The Loss of Brady and Halkett

Life in the bush in search of mineral wealth has its tragedies, as do other pursuits. The following story recounts one such tragic incident. It has been prepared by the author Berry Richards . . . .

We drove to Otter Lake from La Ronge after loading the station wagon with the necessary equipment for the job. The work was laid out for them. It consisted of checking out some radioactive showings in the Middle Foster Lake area, actually just off the north end of Middle Foster. These were old showings that had come open and had been re-staked by a company, and we were employed to assess them. This area is approximately 120 miles northwest of La Ronge and 70 miles northwest of Otter Lake.

The aircraft used was a Twin Beech, owned by Norcanair. was flown by a fellow by the name of Mitchinson. I forget his first name. The material was taken down to the dock at Otter Lake and loaded into the aircraft. I had with me the necessary maps that they would need to do their jobs. The first one was the four-mile-to-the-inch topographical map which the pilot uses to fly. Then there were claim maps, half-a-mile-to-the-inch, very detailed, showing all the lakes, the locations of the properties, and so on.

Before they took off I marked on the pilot's map exactly where they were to be put down - on the north end of Middle Foster Lake. There are three Foster Lakes - Upper, Middle, and Lower. Jim Brady'6 and Abbie Halkett were given all the maps, and they had with them the necessary grub, tent, and equipment, such as Geiger counters, axes, and so on, that would be necessary to do the job.

The weather was spotty, not closed in, not open. Blue spots of the sky. Not a bad day for flying, but perhaps not the best. This was on June 7, 1967. I told Jim and Abbie before they left Otter Lake that I would drop in in about a week, to check on the results of their work. They had a two-way radio in case they needed to communicate with me. The pilot returned and reported that he had delivered the crew where he was supposed to.

About 40 miles east of where they were set down, we were operating Rottenstone Mine. There were about 25 employees there and they had a radio. On the morning of June 8, Jim Brady called into Rottenstone radio to tell them they'd had snow. There was a general fall of snow across northern Saskatchewan on the evening and night of June 7, 1967. Jim talked to Alex Sarabin, who was in charge at the mine, kidding about not having any snowshoes, and told Alex they wouldn't be going out that day because it was pretty miserable weather, and that they were setting up camp. That was the last contact we had with them. This was, perhaps, a little unusual, but then Jim made a point of not using the radio for unimportant reasons.

On June 17, I took a Cessna 180 from Athabaska Airways and took what I thought they might need, despite the fact I had not heard from them. I usually took fresh meat and other perishables to a camp.

We headed for Middle Foster, the weather was good, so there was no problem getting there. We flew over the north end of the lake and I looked down, but couldn't see the tent. We flew around and saw nothing, so we landed and I checked where one would expect to find the camp, and walked across the portage to the next lake, but there was just no sign of anyone ever having been there.

We took off and started circling the area in ever-increasing circles. Just about the time we were ready to give up I spotted a tent below and told the pilot to get lower so we could get a good look at it. It was on the northeast end of Lower Foster Lake. I must repeat - they were supposed to be on Middle Foster. But this tent was on Lower Foster, and when I got a close look I knew it was our tent, so we landed.

The tent was set back about 50 feet from the lakeshore, but there was nobody there. This is June 17, and they were put in on the 7th, so it had been ten days. It was obvious the tent had not been lived in for several days. There was a map laying on one of the beds - they had homemade beds of poles - and it was yellow from the sun.

We then realized that something serious had happened. So we took off for La Ronge, after first radioing back that a search crew should be assembled right away.

At this point, I want to explain what I think happened. A lot of people say, "How could men like this, brought up in the bush, get lost?"

Here's my explanation, for what it's worth. They were provided with maps of Middle Foster Lake. They were put down on Lower Foster Lake. There is a real similarity between the ends of these two lakes. It would be very difficult, once you got on the ground, even with a map, to know you were on Lower, rather than Middle Foster.

This I think is what happened, they thought they were on Middle Foster Lake. After sitting out the snow on June 8th, the next morning, June 9, they would have left camp, using the wrong map. The weather was dull throughout that period, for four to six days, and the sun was obscured.

It appears they set out to look at the first showing, which would have been about a mile from camp, had they been in the right location. But with the wrong map, they were in trouble. Once you start using the wrong map, and you head for a lake, and find it isn't there, it doesn't occur to you at first that you have the wrong map. You assume you have gone in the wrong direction, so you attempt to correct your direction, and in the process, you get completely turned around and get lost. I am firmly convinced that this is what happened and explains how the tragedy started.

My main support for this reasoning is the fact that their canoe was beached at the outlet of a creek, about 500 feet from their camp. They had paddled this distance, and then beached the canoe on a grassy bank, and headed off in what they assumed was the right direction to find the first showing.

I am convinced of their route, because Art Sjolander, an experienced prospector and bushman, and I took it upon ourselves to attempt to track the men from the beached canoe. We succeeded in doing this for a distance of about 5 miles. The signs were, to me, clearly left by the two lost men. First, there were a couple of cigarettes beside a tree, a little farther on there were a couple of dead matches, and farther on you could see where they had cut their axes into a tree while they were sitting, probably by this time beginning to talk about the possibility of there being something wrong. We followed them right around a little lake, where the signs disappeared. I am quite convinced that the signs we observed were those left by Halkett and Brady.

There have been stories circulating that they were murdered. I think that this is pure speculation, and not borne out by any facts. The only facts that are known - the signs Sjolander and I discovered, and others I shall tell you about later - are the only clues. They do not point to anything but the fact that the men were lost. Indeed, these signs do not give any indication as to how they died - and it might be assumed they are dead. But on the other hand, there is no evidence, in my opinion, to show that they were murdered. The fact that the canoe was taken from the camp and beached in the normal way and that they headed off in the direction one would expect them to locate the first showing, all point to the fact that they were lost. Simply lost. However, it must be admitted, that there are a lot of unanswered questions. For example, why didn't they light a bushfire to attract attention? I don't know. Why didn't they leave signs at some of the lakes? Felled a tree into the water, or left a note? But they didn't. I don't know why.

When asked later about the trip, the pilot admitted that he did have some misgivings, and had reported this to his superior in La Ronge, that he might have made a mistake. Had the company, upon getting this report, gone back to check, these men might still be alive. The entry in the logbook of the aircraft, for June 7, 1967, reads in part "Otter Lake to a point on Middle Foster".

Following the discovery of the loss, there was an intensive search, both ground and air. The help from the Department of Natural Resources was reluctant, but the RCMP responded well, putting their Beaver aircraft on the search for about 15,000 miles. Camps were established in several places southeast of Lower Foster, on the assumption that they would head in this direction upon deciding that they were lost. This would take them in the direction of the Churchill River. Considerable ground searching was done around their camp as well.

Three traces, assumed to be made by them, were found. First a line cut through the bush for about 800 feet, with a post at one end with their initials. This was found at least a month after their disappearance and was about 5 miles east of their camp. If they cut the line and marked the initials, it was probably done on their second or third day out. Why such a line was cut is a mystery in itself. The next sign was an old campfire about 15 miles southeast of their camp. It was quite old when located.

The other sign, an abandoned raft, was the first found but the farthest from the camp - about 25 miles to the southeast. This raft was composed of small logs, which they had cut some distance from the shore of a narrow lake, across which they apparently wanted to raft, rather than walk around. It was beached on the shore and was too small to carry one man, let alone two. There were two axe-hewn paddles at the site. One was on the raft and the other on the shore. There was no deep water near the shore. It seemed safe, under these circumstances, to rule out drowning.

And these were all the signs we found after about six weeks of searching.

After the RCMP and the DNR had called it quits, a search committee was formed, and money was raised to continue. The effort was put into the ground searching, using men and canoes, going up all navigable streams, and walking patterns throughout the area. A reward of $1,000 was offered. Indian Affairs helped by taking care of the families of the men engaged in the search, and the Indian band at La Ronge contributed $400.

One man entered the search at an early date and made an unbelievable contribution. His name was Lloyd Mattson, a friend of Brady's, a high school teacher at Simpson, Saskatchewan. Immediately after school was out in June he came North. He spent the whole summer, being a few days late for the opening of school in the fall. He contributed his time and money and gave up a $1,000 scholarship for which he was eligible at the University of Saskatchewan. More than that, he gave up a $600-a-month job which he usually took in the summer. And that to this date, is all we know.