This is an interview with Helen Campbell at her home in the Kispiox Valley

February 29, 2000, 1PM

Helen Campbell
Joy Allen
Laurette Lapalme

HC: You know, these things, it's been so long ago that if you don't think about these things - you forget. And you remember what happened, but WHEN, when is something else again.

JA: Well I asked Dorothy if she'd be interested in doing it [the interview - ed.], and she said, "Oh no! I.. I would get somethin' wrong!" And I said, "Well, so will everyone else, you know, so you just have to think of the best way that you know how to tell it, and tell your story how you remember it."

HC: Well of course in a way, Dorothy didn't have as much to live with it, she wasn't involved with {____________}. Dorothy never rode a great deal.

JA: I think she helped in the concession, she cooked food and stuff like that."

HC: She did more things like that. And when she helped, not only rodeo benefited.

JA: Now Helen did because she was a pick-up man? Pick-up person! She's the one who rescued cowboys off their horses, and stuff like that."

HC: I picked up at Telkwa Rodeo...before we started this one over here.

JA: And what was your good horse's name?

HC: Chico?

JA: Chico.

HC: She was good wasn't she. Of course, that's me saying it.

JA: They were an unbelievable team. Norman Hagen said that to see Helen Campell on her Chico horse was like seeing the wind whistle through, because there was no separation between the two of them. They were just like one.

HC: [whisper] You're the perfect BS'er.

JA: I know.

JA: And Ted, her husband, picked up too, didn't he.

HC: Well, yeah. We worked together. I would get the horse, and he would get the man. I didn't take the man off, I took the horse.

JA: Didn't you used to drive stock from here to the rodeo grounds? That's no small thing either. I can imagine me doing it right now, except I guess there wasn't as many fences!

HC: We didn't have any fences.

JA: So you're just driving a herd of cattle to the rodeo grounds, and that's got to be 8 miles...10 miles?

HC: 5 miles to the bridge. Say... another mile.

JA: And you drove them across the bridge?

HC: Yeah.

JA: She just says "Yeah" like it's an easy thing,l but...

HC: Well, nobody had any horse trailers, if you had to go someplace, you had to hoof it. We rode the Kispiox Stampede.

JA: Now the Kispiox Stampede was started before this one.

HC: It was held on the 12th of May.

JA: That was a pretty big rodeo, wasn't it.

HC: Sometimes it was pretty good.

LL: Does that happen any more, as has that long since gone?

JA: I think the Kispiox Rodeo moved into the Valley, didn't it.

HC: Well...it sort of died, and then of course, we had had the odd little rodeo, if you want to call it such, that the Farm Institute put on. It was just a bunch get together.

LL: Who was involved in the first rodeo?

HC: Well, the Hagen kids, and I always had my finger in the pie, and Ted because. And there was Jimmy.

JA: And he was a pretty good bronc rider, wasn't he?

HC: Yes, he was good wasn't he. He won the trophies. There's a few pictures, I think you've probably seen them in the albums. Some of the early ones are at Kispiox and here as well, but I don't have as many rodeo pictures as I should like. We didn't have time to take pictures.

JA: Hap Leary kind of got the kids going riding too didn't he.

HC: Well yeah, they got him to manage one of the last rodeos they had in Telkwa... that is regular rodeos you know. So we all went over and had a whale of a time.

JA: Was that the Telkwa Barbecue?

HC: Yes, because they didn't have their demolition derby then. All they had were ball games and rodeo.

JA: How did you get your horses down there.

HC: We had a truck, a two ton, and we would load our stuff in it and drive the stock to the rodeo.

JA: That's quite a drive. So they used the horses raised here in the Kispiox at the Telkwa barbecue.

HC: Some of them.

JA: And what time period is this.

HC: We had a few ... work horses and saddle horses.

JA: Would this have been in the 30"s?

HC: Yes.

JA: Well that's quite a drive going that far, especially going over the old Bulkley Canyon. Must have been a little hairy through there.

HC: We made it in two drives. Usually three days from here.

JA: Well that must have been pretty fun, stop and camp out. And it was pretty busy then too, wasn't it really? The roads and stuff? Or was it slowed down by then.

HC: Oh, they were nothing like they are today!

JA: But they still had pack trains.

HC: Well sure. It's long enough ago that the traveling public had more respect for, and they would drive and stop on the road when they passed you.

JA: Helen did you ever see the pack trains travel through the valley?

HC: They used to pack-up at First Cabin to the north, because they could follow it that far in the small trucks that we had around here. That's when the Telegraph Trail supplies were loaded, at First Cabin.

JA: You and Ted were part of that, weren't you? You were packing.

HC: He never had the contract for the Telegraph Line. In fact the year that he and Lee bid on it was the year the Line went out. They shut it down and put in wireless. They had, in the spring, with snow slides and flooding wiped out.

JA: Was that in the late 30's then.

HC: Yeah, I was thinking ... I'm not sure, I was thinking '36, I wouldn't swear to it. I haven't had my Tequila yet either.

JA: Oh good! [laughter] From what I hear you could pack a horse as good as any of the men in the country.

HC: Well, it doesn't take two but it's a lot easier with two! One throwing the diamond [hitch] and the other pulling hook. I could pull hook. I could throw a diamond too, but I wasn't that fast. But that was Ted's job.

JA: He was a bit taller too, it would of been easier for him.

HC: Well, yes but then you get it thrown underneath! It was fun.

JA: Would you do it again?

HC: Yeah!

JA: I thought you'd say yes.

HC: I haven't smartened up yet.

JA: Some of your best friends were horses weren't they?

HC: What about you?

JA: We share something in common there, that's for sure.

HC: Well, we depend on each other so much.

JA: I think you did way more so than I did then, because I can jump in a truck and drive to town. If you had a sick kid or something...

HC: Well, we couldn't get in a truck and drive to town. If I had a sick kid I had to work on it myself, most of the time. You mean to say that Bruce hasn't shown you his battle scars?

JA: I didn't ask to see 'em either!

HC: I've stitched him up.

JA: Well my dad stitched me up too. I remember one time I fell and cut my arm open. He got some fishing line, and some [disinfectant] and just stitched it up. I don't remember it hurting. I was just glad it happened to me, because the rest of the family felt so sorry for me, they were really nice! And I played it as long as I could. I stayed in bed and suffered! Well the roads couldn't have been very good, because there are so many darned frost heaves now, it must have been bad then too.

HC: Of course the hills weren't laying down neither.

JA: You must have had some pretty good pot holes to get stuck in too.

HC: In places. It's harder now but you can easily see where the roads aren't changed.

JA: So could were there places where you could get a team stuck on the road?

HC: Are you laughing? Oh, yes.

JA: It's hard to believe. I mean, if you're on the main road with a team of horses and a wagon, and you get stuck....who is going to pull you out? You don't have a D8 Cat to come out and help you.

HC: The worst place was along Farley's Garden. That was a bad stretch of road. It was bogged from one end to the other.

JA: I guess worse in the Spring.

HC: It was quite a ride.

JA: With logs?

HC: Eventually the corduroy starts to rot, and the the the ends would stick up in the middle.

JA: So there must have been lots of horse logging.

HC: It was all horse logging.

JA: So everybody must have had a little saw mill set up.

HC: Oh, quite a few small mills set up. Not until, I don't remember when, a fellow down a Seeley Lake had the first little saw mill. Mr. Watson.

JA: How did they haul the logs in from the bush?

HC: What you got horses for?

JA: So your horse hauled them all the way - on a wagon or what? Into Town.

HC: No, no one took logs into them. You just go to a private little...

JA: How did people get the logs into him.

HC: They didn't! If you wanted saw logs you did your own!

JA: That answered that question! After you sawed the logs in the bush then you hauled them into town.

HC: Then we could get them trucked in. But that didn't come until the 40's.

JA: Okay then, another thing I know you did a lot of was feeding in the winter time. You didn't have tractors, you put up the hay with horses, it was all loose, and so in the winter, you'd go out and fork it out of the wagon and feed the horses. You must have stayed in pretty good shape.

HC: You sure did!

JA: And I guess it didn't matter if it was 40 below or what, you still went out and hooked up the team .

HC: It didn't matter if it was 50 below.

JA: So did you keep the team in the barn?

HC: Throughout the winter.

JA: And you probably had a big garden because you were raising all your own food.

HC: Well sure.

JA: You had to feed how many kids?

HC: 5 kids.

JA: Just 5. And raised them all, and doctored them all.

HC: Yes.

JA: And they all grew up, I think all right.

HC: I think so, I'm still not sure! [laughter] Reasonably healthy too I think.

JA: And didn't you have a house burn down at one time?

HC: Yes, we had a house burn down.

JA: You lost everything?

HC: Yes.

JA: When was that?

HC: We had an orphan lamb in the house, the kids got that out. And they got that little end table over there.

JA: And that was it. Was this in the winter time?

HC: 4th of January.

JA: So what did you do?

HC: Well, I was hauling hay in the upper place, because we used to take the cattle up there, and feed them up there, and haul hay home until it was used up. I had nearly all of it and we were coming down with a load. We had three horses, we had one horse on point, and Ted was riding it. He came down the hill and we could see the flames coming over the trees. So when we got here, it was a big logs, about 16' face, and the chinking had all burned out and the fire was going around the logs like liquid fire. There's this little lamb in the front yard, and this little end table, with a cactus lamp sitting on it.

JA: On the 4th of January!

HC: In the 4th of January in about 40 below.

JA: You must have had neighbors that helped you out then.

HC: Well we went over to, I sent Bruce over to a neighbor, it was the only place that had room. He was an old bachelor, and he cam riding over. He felt so badly because he hadn't seen the fire, but nothing could have...you would have had to have something besides a bucket, unless you were right there when it started. So anyhow, we went over to his place and had some supper. Two little boys, that would be Bruce and Glen went back home with him and slept in the cabin. Ted and I slept in the barn with the sheep and the cows! But there was nothing left, it was right down to the ground.

JA: So did people in the valley help you out?

HC: Everybody is great when something like that happens.

JA: You must have lost everything that you brought up when you first came to the valley.

HC: All your keepsakes, and everything. And those are the things that you feel badly about.

JA: You can't ever replace them.

HC: Things you can buy. Eventually.

JA: What year did you move on this place?

HC: We moved on here in 1921.

JA: And who owned it before you?

HC: A fellow by the name of ____sky who had gone and left the valley in WWI and never came back.

JA: He was killed over seas.

HC: No, no when the war was over, and his father was a dairy farmer in Wisconsin, and he was getting older. So this boy just stayed took it on, and said he would never come back here. So when we came it was for sale and we bought it. It was a good property.

JA: Did you have trouble when you raised sheep. Did you have trouble with wolves?

HC: For a long time we had a big flock, maybe 200, close anyway. Spring and summer twice there'd be wolves.

JA: You sold them, did you shear them Too?

HC: No. We slaughtered the lambs and shipped them between Hazelton and Rupert. I was supplying a motel that was in Rupert. I lost one or two of them, but when I think about all the years I had them it wasn't too bad. I had a bear into them once and another time wolves got into them and killed 6.

JA: Was it mostly the people who moved in or did the natives farm too?

HC: Not much. They worked in the pole camps because they were shipping cedar poles out of here and finally some of them got small sawmills. They were more independent and they wanted to be more independent. The school in Glen Vowel only went until grade 5 and much of the time kids would be out on trap line.

JA: Were there very many native cowboys? Did they ride in the rodeo?

HC: Sure they did. There were a few native riders.

JA: Do any names come to mind?

HC: ________ McCray.

LL: We were told something about rain insurance for the rodeo?

HC: It seems one year we had considered it.

JA: Contractors now have 30% rain insurance in case that the rodeo cant go on. It helps pay the cost.

HC: We had one rodeo quite a few years ago where it rained and rained. And at that time there were no bleachers and the rain was running down their backs. And nobody left.

JA: You must have put on quite a show!

HC: Ted and I took a shift on the gate, because that was the most miserable place to be, just out standing on the road. Fisher man's friend from Prince Rupert came and brought his raincoat and draped this big yellow thing around me. He brought us a thermos of coffee. Nobody left and the cowhide race was quite a riot, there was mud flying everywhere.

JA: What were some of the different events you had during the rodeo?

HC: Naturally we had saddle bronc and bare back and calf roping.

JA: Did anybody ever ride cows?

HC: Oh, yes.

JA: What about women in rodeo? Were there very many female contestants?

HC: No, not many. I rode in Kispiox years ago and Louise Hagen and a couple girls rode a time or two. Of course, we had the kids riding.

JA: Did they have other events, like rough-stock riding or barrel racing?

HC: Oh no, not too much of that. At one time we had a race track around the outside of the grounds. So we had races at one time, I enjoyed the races as much as the rest of it.

JA: They must've had some pretty fast horses then.

HC: Pretty good.

JA: They must have been in pretty darn good shape then because everybody rode.

HC: Oh yes, everybody rode.

JA: Did they have parades or anything like that then?

HC: Oh yes, we paraded down.

LL: How about a little of how the rodeo club got started?

JA: Well the rodeo I think they had the first one in 1947

HC: Well we had the odd little one before that, but that's when it really got organized. We used to have a first of July picnic. It finally got so big that just a small group of us couldn't handle it anymore, it was about 300 people and they started to come in from all over. It was after one of these picnics that a group of us were cleaning up and there were about a half-dozen of us there and we decided we were going to put on a stampede on labour day. When the crowd was starting to arrive; they were putting the hinges on the shoot gate.

JA: The fencing and that must've come from the local sawmills?

HC: Oh yes, there were some of them working in pole camps and some of them donated day labour. The grounds were just a typical river flat.

JA: And so the clothes that you guys wore then, they're not much different than the clothes they wear now?

HC: I can remember when maybe one of the boys would have a pair of cowboy boots and they would share with the other boys who might not've had them.

JA: And you cut a pretty fine figure then prancing around on your horse.

HC: Now did I?

HC: Well I've ridden since I was about 2 years old I guess. I cant remember any time that I didn't ride. Of course then you rode everyday.

JA: They used to bring horses up, where did they bring all those wild horses up from?

HC: Oh from the Chilcotin Cariboo and they'd stop along the way and put on shoes and one year in particular they put them on a train and took 'em to Rupert to be shoed and then they sold them to us.

JA: Well this has been really great.

LL: Yeah, this will make a great story.

HC: Oh, you're welcome.

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