“In 1926, I was 16-17 years old and I had to go to work somewhere. At the beginning of May someone told me there was work on the Dawson Trail. I went first to Dawson Cabin, a Forest Fire Ranger’s Cabin near Richer. I found Godfrey Nault there and he told me he could take four men from Hadashville, and they would live in tents.
"Godfrey Nault came with horse and buggy cart to the old Hadashville Hotel and told us what we should have to work. You had to have your own tools, your own cooking equipment, jute bags to make a mattress to sleep on, your own shovel, axe, fork, scythe, pick, pail, frying pan and supplies. The wages were 25 cents an hour, $2.50 for a ten-hour day. The first day I was very happy that I made my own $2.50 for the first time. We started to work in May. Four of us from Hadashville set up our tents next to LaCoulée School...”
Frank Shandroski, Dawson road labourer
Source: Feilberg, E., & Annell, L. (1989). “Working on the Trail” by Frank Shandroski (P.39). Pioneer History of Glenn, East Braintree & McMunn. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10719/2239350
We have not been able to locate any images of the building of the original Dawson Road (corduroy), however this is a road building crew circa 1929-1939 in the area around the Whitemouth River on the Dawson Road preparing the highway for automobile traffic. Source: Hadashville Women's Institute. (1970). A Packsack of Seven Decades (p. 60). Derksen Printers. Retrieved from the digital collections of the University of Manitoba, June 3, 2020 http://hdl.handle.net/10719/3066498
“I worked on the Dawson Road to fix the ruts two miles north of the NorthWest Angle. We worked there for a month, me, my brother Placide, Patrice Cyr, Joseph Hupé, Casimir Pelland, and George Cyr, who was our boss. My brother and I had ox carts that we used to cart sand in an effort to smooth out the rough patches. All the points were well done, especially the bridge over the Rivière Blanche (Whitemouth River), which was about a hundred feet long. The last time I was at the North West Angle with my brothers, the river banks leading to the White River Bridge were broken by the water that had risen more than usual. They have since built the bridge in another area.”
Alexis Carrière, a local Métis labourer on the Dawson road
Source: Carrière, A. (1935, May). Témoignage d’Alexis Carrière er Lettre [écrit à l’occasion de…et à qui?]. Original testimony and letter is in French though an English translation of the letter was made by ?…and accompanies the testimony. Carrière family collection
Dawson Road, May 1, 1926 during road construction east of Brokenhead. Found in collection of the Dawson Trail Museum. Origin unknown.
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