By William Koreluik
A Kamsack outdoorsman is lamenting the loss of most of his photographs and documents that recorded a career that was enmeshed in the development of Duck Mountain Provincial Park.
Bill Matthew of Kamsack, who worked in construction at the park during the last half of the 20th century, says he had over the years collected many photographs that had documented developments at the park along with an ample supply of records that had detailed what and when the different events had occurred.
“They’re all gone,” Matthew said recently during an interview conducted in the kitchen of his Kamsack home. He suggested that the records were probably inadvertently burned.
“All I have left are these,” Matthew said, bringing out a small album of photographs and a few old pictures of a former park zoo.
The photos in the album had been taken when, upon his retirement from the park as the construction foremen, he had obtained the contract to haul the garbage, and they contained scenes of garbage and the bears that he had seen rummaging through the debris.
The other pictures were mostly of scenes of “Chris Smith’s zoo.” Matthew explained that the zoo, containing many indigenous animals, was once located near to the intersection of Highway No. 57 and the road to the Duck Mountain ski hill.
Often during the conversation, Matthew had wanted to refer to a photograph or to documents that were able to accurately describe a situation, but with a shake of his head, he had to rely mostly only on a fading memory.
“I’ve always liked wildlife,” he said, smiling as he looked at a photograph of three young owls that had been taken at his farm home. In the photo are three chicks of different sizes, which prompted him to explain that he understood that the mother bird would lay one egg, incubate it, and then several days later lay the second, and then later, the third. This resulted in three successive hatches and three chicks of different sizes.
Matthew was born and raised on a farm about seven miles east of Kamsack to Donald and Winnifred Matthew, who were immigrants from England. He worked on the farm and off, cutting wood, an occupation he has kept until a couple of years ago.
“One of my first jobs was working for Mike Rudy, who had been a neighbour,” he said, describing Rudy’s farm about two miles away from his parents’ farm.
And then at the beginning of the 1950s, Matthew began working for the provincial Department of Natural Resources in construction and maintenance.
The park was not so commercial, he said of Duck Mountain in the early 1950s.
“We cleared the fireguard,” he said, offering a comment about the fireguard, the roadway which had once circled the park, now being left to nature, no longer seen as a requirement.
Matthew talked about a store and dance hall that had once been located on Kamsack beach, a store and restaurant that was once located only feet away from the water at Ministik Beach, and the chalet, a distinctive building that was once located on a hillside overlooking Ministik Beach.
Part of the crew that carved out the original fairways for the original nine-hole golf course, Matthew said that its number one fairway was once located where the road leads up the hill to the Duck Mountain Lodge, and the tee off for the third hole was located near the communications tower at the road leading from the highway to the main park office.
Matthew was also instrumental in the creation of the Parkway road, which leads from the centre of the park south to the ski hill.
“We cleared the hills which are now the slopes for the Duck Mountain ski hill.”
As an employee of the department, Matthew did not spend all his time at Duck Mountain.
“I’ve been at every park in Saskatchewan at one time or another,” he said, listing Kenosee Lake, Maple Creek and LaRonge, as places where his job had taken him.
He talked of having worked opening Jubilee subdivision and developing the campground at Madge Lake.
Asked about any distinctive flora or fauna, Matthew said that at one time he had to cut down two old spruce trees at the Benito Beach area and at one of them he had counted 140 rings.
“That’s a tree that was 140 years old.”
The water level in the lake has always fluctuated, he said. In the 1950s it was as high as it is now.
“At one time you could rent a boat for 10 cents at a pier at Ministik Beach and go across the water to Benito Beach.”
Referring again to his lost photo collection, Matthew said he had pictures of a fairground that had once been erected at Benito Beach and it had included a Ferris wheel. He produced another picture of the first truck he had ever owned.
“It was a 1937 Maple Leaf, which was a General Motors truck,” he said, pointing to the picture of the vehicle that he had bought in the late 1940s and was hauling sheaves of clover for feed.
Several of the remaining pictures were of animals that had been kept in cages in the zoo that was operated by Chris Smith.
“Smith had been an American who had opened a store in Rhein, and then after a fire spread from another store to his, it burned down and he started the zoo. He had coyote, moose, deer, bears, skunks, woodchucks and muskrats in the pens and he charged 10 cents admission.”
While working for the department, Matthew purchased and maintained a half section “bush quarter” where he would be free to enjoy the out-of-doors and acquire piles of firewood that he stocked and sold.
Expressing concern over the fact that Madge Lake is becoming a million-dollar residential area, Matthew said that at one time he had the option of leasing a cabin for $14,000 on Kamsack Beach, which recently sold for $200,000, and the building had been knocked down.
“I enjoyed my career with the parks department,” he said. “I was always outside with nature; the water and the trees.”
Matthew, who had moved into Kamsack upon his retirement, was asked what he thinks about when he now visits the park.
“I think about the many poor souls I had known and who are now gone,” he said.
“I feel quite honoured to have been able to work at the park.”
