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Dead in the winter of 1957, Northwestern Ontario camp owners, Barney Lamm and Dr. Clifford Eisentrout, took off from Kenora, Ontario for Alaska.  Overloaded with survival gear and an extra 47 US gallons of gas in a belly tank, they flew non-stop to Edmonton where the plane, a 150 Super Cub, was immediately grounded by the DOT.  Barney's mechanics at Ontario Central Airlines had installed unauthorized pods on CF-JFO made from agricultural tanks in the wing struts for baggage storage.  Four days later they took off, the plane having been re-certified as experimental, their destination, Point Barrow.  (Only Barney could have pulled something like this off.) 

Snubbed by professional guides at Point Barrow who charged $10,000 for a hunt, the pair struck out on their own for the Arctic Ocean.  Landing at Kotzebue, a village of 350, on the Chukchi Sea, they secured lodging and next day set out on the hunt.   

''Worst part of flying over the ice was trying to land," said Barney, ''the ice was constantly changing and we'd be anywhere from 75 to 125 miles out from land." Temperature was 30 to 40 below (F) with constant winds."  Three days they flew before spotting their first sizable polar bear.  Barney took the opportunity to fly over Russia a bit, just to say he'd done it.  Pack ice is constantly shifting as sea and wind push it into a jumble of pressure ridges.  Herding the bear toward an area of flat ice where they could land was old hat as they'd done it many times with wolves back in Ontario.  Barney no sooner had the plane down than Doc was out and after the bear in the ridges.  It took two shots to bring the 900 pound beast down. 

Bad weather held them up for three days before they found Barney's bear in the pressure ridges.  This time it took some skilful flying, to herd the bear for several miles toward a narrow band of flat ice.  ''This is the most treacherous part of all,&rdquo Doc Eisentrout said.  ''There's no way to test the ice until you land on it."

Again both men left the airplane to hunt down their quarry.  Barney was using a .35 calibre automatic rifle.  After two shots, the gun jammed.  The wounded bear turned and charged.  Hammering furiously on the breech, Barney managed to clear it just in time to drop the 1200 pound animal.

The Alaska guides began talking to them again after their success, but they were to find out how reckless they'd been.  The flat ice they'd landed on was last night's new ice which had not yet broken up on the relentless currents.  The Alaskan pros always flew with two planes as it was not unheard of for one to break through the ice.  They also never left the airplane without a rubber inflatable.  Flat ice was known to break away, leaving stranded hunters watching their airplane drift away on another ice flow.

To fill out their month long hunt, Doc Eisentrout, who was also an American, made application to the US Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service for a wolf permit.  Issued on February 27, 1957, permit # A-FAI-57-9 allowed the two men to hunt wolves from the air as long as the, ''permittee shall be accompanied on all hunting flights by, Barney Lamm." 

Hunting along the north slope of the Brooks Range, the pair of ardent hunters managed to bring down 30 wolves with a $50 bounty on each, and the hides sold for $30 a piece.  Nice way to pay for their trip.  Not that expenses weren't high.  If you listen to an interview they gave to radio station CJRL in Kenora, there are some surprising cost for hamburgers, even by today's prices.

 Barney and Doc's interview

     (Remember, this is radio that is over 50 years old)

 (I'd recommend opening or printing the PDF file so you can follow the four and a half minute interview) 

Click here for a transcript of the interview

 With only enough room for Doc's pelt, Barney's, which weighed over 160 pounds, had to be shipped back home.  By April 11^th Barney was at the Northwest Sportsmen's show in the Auditorium at Minneapolis, Wisconsin, promoting Ball Lake Lodge.  After an 18,000 mile journey with no radio, flying over barren ice and snow, often in whiteout conditions, it must have seemed pretty tame. 

 COMMENTS

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 Barney and Marion Lamm flew into Canada in June of 1946 on a flight that would see them eventually build and operate the most prestigious fly-in fishing lodge in Northwestern Ontario. Barney's Ball Lake Lodge became the destination for America's elite, from movie stars to Mafia bosses, and all manner of politicians and businessmen in between.

Situated on Ball Lake, some 50 miles north of Kenora, Ontario, it was accessible only by air. In 1952 Barney bought out Gordie Hollinsworth, one of the principles of Ontario Central Airlines. Soon a fleet of yellow Norseman aircraft were ferrying guests and supplies not only to Ball Lake but also to many of the other fly-in lodges that were springing up throughout the English River system. Later he would add two Grumman Gooses and a Canso to the fleet to bring guest directly from the States to Ball Lake.

Tiffany lamps and brand new Evinrude outboard engines set the standard both Marion and Barney wanted for their guests. A well stocked bar in the main lodge served drinks that could be enjoyed in front of a huge stone fireplace after a day's fishing. Guides from the local Indian reservations made sure their clients never came home empty handed. At night, all the boats would be pulled up on shore and lined up to make a picture perfect row along the beach. One of Barney's rules was that if a guest got his guide drunk, then he was assigned to him the next day. For all the booze the lodge went through, air plane loads of it, there were very few problems.

A guest had only to set his fishing gear outside the door before going to breakfast in the main dining room. He would find it in the boat, along with his guide at the start of the day's fishing. Trophy fish were sent to the taxidermist and any fish the guest wanted to keep were filleted and packed in dry ice before being flown to Kenora and sent on by express to their destinations across the continent.

 Post a comment HERE   or  author@EdZaruk.com 

Perhaps the most common beginning writer's problem is telling rather than showing your reader the action. Show, Don't Tell, is one of the basic rules of writing. Telling arises from the use, or rather, over-use of the verbs associated with 'to be.' By using was, were, and so on, you place the action at some distance from your reader. This use of passive voice could be written:  

There was a knock on the door. She was surprised.

Let's make the noun active by using different verbs and one sentence a subordinate clause-

A knock pounded on the door, surprising her.

Now we'll use some different verbs-

A late night knock came from the door, catching her unprepared.

Jumping from her chair, she answered the light knock on the door.

This is the basic difference between a passive sentence and an active one. The first pacifies you, simply letting you know what happened. The second places you in the midst of the action. It is active all around you. 

If I find myself writing a sentence with a 'to be' verb, I'll try to rewrite it as an active sentence. It almost always sounds sharper and more interesting that way. By using verbs of action one can engage the reader and bring them into the scene. Now there are times when a change of pace is required. Using 'to be' verbs will slow things down and have a dampening effect on the action.

If you do nothing else other than changing 'was' and 'were' to action verbs in your writing, you would go far to showing and not telling.

Here is a recipe that came to me to make bannock. Thought I'd share it with you, and as you can see, there is lots of leeway.

• Flour
• Baking powder
• Water
• Salt
• Lard or fat

• 3 cups of flour
• tbs of baking powder
• pinch of salt
• enough water to mix into dough
• lard - use lots, 1/4" in the bottom of a frying pan

Dump all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Mix and add water until dough forms.   Spread dough out, put in frying and place in fire. Can also be cooked in the oven. What temperature? No idea, but not too hot because it takes a while to cook through. 

Serve hot with butter.

A couple of variations- mix dough thicker and wrap around a willow branch then cook over an open flame. Good as dumplings in stew. Is it any wonder that this bread that originated in Scotland was so popular with Natives and backwoods people?   

I had occasion to be involved in a short story contest recently where readers could leave comments when voting for their favorite work. I noticed that more than one person used the phrase, 'Great writing.' Now I take exception to that. When writing is 'great,&rsquo how do you describe something better. In my opinion only a few writers have ever reached the 'great,&rsquo status: Homer, Shakespeare, Dickens, and others within their class.