Guy Houghton Blanchet (1884-1966)

Abstract

Season after season, college students and others returning from part-time jobs with survey parties in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba would tell how their leader, though older and half their size, would consistently outwalk, outpack, and outpaddle any of them. It was hard work for them just to tag along behind him, and he was a hard if amiable taskmaster. His name was Guy Blanchet, and he kept up his pace across the Canadian Arctic and subarctic and elsewhere for nearly a half century. As a surveyor, engineer, and explorer, he became a legend in his own time. ... From 1921 to 1925 he carried out exploratory surveys in the Mackenzie and Keewatin districts of the Northwest Territories. His work was centered in the Great Slave Lake area and northward, which he traversed by canoe and on foot, encompassing over 300 000 square km from Hay River on the west to the Dubawnt River on the east, the 60th parallel on the south to the Coppermine River on the north. Until then, the easterly shoreline of Great Slave Lake had appeared on maps much as Capt. George Back had placed it in the early 19th century. Blanchet's printed report described his journeys and summarized the history, geology, and typography of the country, plus sections on settlements, transportation, climate, vegetation, and wildlife. Through an 18-month period in 1928-1929, Blanchet represented the federal government and led a mineral exploration expedition of Dominion Explorers, Ltd., a private company. This geological survey was set up to investigate huge areas along the western side of Hudson Bay between Churchill and Chesterfield Inlet, and inland to Great Slave Lake and northward as far as Coronation Gulf with scattered bases. The expedition pioneered large-scale use of aircraft in northern Canada. However, geological work of the field parties became subordinate to the task of keeping airplanes in operable condition and finding lost people. ... In Victoria on June 1, 1942, he received a message from Edmonton: Would he join a small group making an aerial reconnaissance across the Mackenzie-Yukon divide to find a route for an emergency pipeline to carry crude oil from Norman Wells to Whitehorse? He was in Edmonton within a couple of days. Thus began the field work for the Canol (Canadian oil) Project, designed by the U.S. Army to help fuel the new Alaska Highway and its airfields from an inland source relatively safe from Japanese attack. ... The most difficult parts would be among the little-known mountains east of the divide, which he wanted to examine on the ground himself. So, between late October and late November 1942, with Indians and dog teams from Fort Norman, he cut inland from a campsite along the Mackenzie River opposite Norman Wells and trudged about 450 km to Sheldon Lake. He did this when he was nearly 59 years old and despite a painful foot injury, adverse weather, and a dangerous shortage of food. ... In 1951 he was called out of retirement to be chief surveyor of the right-of-way for the Trans-Mountain oil pipeline from Edmonton to Vancouver. Even then, in his late sixties, he could walk long distances and work long hours, to the wonderment of younger colleagues and helpers. ...