Odds ‘n’ Sods: Buckles Crescent

In the mid-1950s, during the Elliot Lake city planning sessions, a committee was formed and chaired by Franc Joubin (1911-1997). I was stationed at Joubin’s Technical Mine Consultants headquarters in Toronto, and was familiar with his detailed efforts and extensive input into city planning, even with regard to its street names.

Many of the streets in Elliot Lake are named after mining men. Indeed, not a day goes by when the street names don’t crop up in conversation. Names such as Joubin, Stollery, Roman and Buckles are overheard regularly, and when they are, I am reminded of a time when Elliot Lake was a great mining town.

This week’s column is devoted to Buckles Crescent, named after Harry Buckles, whom I knew well from the Rix uranium mine at the Beaverlodge camp, in northern Saskatchewan, and later at Ontario’s Blind River and Elliot Lake uranium mines.

A big man, Harry had a gimpy leg and was forever chomping on a cigar. Joubin referred to him as his “field marshall.” If you wanted a job done, Buckles was your man. If he couldn’t get in the front door, he would go in the side door, wherever and however he could, or he would go down the chimney if need be, which would have been some feat considering the size of his derrire.

(Speaking of chimneys, I am reminded of the time when I was staying in the Lockwood clinic on Bloor Street in Toronto. I soon learned of a large institution next door that housed severely handicapped children, and, years later, I was told that Buckles was their Santa Claus; he was certainly the right size — and the right human being — for just such a job.)

Recently, while glancing at the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame photos on display at the Elliot Lake Nuclear and Mining Museum, I overheard someone say it is unfortunate that miners themselves are not represented in the display. It was a good point, especially considering that miners require brains as well as brawn, and are justly proud of their trade.

Over the years, I have sometimes wondered: Who is needed the most — the miner or the manager? The answer, I now realize, is both, including the full team above and below the ground. However, owing to the Hall of Fame’s criteria for selecting inductees, it is unlikely that a full-time miner would qualify. But then I realized that a fair number of the inductees were miners themselves, at some stage in their careers, and that they had moved up the ladder as a result of hard work, dedication, and sometimes plain luck. Moreover, were it not for these outstanding individuals, many miners may not have had jobs at all.

Harry Buckles may not be in the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, but he was a pillar in the industry and played a major role in the Blind River and Elliot Lake camps.

Buckles graduated as a mining engineer in the Dirty Thirties. Upon graduating, he joined Inco, not as an engineer but as a hard-working miner. For three years he pushed his way from job to job underground, gaining experience and knowledge. No one knew he was a graduate engineer. When he announced he was quitting, he was offered promotions, but instead he went to England for a special wartime job in the mines, returning to Canada after the war. In a relatively short time, he became manager at the Mackenzie Island, Gold Eagle and Cochenour Willans gold mines, near Red Lake, Ont.; then on to Beaverlodge, as manager of the Rix. The following year, he was one of Joubin’s right-hand men at Blind River and Elliot Lake.

Buckles Crescent was named after a remarkable miner and an outstanding man.

Next week: Don Smith

The author, a retired mining engineer, resides in Barrie, Ont.