Contributed by Doug Van Tine
Our money was very short so in our family every second child was able to go out to high school. Myself and brother Jim, were the two in later years, to get only a Grade 8 education. We had to stay home and help on the farm. Jim finished school in 1944 and Doug finished in 1946, at 13 years old.
Our Dad had one of the largest guiding areas in the province and this was to be ours, as we helped Dad run it in later years. Dad guided on Ootsa Lake from 1919 until 1952.
In the early years of guiding, Dad built a 50ft by 10ft houseboat, to accommodate fishermen and hunters. The boat was designed after the boats that he used to operate on the Mississippi River, and he hired Tommy McKinley to help him build it. It slept seven people, but we sometimes had to use tents on the shore for the guides.
READ MORE: My first house on Ootsa Lake
We had several river boats and row boats as well, which proved to out fish most other boats. Dad guided hunters to hunt ducks and geese primarily, but he also hunted big game: moose, caribou, and bear. Most of his hunters were American. They heard of Van Tine Guiding through advertisements in magazines or by word-of-mouth. Ed Van Tine was very well known in those days.
READ MORE: An explosive dat at Ootsa School
Some of the Van Tine boys helped Dad in the guiding business. Buster guided for a few years, and also, Meryl. Bill was a favourite with the hunters; he was also a great cowboy. Jim never guided in the early years, because he and Dad had had a fight and Jim moved out when he was sixteen or seventeen. I guided for Dad from 1948 until 1952, when Jim and I both took over the guiding area.
In the fall of 1952, brother Jim and I were guiding with Dad. We had a camp set up on Intata Lake; we guided American hunters on the lake, and Dad cooked for them. It was here that our Dad told us that he had signed the guide area over to us, since we worked with him and stayed at Ootsa. This was fine with us as we loved our life, being able to hunt, fish and trap, which was the only life we knew. The animals were plentiful, and we had no problem filling our hunter’s quotas.