Tom Elliot

2240: There’s a lot of stories. There’s one, I’d written up on the Warden Website; it’s called Exploring Grotte Mickey parts 1 and 2. It’s just an interesting story how some fairly green young keen wardens with their Chief Warden had climbed up the 3rd canyon wall and we ended up stranded on top. We’d ran out of time and we had to hunker down. Didn’t have enough time even with the long days, and it was getting too late to repel back down so there was three of us up there and of course we didn’t have any food other than our leftover snacks from lunch. We figured we were going to have to spend the night. I’m looking around and there’s some soft moss and I laid down and a little while later Joe Buker, another seasonal warden who led the climb, lay down and a little while after that Lou Comin, who is a great big guy, lay down and between the two of us for warmth. At the time, even now, it’s still kind of embarrassing. We were certainly better prepared after that. While we didn’t make it into the cave on our first attempt, Lou, to his credit scheduled a second attempt a month or so later where we were helicoptered back in to the top of the canyon above the cave. We repelled down into Grotte Mickey which is a big, I think had over a mile long of galleries where you have to kind of climb in around and about. The details of the story are on the warden alumni website. There was me, Ray Breneman, Lou, the helicopter pilot and a writer from National Geographic, (part of our exploration was written up in National Geographic). Part of the way through the cave there was a narrow spot; two of us went through followed by Lou. He’s a big guy and he got stuck, so there was two of us pulling, two pushing grunting and laughing, but we got him through. You must go to the alumni website to read the full story, it’s a good one. There’s so many stories that we all have and I’m hoping someone will pick up the bull by the horns, and collect a bunch of these stories and publish them in a book because I think it would be really good.

Someone like Dale and Kathy, who both have written a couple of books. It would take some hounding of people and collecting the odd story or two. I’ve seen books in the USA in “the friends of the parks” stores of park ranger stories. I think a book of Canadian park warden stories would be popular.

MH: How did the Warden Service change over the years? 2625

Tom: I was kind of hired on after centralization, but I worked through the era of affirmative action, and land claim hiring priorities. I was working during the panel for the Ecological Integrity review after which there was a shift in focus onto Ecological Integrity and the use of Science. At the same time there was also focus (at least to me) on the specialization of our Law Enforcement and Public Safety programs, which just got better and better. From my perspective, the Warden Service was always able to adapt to these changes and do quite well. With the shift to functional specialization, there was always enough cross training between our functions to enable us to stay on top and address the shifting times. To me the downside, was the dismantling of the warden service as I knew it, to its single focus on Law Enforcement. What I saw after this was stove piping and the loss of our multi-function effectiveness and efficiency. I still believe that change was unnecessary. I remember we had all these calls about what was going on during the last reorganization and I remember one person saying, “What’s wrong with the United States National Park service model where everybody wears park ranger uniforms, but the guys with the badges and the guns did Law Enforcement?” In response (and again I think this part of HQ’s senior parks Canada management’s vendetta) someone said having everyone wear the park warden uniform was a Health and Safety issue. Health and Safety was thrown back in our faces and that the USNPS model wouldn’t work. There was some secret “working group” who made this decision. I remember asking who was on that working group and I was never provided names. It is what it is.

MH: What about the Warden Service was important to you? 2842

Tom: The importance was Ecological Integrity as first priority and I think the Warden Service had decided to always put this first. This often resulted in conflict with visitor use and sometimes other functions, commercial development and sometimes with the direction and pressures put on our local park managers by our political masters. To me it was Ecological Integrity as the number one priority. That was always the most important thing.

MH: Are there any legends or stories associated with the Warden Service that you can share? Is there anyone from the Service that stands out in your mind? 2927

Tom: I have lots of names here but those who come to mind, they range from Willi Pfisterer and Peter Fuhrmann in the development of the public safety programs and these guys passed the torch onto Clair Israelson and Tim Auger, Darro Stinson and later there was Brad White and Marc Ledwidge and these guys had incredible skills. Then there were guys like Cliff White who started the Fire Use Program in the mountain block. Cliff continues some of his research work past his retirement. I forget the name of the award he just got not too long ago. There’s my mentor Lou Comin who picked the reins up from Ray Frey in Nahanni and got the park warden program developed and growing there. Lou was at the helm as the Chief Park Warden in Wood Buffalo when they got rid of the timber berth. A lot of other people tried and were unsuccessful at that. I think it was maybe timely, as this was just after the Ecological Integrity Panel Report and they were able to get rid of the timber birth – there was commercial logging in the south western side of park. Every winter they’d come in and do logging. And then there are guys like Lloyd Freese in Kluane. He was on the interview panel that hired me. Lloyd was always a steady, steady guy and always put a positive spin on things. He worked with the other functions and agencies to help deliver our mandate. And in my latter years there were my colleagues in Kluane like Ray Breneman, Kevin McLaughlin, Rick Staley, Terry Skjonsberg, and Andrew Lawrence. And there’s another person to me who was a bit of a legend in my mind anyway, Christine Hedgecock. She’s been a seasonal warden patrol person on the Chilkoot Trail for 40 some years, just an incredible story there. Those are the names that come to mind.

MH: Is there anything about the Warden Service, as you knew it, that you would like future generations to know?

Tom: To me it’s just the fact that it was once a multi-function, Public Safety, Resource Management, Law Enforcement agency, not just a Law Enforcement focused organization. That’s to me, the pride and joy of the warden service. I hope we never lose sight and track of that.

MH: What made the Warden Service such a unique organization? 3249

Tom: I start to repeat myself, but it was the fact that it was a multi-function Public Safety, Resource Management, Law Enforcement agency, staffed by very close sister and brotherhood of truly dedicated staff.

MH: Do you have any lasting memories as a Warden? 3355

Tom: I think I’ve kind of touched on some of them. If you read the Grotte Mickey story on the Warden Alumni site can be found at https://parkwardenalumni.com/2015/04/17/exploring-grotte-mickey-nahanni-national-park-part-1/ https://parkwardenalumni.com/2015/04/17/exploring-grotte-mickey-nahanni-national-park-part-2/

There’s lots of other stories as well. I recall a time in Kluane during my first year as a park warden when they had an Allouette III which is a high altitude rescue helicopter that had a cable rescue capability. One warden sat in the Allouette and ran a winch cable that lowered and raised people off the mountain. I was involved in 1 or 2 situations of its use. One time they lowered me down to put a small spot fire out and another time they lowered me down to investigate a suspected poaching. On both occasions when I was lowered out I stepped out of the helicopter, my foot would get caught between the step and the frame of the helicopter. After it happened the first time on my second lowering, I was cautious of my foot getting stuck and again and sure enough as I was being lowered my foot got caught. I grabbed onto a strut of the body of the helicopter to take the weight off my foot so I could release it, but by the time I did that, a bunch of slack had developed in the winch cable. The cable operator is not only looking at the guy being lowered but is also looking around to see where the helicopter is in relation to close trees and cliff bands etc. While he was looking for hazards about 10-20 feet of slack in the cable had developed. I’m hanging there holding on with one hand looking up waiting for the cable operator to look down and see my predicament. I can remember thinking, I can hold on forever, I had so much adrenalin running through me. I think after that second time this happened to me, they removed the step so that wouldn’t happen again.

There was another time in Yoho National Park at Takakkaw Falls day use area. I was the duty warden and was called in to a situation there. A porcupine had become trapped inside an outhouse. The Duty Warden was called in to fix the situation. I got up there and there was 20-30 people standing around watching/waiting to see what was going to happen. I was kind of scratching my head wondering what I was going to do. I was kind of going by the seat of my pants and remembered I had a broom in the back of my truck, so I grabbed it, opened the door, pinned the porcupine between the door, the wall and the seat frame of the toilet. I climbed up on top of the bench where the toilet seat was, and closed the door. I got the broom and pushed the porcupine to the other side of the outhouse by the door opening. All the while it was swishing its quill loaded tail angrily back and forth. I was able to hold it there long enough to open the door a crack where he was able to get out. It all happened in maybe 15-20 seconds, but all these people were looking at me like I’m supposed to be some kind of professional, when really I was just flying by the seat of my pants.

There was another time when I was in Auyuittuq, we had heard that there were some of the Calgary Flames hiking Pangnirtung Pass. We kept our eyes open and sure enough I met on the trail, Doug Riseborough, Bob Murdoch and Jim Peplinski. We got talking to them and told them when they returned drop by the house after their hike. They were staying at Peyton Lodge, a small busy place. I don’t know if there was water rationing there or what, but they came by and had showers at our house. I remember Bob Murdoch holding my young son Brett at the time, and it was just like they were old friends. Later that year I flew out to a Chief Wardens meeting in Winnipeg and the Flames happened to be playing so I went to the game with Lou Comin. We went down to the players’ bench before the start of the game and I caught Peplinski’s attention and sure enough he remembered me. He asked what we were doing after the game, I said no plans, so he said meet us where the players come out after the game. They won the game, at the time they had trouble beating Winnipeg. Everyone was in a festive mood after the game when Lou and I met them coming out of the player’s tunnel. They suggested we meet them for a beer and pizza. The place they were going to was across the road from the hotel where we were staying. They asked us how we were going to get there, and we said we’d take a cab. They said to heck with that, come on the team bus with us. So Lou and I got on the team bus and we’re sitting there with Lanny Macdonald, Doug Gilmour, Tim Hunter and the rest of the Flames team. This was the same team that went on to win the Stanley Cup that year. We’re sitting in the bar having beer and pizza and Doug Riseborough comes to join us. He was in management at that time so he was kind of an outcast but he stayed long enough to take off his Stanley Cup ring and let us try it on. It was just one of those special park related stories. Peplinski and Riseborough weren’t the only celebrities I met on the job. I was working at Nahanni, when Gordon Lightfoot was doing a river trip. I remember sitting around the campfire having a “Rusty Nail” with him one night. But again, just lots and lots of stories.

MH: Do you ever miss being a Warden? 4136

Tom: I miss my colleagues and travelling some of the rivers like the Nahanni or the Tat, some of the backcountry areas and things like that. A lot of the guys from Kluane are retired and are still living up here in Haines Junction so I see them fairly regularly; unfortunately, it seems most often these days at funerals. That is what it is as well.

MH: Do you have any photos of yourself as a warden that you would like to donate? Artifacts? 4200

Tom: The easiest is facebook on my profile, I have several albums of “What I did when I grew up” and there’s a selection of photos from Kluane, Auyuittuq, Nahanni and you’re welcome to copy or save any of those. There’s a classic one, I think Mike Shintz did a warden history but on the cover of that book is a picture of me, Darro Stinson, Willi Pfisterer and Hans Fuhrer, and we’re all on horses, most of us have the yellow rain slickers. That’s a classic photo and there’s a picture in Auyuittuq of me climbing out of a polar bear den and there’s a few other ones, just have a look and if you see anything that’s appropriate, just copy/save or whatever.

MH: Anyone else to interview? Any final comments? 4534

Tom: Interesting talks might be with Larry Harbidge or Lloyd Freese and I mentioned Christine Hedgecock. Christine is kind of a northern person and a lot of guys in the south wouldn’t know her. Just the fact that she’s been a seasonal for so long, she’s got to be 65 and she’s still working on the Chilkoot. She’s kind of “Mother Chilkoot” after so many years. She might be an interesting person to talk to.

One other person you should speak to is Will Devlin. Will and I became good friends over time. I suggested he look at northern opportunities for work. There were other guys like, Bill Thorpe, Doug Eastcott and Chuck Blythe who went north and then came back south in better positions. Chuck Blythe in fact returned north and has retired in Fort Simpson after many years at Nahanni. Will did come north a couple of times. He worked with me in Auyuittuq one summer as well as in Kluane for a year or two. The other interesting thing about Will is that his son Kurt now works for parks which is kind of interesting, you know multi-generation careers. Cal Sime would be another example like that and another interesting character. And there’s the colourful 5%, guys like Al Bjorn (BJ). He got married up here in Destruction Bay, which was another story. At his wedding, he and his cowboy friends rode up to the wedding site on horses while his fiancé and maids of honour all rode up in a horse drawn wagon. It was probably the most fun wedding and reception party I’ve ever gone to. BJ was up here a year ago, when another ex-Kluane warden, Mark Eikland passed away and BJ came up and was one of his pallbearers. It’s a small park warden world and network where you make friends and keep these relationships and contacts going. I’ve made good friends from coast to coast. The national warden schools we used to have with guys from across the country coming to them. Another name that comes to mind is Peter Deering, who was on the warden centennial climb in 1985. He was also back for the warden 100th anniversary in Banff. You know those warden gatherings are special occasions, Another was when Will, Bruce Sundbo and BJ maybe, and I think one other fellow retired and they had the party for them at Radium Hot Springs, that was another fun gathering. The Ya Ha Tinda ranch anniversary was special as well, I didn’t stay very long; I was there the Friday night before the ceremony and snuck away after the ceremony. It was fun. Guys like Tom Hurd, Cliff White, all those guys were there. Tom worked at Nahanni when I was there, we still had jetboats at that time. I think at the end of a climbing school Tom was taking the guys back to the Blackstone Landing and he cut a corner, hit a sandbar and got stuck and I had to go and rescue him. We had to empty the boat and take a bunch of gear out to make it lighter and there was Tom and a few gear boxes on a little sandbar just out of the water. I remember taking a couple of pictures that I knew would come in handy some day and I think I sent them to Charlie Pacas for Tom’s retirement party. Charlie is another guy who’s gone now. He’s another warden who came and worked in the Prairie and Northern region for a while out of Winnipeg. Looking back, a lot of guys did take advantage of travelling north to broaden their horizons and it was worth it for them and the Parks Canada Warden Service organization.

It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times at the end. But we will always have our memories. Thanks for the opportunity to do this interview and share these memories.

Cover of Warden History Book by Mike Schintz. Left to right, Hans Fuhrer, Tom Elliot, Willi Pfisterer, Darro Stinson, 1985 Warden Centennial Climb