Photos above: Left: Charles' Forest Service vehicle with the Hudson's Bay Mountain in the distance, and Lake Kathlyn in the foreground. Right: Charles & one of his brothers-in-law, Donald Collison, future Sergeant in the Canadian Armoured Corp. in a snowy forest.
Introduction - a day in a Ranger's life
Charles, in a native-made buckskin jacket
Smoke chasing! Someone had reported smoke so it had to be investigated. If it’s a forest fire it has to be dealt with! In the days before aircraft were used to locate sources of summer smoke in B.C.’s forests, early detection of smoke which was done by observers in look-out towers, usually indicated the presence of a fire that could be threatening large tracts of valuable forest. However, once smoke was spotted it was not necessarily easily located. Thus it would be up to the forest ranger or an assistant ranger, along with men employed for the fire season to locate the fire and take measures if they could, to extinguish the blaze before it grew so large it was out of control. That is exactly what Assistant Ranger Charles Botham, his future brother-in-law, Donald Collison, and a third man, Syd May, all of Smithers, did one August day in 1934.
Based in Smithers, BC, this small crew had received word that smoke had been spotted in the vicinity of nearby Hudson Bay Mountain, so off they headed off in the reported direction. As it turned out, they were quite inadequately equipped for the conditions they would find. Each man had a small lunch and a jacket and not much more.
When they reached the area reported by the lookout atten- dant they found no sign of the smoke. But they couldn’t leave without looking further. They parked the Forest Service truck by the side of the road and hiked up the mountain slope, which soon led to a steeper upward incline. As they had as yet seen no smoke, they decided they had to continue their climb.
The slope they were climbing was well forested, obscuring the view over much of the valley below. They would get an occasional glimpse of distant hills and valleys, but they knew that they had to reach a higher vantage-point if they were to see anything of the smoke.
Discovering that they were in an area of forested ridges which had been obscured by the trees when viewed from the ground, they kept hiking – up one side of a ridge, and down the other. As they went they could not glimpse enough of the surrounding country-side to do a proper scan. Eventually when they had dropped down the far side of one ridge, they discovered that they were in a shaded area where devil’s club was growing thickly.
Devil’s club, resident of damp shady forest glens, usually grew with a thick woody stalk covered with long poisonous spines Often growing ten feet high, it has leaves emerging from the top of the stalk, splaying out flatly to catch whatever light energy is available. On the bottom of the leaves are more spines. In some areas these plants are located at some distance from each other, while in others, such as the locality these foresters were trying to cross, they grew thickly.
The small party had been out in the open for three days and were quite exhausted. They all knew of its dangers, but Charles was determined to continue the hike in their original direction. He soon realized that their attempt to move through the thick clusters which blocked their path. was a mistake. As they brushed the stalks the spines which were long and sharp, penetrated his light jacket and his shirt and trousers, where they broke off and remained in his flesh. Normally, parties come equipped with machetes – long sharp knives – which they use to hack their way through such thickets. But these fellows had come with nothing more than their belt knives.
Eventually this little group found its way through the devil’s-club and reached the road they were looking for. They never did find the smoke, but they had worn themselves out trying. After they found their way back to their vehicle they returned to town, where in Charles’ case, his future wife Marion spent hours over several days with a strong light, magnifying glass, and tweezers finding and pulling devil’s-club spines out of his arms, shoulders and back. But despite her care she wasn’t able to get all of them. In the next few weeks many of the remainder festered, and produced many areas of infection, known as boils, in his skin. And many of the larger boils developed into major sites of infection called carbuncles, which he was months getting over.
The lasting legacy for Charles from this experience was a set of severe allergies, including being allergic to cedar dust, woolens and mutton or lamb, and a variety of other materials. Following his early years with the Forest Service and while he was in the Royal Canadian Air Force, he developed asthma which had probably been brought on by this devils-club experience. Before leaving the Air Force he had also developed emphysema, which was likely exacerbated by his life-long smoking habit. This terrible disease severely hampered his breathing so that he eventually required frequent inhalations of oxygen.
Based in Smithers, BC, this small crew had received word that smoke had been spotted in the vicinity of nearby Hudson Bay Mountain, so off they headed off in the reported direction. As it turned out, they were quite inadequately equipped for the conditions they would find. Each man had a small lunch and a jacket and not much more.
When they reached the area reported by the lookout atten- dant they found no sign of the smoke. But they couldn’t leave without looking further. They parked the Forest Service truck by the side of the road and hiked up the mountain slope, which soon led to a steeper upward incline. As they had as yet seen no smoke, they decided they had to continue their climb.
The slope they were climbing was well forested, obscuring the view over much of the valley below. They would get an occasional glimpse of distant hills and valleys, but they knew that they had to reach a higher vantage-point if they were to see anything of the smoke.
Discovering that they were in an area of forested ridges which had been obscured by the trees when viewed from the ground, they kept hiking – up one side of a ridge, and down the other. As they went they could not glimpse enough of the surrounding country-side to do a proper scan. Eventually when they had dropped down the far side of one ridge, they discovered that they were in a shaded area where devil’s club was growing thickly.
Devil’s club, resident of damp shady forest glens, usually grew with a thick woody stalk covered with long poisonous spines Often growing ten feet high, it has leaves emerging from the top of the stalk, splaying out flatly to catch whatever light energy is available. On the bottom of the leaves are more spines. In some areas these plants are located at some distance from each other, while in others, such as the locality these foresters were trying to cross, they grew thickly.
The small party had been out in the open for three days and were quite exhausted. They all knew of its dangers, but Charles was determined to continue the hike in their original direction. He soon realized that their attempt to move through the thick clusters which blocked their path. was a mistake. As they brushed the stalks the spines which were long and sharp, penetrated his light jacket and his shirt and trousers, where they broke off and remained in his flesh. Normally, parties come equipped with machetes – long sharp knives – which they use to hack their way through such thickets. But these fellows had come with nothing more than their belt knives.
Eventually this little group found its way through the devil’s-club and reached the road they were looking for. They never did find the smoke, but they had worn themselves out trying. After they found their way back to their vehicle they returned to town, where in Charles’ case, his future wife Marion spent hours over several days with a strong light, magnifying glass, and tweezers finding and pulling devil’s-club spines out of his arms, shoulders and back. But despite her care she wasn’t able to get all of them. In the next few weeks many of the remainder festered, and produced many areas of infection, known as boils, in his skin. And many of the larger boils developed into major sites of infection called carbuncles, which he was months getting over.
The lasting legacy for Charles from this experience was a set of severe allergies, including being allergic to cedar dust, woolens and mutton or lamb, and a variety of other materials. Following his early years with the Forest Service and while he was in the Royal Canadian Air Force, he developed asthma which had probably been brought on by this devils-club experience. Before leaving the Air Force he had also developed emphysema, which was likely exacerbated by his life-long smoking habit. This terrible disease severely hampered his breathing so that he eventually required frequent inhalations of oxygen.
