ODDS’N’SODS — Nostalgia for the old wood-burner

Wood-burning stoves were an essential part of our lives in the mining camps in the good old days. They served a vital purpose in both home and cookery, providing the fire and warmth for heating and cooking.

For our part, we lovingly lugged our old McClary wood-burner on our trek across Canada. It was heavy and awkward, with its replaceable iron lid covers, steel grates, lined oven and hot water tank. From the time it was filled in the morning with paper and kindling to start a busy daily schedule until the faintly glowing embers died in the late evening, the McClary was dutifully attended by the entire family. Constant refueling was required throughout the day, meaning that an adjacent wood box had to be kept full. Fuel was a very important item. Whether in Ontario, Quebec or in the western reaches of British Columbia, the right type of wood had to be secured, sized, stockpiled and nurtured throughout the year to feed the wood-burner. At the Bralorne-Pioneer mines in British Columbia, the old wood lot was a prominent real estate asset for all the miners. Families staked out sections of rain forest growth and selectively felled the fir trees. Cutting started in the spring, usually, so that the hot summer sun could dry and cure the wood prior to movement in the autumn to the home woodshed. The solid, dry fir members, when fed to the hungry McClary grates, were an ever-reliable source of heat.

In the Salmo area of British Columbia, fuel tastes favored the tamarack. This was a new experience for my family and their wood reliance.

The tight resin grains of the tamarack, when burned, poured out a vibrant flame which would soon consume the steel grates if not dampened and checked. In fact, the tamarack burned just as well green as when dry. To supplement the supplies of tamarack, generous piles of white pine were stored and zealously conserved for the needs of deepest winter when “long-burning” fires were required.

In Ontario, the forest yielded stands of tall white birch and spruce to feed our McClary. The chief attribute of the birch was the fierce burning bark which, when peeled, was ideal to start the flame in the fire box; hence, no paper igniter was necessary.

In addition, the scent of the dried birch and spruce was an essential ingredient in the kitchen menu. Meals prepared on a hot stove fueled by the crackling birch wood had an unique “backwoods” flavor. Rarest of all was the yellow birch of the Quebec hinterland in its appeal to the McClary. It was heavy to handle, hard to split and cumbersome to carry, but this variety of birch had a special attraction to the wood-burner.

Each piece of wood was long-lasting and burned with a constant flame which simmered the roast in the oven, baked the bread with the even heat, toasted the bread on the large top plates or fried the bacon and eggs on the top grill to the delight of the family attendant.

In wintertime, the long, steady, orange flame warmed the entire house from the McClary’s radiant fire box. With time came changes which even the magnificent McClary could not withstand. First came the oil-burners to compete with the wood-burners. There followed the propane stoves which fast supplanted the old faithfuls. Further still, with the remorseless changes of a fast-paced technology, other appliances, including the electric stove and the ultra-modern microwave, appeared.

In spite of all the trends of recent years in home cooking and heating units, the memory of the old wood-burner grows more appealing and even romantic as one recalls the welcoming scent of birch, pine, fir and tamarack, the crackle of glowing wood embers, piles of wood ashes to dig into the soil of the garden and, lastly, the insatiable appetite of those old steel grates. Mining has never been the same since the old McClary wood-burner was relegated to some long-forgotten, mining camp woodshed for storage. — S.J. Hunter is a retired mining engineer in Vancouver.