Old Pictures and Old Stories.

[ramonmark]

I couldn't find the other thread of old photos posted. My dad had quiet a different childhood. My grandfather, Ray Simcoe, was a bush pilot and knew many old time famous hunters, even the odd royals dawned his wings. I still have prince Phillips bamboo flyrod given to grandpa during a back country fly in. My grandpa was best friends with Jack O'Connor and John Jobson. I have many personal letters and the photos of them together. My dad used to say when I was a kid, and didn't know better, how his firat god father was jack then after Jack passed his second god father was john. These photos are of John and grandpa.A great bear, hunting gear and a personal or grandpa and and John. Hope you enjoy. FYI, lonewolf I may or may not have told you. The 270 you bought from me was jacks then John's. Happy hunting. I still have the dutch oven John had and his tent. My brother and sister still have alot of there other hunting gear that we still use every year.

[cowmanbob]

A very cool story, please post more pics.

[slopeshunter]

very cool, thanks for sharing

[Stinky Buffalo]

That is awesome. Thanks for sharing with us!

[ramonmark]

Here's a few more oldies of John and grandpa.

[marlin1]

ok gotta ask , who is the blonde ?

[35 whelen]

Very cool pics got to love those old Bush pilots and guides

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[ctd]

That is a neat story.
You should docume t as many as you can. Even wrote a short story account.

["No Choke"Lord Walsingham]

A great part of history, could be a book in the works!

Thanks for sharing your Dad's mementos and stories here on AO

[58thecat]

Thread of the century, thank you for sharing with us, just amazing.

[ramonmark]

The Story of the Wall tent and the weird fish.

This story if pretty vague as every time I was told it, it was usually over a campfire and it was intended to scare the crap out of me. I apologize in advance with being long winded. Without adding as much detail to this little story it would be very short and miss some freaky details.

As the story goes, told to me by dad with grandpa parroting in the back. Grandpa was in the northern parks of the Yukon at a remote lake. This area was new to him as the people he flew in had a map, a map they were very protective of. He was tasked to take three geologists up north for some ‘rock picking’. Grandpa words, not mine. He had flown with geologist before and he enjoyed his previous experiences. These geologists brought a brand spanking new wall tent with them. That was the radar that went off in his head. The majority of the geologists he flew with usually had well used gear. Unfortunately they neglected to buy a frame or tent pegs. That was radar number 2. Grandpa ended up making a tent frame with logs from young trees and the pegs were made with spikes widdled down from tree branches.
The foursome spent 3-4 days in this area, the geologist doing their work while grandpa spent the majority of his days reading a book or fishing off the pontoon of his plane. The majority of his trips he’d drop off people who were self-sustainable in the wild. These fellas were not. They paid to have him stay at location. Everyday they’d come back from there testing either covered in tree sap or nasty bug bites. That was radar number 3. The only saving grace was that they were taking soil and rock samples, from god knows where though. Grandpa said they seemed like government men, not geologists. They rarely spoke of the formations of the earth, the fauna of the forest and all that jazz. The day of the trip was spent in beautiful weather which resulted in grandpa nursing sunburn, nothing out of the ordinary, so far. The foursome would eat fish that grandpa caught over the fire at night and not much else. These were the days when you talked to each other instead of checking your phone or updating your status. These men were tight lipped. They rarely spoke. And when they did they usually walked off a few paces and spoke to each other in whispers. That was what originally made grandpa skin crawl.

On the last day grandpa was doing his usual fishing from his plane but this time one of the geologist happen to be in camp, just a stones though away, going through some of his findings. Grandpa snagged this massive trout. It felt so large that he actually started to get excited and did the appropiate hoots and hollers in appreciation to his luck. When he managed to get the fish up from below and closer to the surface, he went silent. This did not look like a normal trout. And it actually wasn’t that big. Not as big as he would have thought by the fight in it. It looked like a decent 20-24” trout, although it was bone white! When he managed to get it to the surface and in his net he studied it very closely and silently. He began to second guess toughing it to get the hook out of it mouth. Besides being bone white its belly appeared to be a bright blue, but as the fish thrashed in the net its belly would change to a greenish then a yellowish colour in the sun light. On top of that, this white trout shaped fish had no eyes! Not one. It had dimples where they eyes should have been but other than that no eyes! He’d never seen anything like that before.

Unbeknownst to grandpa his fella geologist must have been curious in my grandpa behavior because when he looked up this geologist was already stepping from shore to his pontoon. The man walked up very slowly to grandpa and asked to see his catch. Grandpa was in shock from the fish but was happy to have a witness. His buddies would NEVER believe this fish story! The fella stared at it from where he was standing for a few seconds then took a step closer. Without hesitation he reached into the net removed the hook from the fish’s mouth, scooped up the fish and left back towards the camp cradling the fish. Grandpa was in shock. Normally he’d give someone a smack for taking his fish, but he was kind of relieved since he didn’t even want to touch it. Then there was this yuppie who grabbed the fish without hesitation. He was shocked, embarrassed and just plain puzzled.
Later that night when the other 2 men returned from there scavenging the man left behind at the camp met them just outside of the light coming from the lantern. Grandpa wasn’t sure what they were talking about but he was certain that they were talking about the fish. The tight lipped men were very excited about something. They were talking very quickly and with emotion. At this point grandpa was 100% certain these men were not geologist and he was alone with them. He’d been a police officer before he was a bush pilot and he knew these kinds of men. They were definitely what he called government men. At that point he just wanted to go to sleep and get out of this place with these men.

That night he was actually concerned that they might kill him and he’d never leave. I know, typical old coot. He was afraid that he might be mixed up in some weird thing and he was a witness. He didn’t sleep one wink. He lay awake with his eyes open but his ears were trained for any noise, the noise of a sleeping bag being unzipped or footsteps in the dark. It was so dark in that tent he couldn’t even see his own hands in front of his face. At some point during the night he noticed that he could see inside the tent. Vaguely, but he could see. He could make out the walls and even his companions sleeping in there cots. He was starting to think that maybe it was getting close to morning when he noticed that that there was a light coming from outside the tent. The light was getting closer and closer. It eventually appeared to be right over the tent. It was so bright inside the tent he had to shield his eyes. It then occurred to him the there was no noise. His mind was racing. He jumped out of his cot and grabbed him rifle to go investigate. Damned if he was going to die lying on his back. He was certain that something fishy was going on but he didn’t know what it was. Before he could make his way to the door of the tent to investigate the source of the light one of his companions spoke from his cot. He said “stay here”. Grandpa almost jumped out of his socks. This guy wasn’t sleeping, in fact none of them where. Without a word the three men got out of there cots, got dressed and left the tent. Grandpa was schitting a brick at this point. They just left, walked out of the tent with zero concern. They weren’t even armed, from what he could tell anyways. He hadn’t seen any rifles with them but at this point he was starting to feel they must have had concealed side arms. About 10 minutes later the light drifted away in the same direction that it originally came from. Grandpa sat in the tent once again in the dark. He listened for footsteps or voices but there was nothing. Another 10 minutes went by and grandpa thought, screws this. He fumbled for his zippo and lit it. He found the lantern and got it going. A few minutes later he heard his name, and he recognized the man’s voice. It was the man who took his fish. He said “Ray, don’t shoot. Were all tired and want to go to bed. Don’t shoot us when we come into the tent” Before grandpa could respond the tent opened the three men came back into the tent. The smiled politely at him and then undressed and went back to their cots. Not a word was said about the light, the fish, nothing!

The next morning the three men got up early and made breakfast which they never did before. The four of them ate breakfast in silence. They packed up camp and headed back to port. When they landed there were two black cars waiting for them. The three men gathered up their belongings and left. Not a thank you, not a keep quiet or else, nothing. Grandpa being grandpa told his close friends the story and they all had theories.

To me as a child this story used to scare the crap out of me. Now I think more a government conspiracy. Or maybe it was just a story told so many times that the real juicy parts got juicier. Grandpa wasn’t one to talk a lot but when he did you listened. And when he did talk it was usually because you were in trouble or he was serous and wanted to teach you something. When he told this story he was dead serious. Even with that said it’s an old story grandpa used to tell to scare us. Who knows if the lights or the fish really happened. Although, I’m 100% certain these men did exist and I’m sure from grandpa’s previous experience he was right in guessing that they were NOT geologists.

[Bushrat]

Awesome story Ramon. It reads like many of the stories older folks told us kids when we were young. It reads like so many magazine short stories of the 1940's to the 60's, back when people had imaginations and adventures, there was always a mystery and a story to be told and heard.

[buckbrush]

Thanks for sharing. The old stories are great but the pictures just add that much more. Seems there was a real lack of camera's in my families history.

[ramonmark]

When I find some time I'll get out his old film reels and try to record a couple videos for you guys. Its been years since ive watched any but some were pretty interesting. Even the slides had some good trophies and the odd old time famous person in amongst them.