Tower stories by Tim Cecile from black bears to sunbathing to moonshine

names below

Tim Cecile worked for the Department of Lands and Forest and later the Ministry of Natural Resources for over 30 years (from 1964 until 1997) in the Chapleau District. From 1964 until 1968 he worked summers only and after 1968 he worked full time. He worked on fire crews in the early years and later on was still involved as a camp boss, transportation officer etc. on larger fires in busy fire years. 

Tim relates that one job a fire crew had was to bring in supplies to the tower man and in many areas they could not drive all the way to the tower and had to carry groceries, tanks of propane etc, long distances and of course all uphill, which was very hard bull work. 9E tower in particular (Flame Lake area, highway # 129 south) was a long tough climb, especially with the big propane tanks.

Here are Tower Stories by Tim Cecile:

·       Sometime after the Second World War (late 1940’s) my Uncle Cecil Petrosky was working as a tower man in the Chapleau district (not sure what tower) and while cutting grass around the tower cabin he cut his leg badly with a scythe, he then had to climb to the top of a 80 foot tower to radio for help and he had a very hard time making it to the top. He then had to get back down which was not a lot easier.

Lawless Cecile climbing tower

There is a story (never confirmed) about a young lady who manned a tower at Biscotasing during the Second World War who used to open the hatch and sun bathe nude on the tower cabin roof (80 feet up). Apparently all the float planes would buzz the tower when passing the area to check on her. I worked in Biscotasing on a fire crew in the early 1960’s and heard this story a few times but was not able to confirm it.

There was a fire tower in the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve called Manning tower. This tower always had black bear problems and one tower man was forced to sleep in the tower overnight  on a couple of occasions as the bears had broken into his sleep cabin at the bottom and were eating all his food and hanging around the base of the tower all night. Once he had to wait until the radio operator came in to the Chapleau office in the morning so he could call for help as the bears were still there and he could not get down.

 

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Around 1965 I was working in Biscotasing on a fire crew and they were building a new 100 foot tower to replace the 80 foot tower at Mattagami south of Biscotasing on the CPR main line. I and another young fellow were sent to help just for the day and we were to return to Bisco that night and that all we required was a lunch. They left us there for two full weeks, we had no spare clothes, no sleeping bags (we were in tents and someone gave us a couple of gray army type blankets each). After a couple of days we radioed the Chief Ranger (Bill O’Donnell) to take us out or send us some clothes and our tooth brushes.

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 He called us a couple of babies and said tough it out or walk home and if we left we were fired, so we toughed it out. While here we were introduced to the tower man who only had one leg (I think he lost the leg in the Second World War but I am not sure). He had rigged up a barrel full of rocks as a counter balance, complete with pulleys and ropes and would use a special seat to raise and lower himself to the tower and he made it up and down in very quick time.

 

·       Another interesting thing he had at Matagami tower was a still back in the bush where he made moonshine which he treated us to on a few occasions and was it ever potent stuff. We searched for that still and never found it, we later heard a rumor he had it in hidden in a cave somewhere.  

Thanks Tim for sharing some of your Tower Stories and also to Ken LeClaire for his research assistance.  My email is mj.morris@live.ca    

PHOTO INFORMATION

Crew working on tower. From left Bobby Glowacki, Tim Cecile, Mike Cecile (sitting), Arthur 'Puxie' McAuley, Rodney 'Butch' McAuley (visiting), Larry Elfson, Lawless Cecile (Chief Ranger), Lloyd Woods (Deputy Chief Ranger) Tim Cecile photo collection

Lawless Cecile on ladder climbing up Lackner Tower, built in 1957, Clarence Iserhoff was first "tower man" Tim Cecile photo collection