LETTERS Remembering the Siscoes

As a person with some interest in the Canadian mining industry it is not unusual to read accounts of the history of different mining areas. I refer to the article “Focus on Val d’Or” in the January issue of The Northern Miner Magazine.

Mentioned in the article is Stanley Siscoe, an individual who is supposed to have headed for the bush to escape getting involved in military service. He was supposed to be living on an island with some friends killing time by prospecting. Stanley Siscoe, who happens to have been my uncle (on my father’s side), and his friends, to the best of my knowledge, were not Canadian citizens at the time of the First World War. Therefore they were not eligible for service in the Canadian military. My father, Joseph Siscoe, who was of military age, was working in Timmins during the war. Not being a Canadian citizen, he too was not eligible for military service and there was no need for him to head for the bush to hide. One of the “friends,” Joseph Samulski, because he was not allowed to join the Canadian overseas contingent, went back to Poland and joined the Polish army, returning to Siscoe after the war.

As for the group that remained, I should emphasize that conditions at the time were extremely primitive. And any progress made involved tedious and arduous effort as well as a dogged determination to succeed when all the professionals said there was no gold to be found in the rock formation that existed at Siscoe.

When I arrived at Siscoe in 1923, land had been cleared, buildings had been put up and considerable trenching had also been done. A steam- powered compressor was in operation as well as a steam-powered hoist and two locomotive boilers, not to mention other elements of the necessary infrastructure. An inclined shaft had been sunk and, judging by the size of the muck pile, there must have been a considerable amount of crosscutting done.

Only those who have worked under the primitive conditions that these men did can fully appreciate the initial effort that was made to bring the Siscoe gold mine into production.

I should like to pay special tribute to my other uncle, Joseph Samulski, who had a penchant for being willing to do the dirtiest or toughest jobs. Not the least of these was having to paddle a canoe to Amos and wheedling supplies from A. A. Drouin General Merchant. Once he started on the trip, there was no stopping because to stop any place meant being eaten alive by insects, who were no respectors of hours. Another of his tasks was shooting a moose for meat supplies for the camp. That part was easy, but standing waist deep in lily-pads cutting up the moose and being eaten by mosquitoes presented difficulties not too pleasant at any time. My father used to sit in the canoe swatting flies and telling him to hurry-up.

Perhaps I should mention that I was christened Joseph Siscoe but, for personal reasons, changed my name. Forston R. Shandler, Victoria, B.C.