Warden Journals

 

Recollections of an airplane flight with Jim Davies to Indian Head 1959.

By Smokey Guttman – January 30, 2021.

 

 

I knew Jim Davies well.  In 1959 I had him fly myself to Indian Head.  We landed on a large meadow west of the Indian Head new house, about 1½ miles. It was a scary few minutes when he was taking off and he almost could not stop on the lip of the Clearwater River.  He got turned around and went far back and made it okay.  He flew back to Banff and picked up my wife Vin and our German Shepherd Dusty.

By the time they got back I had snow-shoed out a whole airstrip.  Hours later, he arrived and dropped them off.  No trouble taking off.  The snow was so deep it meant us taking turns (on our snowshoes) breaking trail (through) the snow to get back to the house.  The dog was breaking through our snowshoe tracks.  If I had not had Jim Davies to fly me in, this trip from the Ya Ha Tinda would of taken us about 4 days to get  (to Indian Head). All it cost me was for the gas he used. I don’t have any photos of our trip back to Indian Head by Jim in this airplane.