X-Message-Number: 6035
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 1996 21:49:18 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: MY VISIT TO YELLOWKNIFE
MY VISIT TO YELLOWKNIFE
(From the November 1995 issue of Canadian Cryonics News)
By Doug Skrecky
Fueled by curiousity I decided to pay a visit to Yellowknife. Ben
Best had a job for me as well. "Your mission should you decide to accept
it is to photograph the graves of two Europeans buried in the permafrost.
Their relatives would really appreciate this." Then the tape recorder
burnt itself out.
After an inexpensive charter flight to Edmonton I was surprised to
learn that plane fare between Edmonton and Yellowknife was a rather hefty
$600 return. So I made the mistake of hopping on a milk run Greyhound bus
bound for Enterprise, NWT instead. I had had flap jacks for breakfast and
had forgotten them till the road became rather rough and the bus started
going up and down, up and down. The flap jacks started going flip, flap,
flip, flap. At the Alberta border there was a sign stating that all the
land beyond was the North Western Territories. It looked like the end of
the universe to me at the time. Eventually the bus stopped shaking. I
looked out and spotted a diner stuck out in the middle of nowhere. This
was Enterprise, the home for 49 people and my bus stop. Heaven I thought.
The air had quite a chill in it for early October and the trees looked
rather runty. I sat down and waited. The wind whispered its secrets for a
time. A loud flapping noise startled me. It was a raven flying overhead.
One forgets how quiet nature can be after living in a city for so long.
The last leg of the journey to Yellowknife turned out to be a bus from
Arctic Frontier Carrier. The bus driver put out his hand and a fifty
dollar bill disappeared from my wallet and appeared therein. However this
bus driver drove more slowly and the ride was rather more smooth.
After arriving late in Yellowknife I flagged a taxi and hopped in.
The driver was a black fellow who seemed very enthusiastic about all the
money non-natives were making in Yellowknife and all the alcohol the
natives were drinking and what was I doing in Yellowknife? Fare was $4. I
handed him a ten and recieved $104 in change. After handing back the
hundred I looked at him and wondered and wondered.
Next day I visited Lakeview Cemetary with Brian, the grave digger
to guide me. The new section of the cemetary had two graves that did not
have any headstones on them, but instead had sections of black ABS pipe
sticking out of the ground. Paupers I thought, surprised that this was
even allowed in a modern cemetary. Brian pointed to one of the unmarked
graves and indicated that this was one of the plots I was looking for.
This did not make any sense as the family must have spent a lot of money
just shipping the casket across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada. They had
money all right. Brian was not sure where the other was buried so he
called in the foreman. Surprise, surprise the other unmarked grave was
the other European. I took photographs of what there was in the area,
including the surrounding "forest". A forest this was if you agree that
trees 15 feet tall can be called trees rather than shrubs.
Later I visted the Yellowknife Puclic Works department to fish for
more information. Cheri Ducept, the secretary mentioned that a bylaw is
being considered to require all graves to have a headstone. She also
mentioned that burying the Europeans was quite a lot of trouble as their
caskets were far larger than is normal. One of them even had a
thermometer sticking out of it. A bylaw requiring that foreigners pay
extra for burial is being considered she noted.
Cheri had been informed by Territorial Funeral Homes that one of
the Europeans had apparently been first shipped to Rankin Inlet for
burial in the permafrost, but the local native Indians had refused to
allow burial in their cemetary. Territorial Funeral Homes became involved
and the casket was shipped to Yellowknife for burial. According to Brian
in May you hit frost about 4 feet deep in Lakeview Cemetary, but by
October this is 8-10 feet deep if there is any permafrost at all. The
graves of both Europeans were of the standard depth of 6 feet, so they
are not situated in permafrost. I asked if there was a colder cemetary in
the Yellowknife area and was told that there was an older one, but it
suffered from a lot of ground water runoff and at least one buried body
had resurfaced as a result.
I spent the rest of the day touring Yellowknife and marvelling that
it could have highrises this far north. It is a "working" town and not a
tourist attraction, unless you are hunting big game or diamonds.
Nonetheless there was a very nice tourist information center. There I
learnt that almost 17,000 people lived in Yellowknife, that the average
household income was $66,800 and that food prices were 37% higher than in
Edmonton. I wondered what the average native Indian household income was.
Normal temperatures for Oct 6'th were 4 to -2 C. This year was warmer
with a range of 6 to 2 C. Record high of 16 C was in 1988. Record low of
-10 C in 1979!
I decided to make one last visit to Lakeview Cemetary. I purchased
a flashlight and shone this down the two ABS pipes on the graves to see
if I could spot a thermometer. The pipes curved however and nothing was
visible inside them. After arriving back in town I phoned Territorial
Funeral Homes and ordered two brochures on headstones and grave caps be
mailed to my address so I could forward these on to the parties
concerned. The secretary Milly Pittner seemed to be all business where
potential sales were at stake. She mentioned that the funeral director
was Robert Jensen. If there are any further dealings with Territorial
Funeral Homes regarding permafrost burial I recommend that all
correspondance be with with Robert.
After this business I took one last look around downtown
Yellowknife. Then I left.
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