Park Warden Service Alumni Society of Alberta
Oral History Project Phase 14 – 2024
In Person Interview with Brad White
May 17, 2024 – 2:00 pm MST
Invermere, BC
Interviewed by Susan Hairsine
Brad, Katy, Ginny and Donna at Cyclone Cabin. Photo J. Bradford White collection.
SH: Good afternoon and first question Brad. Where and what year were you born?
BW: I was born in Banff in Mineral Springs Hospital in October 1959.
SH: Where did you grow up and finish school?
BW: I grew up in Banff or got older in Banff, I’m not sure if you ever grow up in Banff, because it’s a constant party town, but in some sense you get older earlier, you get a lot of experiences early in life that a lot of people don’t, but I guess the biggest thing was, at the time my dad owned a service station just behind our house on Bow Avenue and he and my mom had just bought Sunshine (ski resort), so it was the early sixties and Sunshine had one lift, and the service station was a going concern. So, then Sunshine became an area where there was lots and lots of development during the sixties, and I spent most of my summers up there. So that was great. I was a young mobile kid, 5, 6, 7 years old and I could go over to Rock Isle Lake and go fishing or hiking somewhere. Sunshine started developing buildings and lifts, so I worked there in the summers from a young age, where I was either carrying lunches up to people who were working on lift foundations, or picking up trash under the lifts, mowing lawns taking out garbage and stuff like that. I spent my summers up there.
Some of the early memories I have of the Warden Service up there … I can’t remember the warden now. It wasn’t Earl Skjonsberg, because Earl and Betty lived just down the hill at the bottom at Healy Creek and I knew them. Earl was the district warden and the dogmaster and they lived at what was originally the Healy Creek station. Eventually they got into a newer house, but it was still at the base of the road there.
So anyways my first memories of the Warden Service, I remember one warden up there, getting his horses out of a truck and he was about to pack some fish, and stock some of the lakes. He had a whole bunch of bags of fingerlings from the Banff fish hatchery and packed them off. Another time we had a group of British Highlanders who couldn’t figure out where they were. They’d been lost for several days over near the Simpson River. Their sergeant, or whoever was in charge of taking them, thought that the contour lines on the maps were trails and he couldn’t figure out where to go. So eventually one of them wandered into Sunshine and the wardens got involved and we got all these guys back from where they thought they were going to starve and die in the Canadian Wilderness. They sat in the lodge for quite a while, and we fed them some hot drinks and stuff. I still have a badge from one of those guy’s hats.
SH: So, you grew up in Banff and attended school there. Did you attend a post-secondary school?
BW: Yes, I did. I started after some time off school; first working as a faller in Kananaskis in the winters and then climbing in Europe and then I went to UBC with a couple of buddies of mine, Hans Smit and Blaine Herrero starting first year science. I wasn’t really sure where I was headed with that, maybe forestry or maybe geology, but it was a tough transition trying to go to a university where there were classes with 300 people, and Vancouver is rainy, and it seemed like it rained every day. I remember I had moss growing on my bicycle. Anyways, my brother Cliff said “Maybe you want a tech degree instead. You know you could get into the Warden Service with a tech degree.” So, I remember I drove my old, rusted Maverick from Vancouver over to Castlegar and it was great there. It was Indian Summer, there was lots of tamaracks there, western larch, and they were all golden and the peaks had fresh snow on them, with brilliant blue sky, it was fall and I thought “What the heck am I doing in Vancouver?” Anyways I finished the year in Vancouver and then went to Castlegar the next year and got a two-year tech degree there which were two really great years, and I made a great group of friends. There was lots of skiing, climbing and exploring the Kootenays, and I taught skiing at Red Mountain for Don Vockeroth’s ski school on the weekends where you had to really know how to ski to keep up with the locals. I recall Butch Boutry challenging us to do the least amount of turns down the face of Red. The skier with the most turns bought the beer. I didn’t buy, but Butch smoked us all with only three turns top to bottom.
SH: How did you become involved with the Warden Service after your Sunshine early days?
BW: I was working for the Parks trail crew in the summers while I was going to high school and after high school, so I had some connection with the wardens at that point and once I decided that was probably the direction I wanted to head, then I got a job as an Alberta Park Ranger for a couple of summers. So, I worked in Bow Valley Provincial Park with my buddy Blaine Herrero, who was also at UBC with me. Blaine died of Leukaemia shortly afterwards. We were the baby-faced Rangers, in our blue GWG Wranglers and our baby blue park shirts. I remember some bright spark decided we needed blue Stetsons to go with our blue suits. So, they sent us these hats, they were denim cowboy hats, and they had a string, and somebody said the whistles were on back order. I remember this old cowboy, Ray Nicoll, who worked with us at that point, he looked at that hat and he took it out to the corral and filled it full of horse shit, and put it back in the box and said, “Return to sender”. It wasn’t long after that we got a memo saying we were forbidden to wear the hats.
SH: Wow, a friend of Shelia Copps perhaps.
BW: I worked in K-Country for two years, that was the early days of Kananaskis country, it was pretty new, but they had just hired Kiwi Gallagher as the Mountain Safety Specialist, or whatever his title was, but basically his job was to set up a similar rescue program to what the National Parks had. His side kick was Dave Smith, another seasoned guide, so between the two of them, they were early mentors for me to get involved with Visitor Safety. I was already interested in climbing, I’d spent a season in the Alps, climbing with Brian Wallace who was later killed in a fall on Mt. Lougheed, as well as England and Scotland with Blaine and Hans, and I’d been down to Peru as well, with a bunch of Canadians and my brother Cliff. So, Kiwi and Dave set me a little bit straighter on how to be safer and more organized. I probably started down the guides path just about at that point in time as well. It was great working with Kiwi. He’s a super guy, a was a super mentor. One day Blaine and I were heading off to Yamnuska to climb a route and we had to be back at work at 3:30. Kiwi saw us heading up and chastised us for starting late. Well, we were about ½ late getting back to start the shift but the dispatcher said when we came in: “Oh I knew you would be a bit late, Kiwi came by and told me you were doing a little work for him and would be a bit late starting.”
Even in the winters when I wasn’t working for them, he would bring me along on ski trips with the Rangers and help me out with my leadership development.
When I was in college, I applied for the Warden Service and I was third on that list. Frank Staples was number one.
SH: Interesting. So, which national park did you start working in Brad?
BW: Well, the first thing I did with the Warden Service, and it was before I got a job, I had to organize a two-week practicum as part of our college requirements. So, I organized a practicum in Jasper and then when I had got up there in the springtime Marv Millar and Darro Stinson were on the avalanche control team up at Marmot. Basically, we went up there and skied every day, did a little bit of avalanche control, some cornice blasting and fired the 105 a couple of times. It was a pretty good practicum. I did some other stuff in town with the bear proram and Dave Norcross was there working on the original Trans-Canada pipeline, so I spent a couple of days with him and also went out to Sunwapta. Anyways, I got to know some of the guys who were already in the Warden Service at that time. I came back from that practicum and some people in my class had been stuck in basements writing plans or the like for their two-week practicum and I get back suntanned, from skiing and I said “Ya, it looks like a pretty good career if you ask me.”
Then I got the job. So, originally, they offered me a job at Elk Island (National Park) but…and I go, “Oh okay, Elk Island, whatever.” and I think Jack Willman was the Chief (Warden) there. I phoned him and I said, “You offered me a job and I just wanted to check in the details of the job”, and he said, “What’s your background?” I told him I grew up in Banff and I was interested in what was called Public Safety in those days and I was a climber and a skier”. He said, “Oh, we don’t want you here. I’m sure you’d be great, but we get these guys who are just putting in their time until they can transfer to the mountains. Why don’t you take a job in the mountains?”
I said, “I haven’t been offered one” and he said, “Well we can make that happen.” I didn’t think I was allowed to turn it down or suggest where I wanted to go. I thought well this is the job I’ve been offered so I better take it. I think Gerry (Israelson) started in Elk Island as well.
SH: Yes, he did.
BW: So, it was shortly after that conversation I got a call from Human Resources and they said “We understand you don’t want to go to Elk Island but would you go to Waterton?” I said “Yes, I would love to go to Waterton” so my first posting was in Waterton in spring of ‘83, it might have been ‘82.
SH: You touched on this a wee bit Brad but what made you want to join the Warden Service? (Tape 14:13)
BW: My brother was already involved in the Warden Service at that time, so I’d been up at Saskatchewan Crossing and climbing with him and riding horses up the Saskatchewan. Knowing what I did about the Warden Service from my early days up at Sunshine and growing up in Banff it was always something that I thought would be a great career.
SH: What different parks did you work in? How do they compare? Do you have a favourite?
When I started in Waterton, Max Winkler was the Chief, big old Max and he was great. We sat down on the shore of Waterton Lake the day I got there, and he was telling me “You know Brad this isn’t a career, it’s a way of life and if it’s a way of life you’ll find nothing better.” Max and I got along quite well. He was big and intimidating. My first year he said, “Well you aren’t going to have too many duties …. we want you to get to know the park. So, I went down and got a horse and saddle and got that all sorted out. Then I got checked out on the boat, so I could use the boat and basically, they made me in charge of rescue gear in the rescue room, the climbing gear and gave me a little budget to buy some gear. So really that first summer was mostly about just climbing and riding and getting to know the park, getting all around. We did have some rescues and had a fatality where a guy fell off a cliff, so you started to see the other side of the mountain rescue thing, when things don’t always go well for people. I remember Max, we went for a ride one day, he had this big black horse, Cedrick. I think they gave it to him when he retired because this horse had done about twenty years of service at that time and was ready for retirement like Max was. He was a big old black thoroughbred. Anyhow, we were riding up the trail and this little dog off leash, comes running around the corner and behind it shortly after are these two older ladies from town that I recognize. I didn’t know their names. Well Max just tears into them about having the dog off leash; there’s wildlife that could be chased, and it’s not fair to visitors and he’s going on. The ladies are kind of wide eyed and backing up a little from Max on this big black horse, who is giving them heck. Meanwhile they haven’t picked up the dog. So, the dog gets around the back end of Cedrick and he cocks one ear and the hind foot …. Yike, Yike Yike! and the dog goes flying off the trail about twenty feet into the bush. Max doesn’t even look to see if it’s hurt or whatever. He just goes, “And that’s another reason you should have your dog on a leash”, and we rode away.
SH: I like that. Alright so how long were you in Waterton for?
BW: I think three years.
