Contributed by Doug Van Tine
My parents, Ed and Daisy Madonna Van Tine, accompanied by the Ed Mohr family, moved to Ootsa Lake in the fall of 1919. dad and mom had six children, since Bill had been born on the trip up, and the Mohr family had about six children, as well as a grandmother. They all moved into an old cabin near where the Wistaria Hall is today.
In the spring of 1920, they pre-empted a lot on Ootsa Lake and dad built a three-bedroom, two-storey, log house. They worked hard to clear land, build out-buildings and barns, and raise 12 children in the coming years: I am the eleventh. I was born on March 10, 1932.
Dad guided in the fall and trapped in the winter. He would leave home before freeze-up and return at break up in the spring, with the exception of walking home to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve with his family. Then, he would return to Sand Cabin Bay on Big Eutsuk Lake, in early January. It was a distance of more than 80 miles, one way, on snowshoes and towing a toboggan filled with supplies or furs.
Dad built our first house, barns, root cellar and chicken coop – all the from the land and on the shores of Ootsa Lake. In 1933, dad hired a carpenter named Otto Ragsdale, to help him and some of my brothers, Meryl and Buster, build a new, bigger house. The new house was a beautiful two-story log building, with six bedrooms. We had a sawmill set up on our land, owned by Bob Moore, of Wisteria. They cut all the lumber for the new house right there. We moved into the new house in 1937.
Our property was Lot #670, where the spillway is today. Our house would be a half mile out from the spillway, in 149 feet of water. Our sleigh and wagon are still be out there.
We didn’t have much money, but we always had enough to eat. We raised a large garden and had several milk cows to sell milk, cream, and butter. We all picked wild berries and mom canned them. We had chickens and pigs and moose meat. Mom did the housework and raised all twelve of us, she was a hard worker. Mom would cook for dad’s hunters, and she also ran a boarding house in our new house.
One of my earliest memories was when I was three or four years old. We still lived in the old house and my job was to shut the door of the chicken house at night.
It was Halloween night, and it was dark when I came back from locking up the chickens. My older brothers, Meryl and Buster were hiding behind the barn door. They had carved a jack-o-lantern out of a turnip, and they chased me around the yard with it. I was so scared that I peed my pants.