Devona LeBar - Mary Duncan

 

JENNIFER MCCAULEY INTERVIEWS  2006

Transcription from audio tape

Nipigon Historical Museum Grant

Devona LeBar (Duncan)

Father Ross Duncan

Grandparents: Mary (Finlayson), Downey Duncan

“Cameron Falls area, as I remember it, had around 30 – 40 houses in it, with a pool, church, school house, recreation centre etc.

My Grandmother Mary came to Nipigon around 1950 when my Grandfather died.  She was the Head Cook in the bush camps in the Cameron Falls and Pine Portage areas for approximately fifteen years beginning in the 50’s.  Pine Portage was a busy place when they had the log booms which were dangerous.  I stayed with my Grandmother all summer, and on week-ends and I never learned how to swim as a child because my Grandmother was always afraid I was going to drown with all the fast water surrounding the area.  Mary was an excellent cook and at Pine Portage camp I remember there were around seventy to eighty men stationed there and I remember setting the table for all the men and it took me an awful long time.  Ike Mutch was the Supervisor/Foreman for Abitibi Price, and he ran the camp where my Grandmother worked.

There were a lot of bears back then hanging around the camps and they would try to get into the building by clawing at the door to get at the meat that was stored in the camps.  There were also outdoor root cellars that were dug into the ground that were used to preserve the food.  I remember a couple of incidents with the bears where my Grandmother slept in a chair all night with a gun in her lap protecting me from a bear that was trying to get into the camp.  Another time there was a bear standing in front of me at the screen door and I remember screaming as loud as I could and the bear ran off.

The men at the camp were fed well with all kinds of trays of food including cakes, sandwiches, fruit trays, cookies, tons of baking and big meals.  They only paid around $4 / day for their food and lodging, which wasn’t much considering how well they were fed.  My Grandma was Head Cook and had a lot of Cook-ees working under her whom she would direct as to what she wanted done and they would answer to her, they did all the prep-work like peeling potatoes etc.”

END