The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-08-10
Libby Young
Women Now in
Far North
Continued from Page y

1
double hunks with a bright red
Hudson Bay blanket on one and a
bright green on the other-and In
dian design on polished hardwood
! floors. / the living room they had
long maple table and served us a
delightful lunch. Outside was large
well-tended garden and banks of
bright flowers, all of which seemed
nearly miraculous to Annie and me
way out there so far from civiliza-
ton Shortly after leaving Simpson
we caught our first sight Of the
Mackenzie, big, slow and wide
rather clay-colored probably due
to the rain and high water. We saw
several big barges headed for Canol
and since being here I have heard
they have been waiting for them
for over month.
Well, Mr.. Bendit, l suppose you
can imagine how excited we. were
when we finally saw Canol. The pi-
lot circled around once SO we could
get good look at it. The first thing
we saw at quite a distance was one
Of the wells that was burning and
sending up lots of smoke. Some of
the wells are out on an island in
the river and some on the mainland,
however, there is not lot you can
sea few storage tanks and quite
a few buildings on the Norman Well
side where we landed. After servic
ing the plane and changing pilots
they took us over to the other side
where Canol is located and then
it was not long as the flight strip
is directly back of Elliott's camps A
captain from U. S. E. D. was there
to meet us and took us over to the
Elliott office in a station wagon
which we were very thankful for
since, although it was clear then,
it had been raining and was very,
very muddy. They were Of course
very nice to us and took us over
to the matron who is sweet, moth
erly, cheerful person They have
two rows of seven each Butler Huts,
they call them their Igloos!, with a
big hall in between, SO it is almost
like all being in one building There
are six girls in each Butler Hut and
a living room in the outside end.
They have partial partitions with
drawers and closets built on either
side. But there are no partitions
lenghtWise of the building which
leaves it quite open but il is not
bad. Annie and | are in with four
girls who work in the laundry and
get along fine. They are all Cana
dams, as are most of the mattresses,
and have been up here some time.
The office building here is fairly
permanent type of building and big
and roomy. T. S. E. D., Standard Oil
and Elliotts all share the one build
ing but there seems to be plenty of
room for everyone. Annie and both
feel nearly lost with SO much room
but suppose they built it with ex-
pansion in mind and instead they
are curtailing activities. They have
built Annie little cage in the cor
ner by the door where people come.
in and she enjoys her work lot.
She says she. is not sure whether
they built the fence to keep people
out or keep her in! Mr. Payne, the
man | work for, is very good ma
tured and easy to work for and
much to my relief, is slow talker.
They write few letters due to the
slow and undependable mail service,
SO most of our communications are
by kilograms There are only six
other girls besides US and all Of
them are in payroll except one who
is in personnel. Then there are sew
eral men in the office but | have
not had time to define exactly what
their capacities are. At the front
of the building there are big, wide
steps leading up to it and as Annie
said, it was just like starting to high
school or college the first morning!
If we learn as much here as we did
at Utah we should really be sharks
by the time we leave!
They have an immense mess hall
which seats around 900 people but
since we have been here they do not
use all of them They have two serv-
ings for each meal and as would be
expected, the meals are decidedly
inferior to the ones at Utah. All the
potatoes are dehydrated but they do
an admirable job of Disgusting them.
They have had no butter for weeks
and they are also out of white sugar
and canned milk which is repre-
sentative Of the food situation most
Of the time But even SO, they taste
good if you are hungry-which we
usually are. They drink out of
bowls and the first night | found
myself feeling somewhat self-con-
scious about my big bowl of coffee
but by the third meal | was feeling
right at home with it! They have no
napkins whatever which is particu-
larly bad when we want to take
home sandwich or two-nothing to
camouflage them with at all!
The camp in general is very well
laid out and very neat. The roads
between the rows of buildings are
as wide as an ordinary street and
the dirt is graded up about five
feet neatly to the buildings. Every
thing except the office, mess hall
and other administration buildings
and warehouses are Butler Huts.
They have been out OF soap for
week or two and we each got one
bar of toilet soap at the Housing
Office tonight, but no laundry soap
even the laundry is out. / never
realized before the. vital role SOAP