how valuable this newest water vessel would be. It didn’t too take long before we proudly sat in our dad's new boat going up and down the river from Carcross to Nares Lake. The white painted vessel (painted by Carolee) had a 2 story cabin that sat just forward of the bright red paddle wheel. The upper cabin housed the captain and steering gear while the lower cabin housed the engine room and extras. With the paddle-wheel slapping the water and moving it along it was just like the good old days of long ago when paddle wheelers were a common site to all! The thing that might have been the biggest obstacle was the banana like structure that stuck 40 feet out front of the cabin with a girth of only 14 feet. Anyone would agree this would be great for rivers but it was hell on storming lakes. The derelict paddle wheel boat that had arrived home only a few short years before became another derelict paddle wheel boat at the end of the 10 Mile Ranch road. I am quite sure everyone could feel the motion sickness in their stomach each time the family vehicle drove by it.
The next community project was a great and wonderful reenactment of the mail run from Carcross to Atlin BC. This commemorative event was initiated by Dave in the early 70's. It was so well received that it eventually became quite a big event for both Carcross and Atlin. The run tied into the annual Atlin Fun days. The initial runs were done with a ski-doo pulling a dog sled with musher on the sleigh. Since most women who approved of their husbands going on this trip expected them to come back alive the roped dog sled had to get revamped. Eventually some of the teams would go by dog sled with dogs as the first mail runs had been done while others would still do this on ski-doo. The mail that was carried by the teams were specially marked envelopes. People mailed letters to themselves and others to get the commemorative envelope for a memento. We know that others have taken claim to being the people who started this reenactment but it was Dave Harder who did the inaugural run on sk-doo with a dog sled roped behind his ski-doo. It’s just one of those times when credit was not given where credit was due. Dave didn't continue with this after he started it but he often rode by ski-doo with others to be support teams to the sled and dogs. His family did the run several times from the Ranch (just east of Carcross) over Striker;s Pass and crossing through Tutshi and eventually they crossed over onto Atlin lake by ski-doo to attend the annual Atlin Fun Days.
During this time and several years running Dave tried hard to get events like the Atlin Fun Days running in Carcross. It never really got off the ground so for many years the family took their skidoos over to the Atlin Fun Days.
By 1970 Dave had started to become very interested in sawmills and he had another dream. This dream was to own his own mill and logging operation. By 1973 he had began to see his next dream coming to life with a sawmill ( which he built) and logging operation called later named Ten Mile Logging. His vision was large and he worked day and night to bring the operation to a point of profit. It was not without struggle but as always Dave was up for those challenges. He along with his main hand and friend Charlie James (who remained at his side in business for over 16 years) built the frame work for the mill operation. Charlie was a keen and hard working logger and he and Dave could accomplish incredible amounts of work as a team. Eventually the mill grew to the point where there were 8 to 12 people on staff including cooks and helpers. Dave was growing more and more interested in logging and attended as many national logging conferences as he could. He had another vision and dream brewing in the back of his mind told a few stories down the way.
Dave prided himself in the fact that he only ever logged in a style of logging called selective logging. Each year he would hire a helicopter to scope out his new territory of timber and see what was happening in the former areas he had cut. By 1977 a contract with the White Pass and Yukon Route for railway ties gave Dave the confidence to start thinking about a larger operation. A second mill was established 25 miles down the lake in an area called Tutshi. The main choice to do this was because he was running out of timber in the old location. This operation eventually became the larger operation of the 2 mills.
The transport to and from this location was on ice in the winter and water in the summer. Bringing 40 to 50 thousand board feet of lumber down a lake with a small Volvo boat used as the tug meant 12 hours of riding time at 2 mph. The arrival in the pitch dark of night also made sure for some new stories to be told the next morning at breakfast. Traveling by ice in the early winter and late spring could mean a surprise break threw and we are not talking about the emotional ones unless being scared out of your skin is capable of giving you that.
The complimentary diesel creosote plant ensured yet another level of income with the ties. Treating the railway ties by Dave meant he would earn more income from the railway. In 1985 a failing economy meant the permanent shut down of the White Pass and Yukon Railway and that had devastating effects on the mill and logging operations.
More coming................
