Andy Anderson

(1:27:01) Then later when I got moved in and I ended up in Minnewanka they switched it around and Visitor Services was going to be(looking after trails) and it came back to us for a short time. At that time I set up a contract with a bunch from the University of Calgary. This guy came forth with a proposal to have some of his crew out (Engineering students) and they would have all their own equipment, their own tents, their own everything. They would do the trail work on contract. They did that for a few years and that actually almost put the tourists into shock. These students were all into physical fitness. What they would do is, they would pick up their pick axes, axes, shovels and everything and run to work! They’d run back after and even after supper they would go for a little run! When they were working, to them, it was of course all part of their exercise! They did a marvelous job and then it (trail work) went back to Visitor Services and they dropped the contract. They were going to contract it out of the Park. It was Region’s fault because they had the idea then that they were going to have the Natives do it.

(1:28:50) I had never run into so much in such a short time as when I was at Yoho as Chief warden. I immediately became the Fire Chief … I got no training on it whatsoever on the structures of fires. I had the head of the section men as one of the volunteers on the fire brigade. I arranged to get a couple of them to Parksville to learn structural fire fighting. It was in Parksville here and it still is today. They have a reputation as one of the top (Fire Schools) and that goes back into the 1970s. I still stayed as the Fire Chief, but we had a couple of guys that knew something about fires! As Fire Chief, I did inspections and the hotel (in Field) was a fire trap to start with. The fire escape on some of it was a rope tied to the radiator and you threw it out the window. The lobby had an open staircase going up and no doors or anything on it…I went down to the basement where the heat is, and the whole ceiling, and it was only about a five foot ceiling was all blackened. I asked him what was going on and he said, “Well, the furnace keeps blowing back”…Then I looked and what they had done to save on fuel was they sealed all the windows. There was no air getting to the furnace. The area was a small confined area to start with, but the windows that were there were just completely sealed up. I went to the General Store and upstairs they had different business, the last one being a beauty shop. I saw copper pipes running up the stairs. I looked and there was one room that had a whole bunch of junk piled in it. The copper pipe was in behind this stuff…So I pulled out all these boards and stuff and I got to the end (of the copper pipe) and it had one of these little valves on the end and you could flip it loose. Everything had a radiator running over it. How long that had lasted I do not know? I was running into this kind of thing in my job as Fire Chief.

(1:32:29) I also found out that the Health Inspector…out of Banff, didn’t (come to Yoho) because he was fighting with the Superintendent. So amongst my other little duties, I got a letter from a Doctor in Calgary. His daughter and another girl had been up in O’Hara and had become sick. He thought it was e coli and that they had picked it up drinking from the stream at Lake O’Hara. So he just informed me about it. So I went up and I walked back along the shoreline. At every cabin there was a pipe coming out into Lake O’Hara… I go over to the main lodge and it was the same thing. Anyhow I went back and the Superintendent was one that was a ‘Nervous Nelly’ to start with… I knew where there were some signs around (Water Not Meant for Drinking) and I put them at any place that would be a camera point for taking pictures! I put them all along between the cabins and then waited for the results, which didn’t take long! Ford was the owner, and the Superintendent and his wife used to go up there (to the Lodge at Lake O’Hara) every Sunday. The Superintendent came in my office, “What did I think I was doing? Take those signs down!” I said, “If you want me to take the signs down, I want it in writing.” He said, “You don’t need a memo on it.” I said, “Oh yes I do. I know that water is not safe for drinking.” He stormed out and didn’t say anything and nothing more was said. Then he phones Region about it. Region sent out Kurt Seal, (who was) very much the typical German, precise and there was one way of doing it, very energetic and just a going concern. Kurt came out and I took him up there and he’s got his camera, click, click, click! And along comes Ford and he said we were trespassing. I said, “No we are not trespassing here.” Kurt then he just tore a strip right off him! It went back to Region and it was Region’s problem. They sent out their Engineers. It is all rot up there you can’t dig a (septic field). They came up with the bright idea that they would put up aerial springs, well can you imagine that in a national park? It is a very effective way of getting rid of sewage, aeration, but not in the Park, areal sprays and that. I said at the start “There is only one solution put it in a tank and haul it away.” Eventually, but it took a couple of years, they did that.

(1:36:55) At Wapta Lake (Lodge in Yoho) the staff was sick. I walked around behind the place and checked their well, and I also saw a puddle, and the puddle was running into the well. I traced back the puddle and it was coming from the staff quarters (which were above the lodge) and there was a sewer pipe that comes out and it had an elbow in it that came out of the ground and something had fallen on it and it broke the thing. So what did they do to fix it? They put sacking over it and it plugged it somewhere in the pipe. Sewage was coming out and it was spilling into the well, so I shut them down…I still couldn’t get the Health Inspector to come out even on that one. I told the Superintendent we can report it right down to Region and they can report to Ottawa…It could have ended up a political thing that we would have had to back down from, but it ended up it didn’t. (The owner of the Lodge was with the) wrong (political) party! He stayed closed for about a week at the top of the season until the water was purified to a point where they could use it again.