(1:03:05) It didn’t really bother me too much (centralization). I started it in Waterton. They weren’t really into it in Banff that I can remember. Maybe they were? They hadn’t done it in Jasper because Mickey (McGuire) was an old time warden. He just couldn’t see it. Waterton was such a close knit piece of property, piece of land that I could divide it into districts and utilize the same wardens, change some of their residences a bit. Riding Mountain I did. I centralized there. They kept their same little districts but they worked as a big district in the park. There were four or five wardens living in their own homes around the district but they’re one district rather than all the little districts.
(1:04:34) Oh there’s lots of them (humorous stories). You get us going with a bottle of beer and you’ll hear all kinds. You probably have already.
(1:04:56) Jimmy Deegan was a colorful fellow. You’ve heard of him? Timberline Jim. I have some of his books up there in my little library…He was kind of an assistant. He was never a warden, an acting warden. But he went with me one time up to Forty Mile Creek to cut out the trail. It was a closed area. The public wasn’t allowed in there because it was the Banff water supply. Anyways Jim came up with me and we went up to that cabin we saw on the side of the bank. And there was a cabin downstream not too far where the Mystic Creek comes in to the Forty Mile Creek. It was an old CPR cabin. So, our district warden Ernie Young, he said, “Let’s fix that cabin up and move from the one on the bank down to there.” So we did. That’s when we packed lumber in, tandem pack, like in that picture. Some windows. So we fixed that cabin up pretty nice and Jim helped me. He’s a comical guy to work with. One night we were sleeping and all of a sudden I heard a bump. Jim had reared up and hit his head on a log. He said, “Jeez, I was just dreaming about a half elk and a half woman!” In the middle of the night, way up in the mountains. When we first got to the cabin he said, “You know I made a poem in here years ago and I put it behind that window casing.” And he reached up and he got it. That was the “Mystic shack, I see you now, I’m grinning like a goof, grinning like a Cheshire cat because I am standing right on your roof.” You stood right on the roof of the darn thing before you knew you were there, because it was just built into the side (of the bank).
(1:07:49) Jim? (in response to the question – How come he never became a warden?) Hmm, I don’t think anyone thought that he would be a good warden. But he did a lot of warden work. He worked on rescues. He was kind of a harem scarem guy I guess. He was related to Beef Woodworth. His dad or somebody was involved with the warden service. He’s gone now I guess. I don’t know what all he did. He was always in Banff. I wasn’t in Banff too many years. They put me on the move.
(1:09:03) No, (Gerry did not mind the moving to different parks) but it was kind of hard on Bobby, because she’d just get settled in a job (and then we’d go move again.)
(1:10:57) (Looking at Jim Deegan’s book of poems Timberline Tales) His poem of “Mystic Cabin” (is in here)…”The Prospector of Talc Mountain”…”The Saga of Ray Legace”,
(1:12:36) (Looking at a 1994 article from Banff Crag and Canyon about Jim Deegan) “As Keith Everts aptly notes, he never saw himself as being very important, but he was intelligent, sharp and helpful. He was full of kindness and sincerity.”
(1:12:55) (Looking again Jim Deegan’s book of poems Timberline Tales) “The Legend of Halfway Hut”, I don’t know if that is the one between Lake Louise and Skoki? Yeah, (there is supposed to be a ghost there). I rode that a few times and skied it. Yeah, I pulled a body out of an avalanche there one time. Between the chalet and Skoki…
(1:13:45) Anyhow, he (Jim) pulled out the poem (about Mystic cabin) and started reading it. All the struggle to get there and it’s all up and down steep little gullies…and I think they were snowshoeing in those days. And then he said, “Mystic shack, I see you now, I’m grinning like a goof, grinning like a Cheshire cat because I am standing right on your roof.” He did a lot of this back breaking stuff, like with the fire pumps. He’d do a lot of jobs, back breaking jobs working with the wardens.
(1:14:50) Yeah kind of (in response to the question – Do you miss being a warden?) But I got involved in the office end of it more than I really wanted to. I was really suited to get out there and do what they do in the field.
(1:15:26) Just a memory of the whole thing (in response to the question – Do you have any lasting memories of being a warden?) All those guys…You always think of them as a group. I have many fond memories of my experiences with the warden service.
Warden Group Photo – Date Unknown
He was the best Chief Warden I worked for. a great man!