Obituary: Donald Parrott

Donald Parrott, author and historian of the Red Lake mining district, has died. He was 86.

Parrott was born in Winnipeg, Man., and spent his formative years in nearby Grandview. When he was eight, Parrott moved with his family to Norway House, Man., where he attended school.

With the onset of the Red Lake gold rush in 1926, Parrott became interested in gold mining and spent his spare time prospecting with his father, Fleming Parrott.

When the Great Depression set in, the young Parrott quit school and joined his father to work as a blacksmith’s helper, sharpening drills and tools for miners at the Gods Lake gold mine in Manitoba. A year later, Parrott got a job as a boiler operator and pumpman at the Island Lake gold mine, 70 km south of Gods Lake.

In 1936, Parrott and his father moved to Red Lake, where he would spend 45 years chronicling the history of one of Canada’s most prolific mining districts.

In all, Parrott wrote 10 books on mining and aviation, including The Red Lake Gold Rush, 1926 (1965), The Second Rush to Red Lake, 1946 (1976), and Harold Farrington, Pilot (1982).

Parrott would also become a special correspondent to the Winnipeg Free Press, The Dryden Observer, and a regular contributor to the Odds ‘n’ Sods column of The Northern Miner.

Parrott enlisted in Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry at the onset of the Second World War and spent five years overseas. When in England, he met Barbara Crowley, and they married in 1943.

Parrott spent his last 25 years in Red Lake as chief operating engineer in the power house at Campbell Red Lake gold mines, a record of service that still stands.

In his 1984 autobiography, 50 Years Mining Gold, he described this period as “the happiest time of my life, as I owned my home, car, boat and outboard motor and took part in weekend prospecting.”

He retired in 1977.

Barbara Parrott passed away in 1998, by which time diabetes had begun to take its toll on Donald.

He is survived by his children, Diane, John, Constance and Susan.