Over the mountains: My journey to Canada.: Ch 23: Kemano

We flew by helicopter to Kemano on a beautiful, sunny morning. The pilot’s voice came over our earphones. “We are going to fly along the Chuck. Usually I go over the mountains checking the power line but on a day like today we take the VIP route.” As the chopper flew low over the water, we admired the splendour of fjord, bordered by snow capped mountains with streams of water cascading down.

Suddenly we turned inland and followed a river flowing through narrow valley to a picturesque village under a high mountain. “Welcome to Kemano. About three hundred people live here. The building with the red roof is a school, beside that is a recreation hall with a swimming pool. The building complex is the cafeteria and staff house. There are seventy houses in the village. The bare strip up the mountains is a cable car to the tunnel that brings water from the Nechako reservoir. The portal to the left is the entrance to the power station…” The pilot gave us a quick aerial tour of Kemano before we landed.

The view of Kemano. The portal entrance to the powerhouse is marked X

Our day was spent exploring Kemano. My wife was given a tour of the village, shown the store, different houses, and the school. The plant manager took me into the power house located inside the mountain. We walked a ¼ mile through a large tunnel and suddenly were standing in a huge cavern, brightly lit, with eight generators on the shiny floor.

“We have a capacity of 840 megawatts of electricity. The water is flowing from the Nechako reservoir through a 15-mile-long tunnel beneath the Dubois Mountain, 2 600 feet above Kemano. High pressure water coming down the penstocks drives turbines coupled to 120 MW generators. The power station was constructed during the Korean War with fears of nuclear conflict and was built inside the mountain to shield it from a nuclear blast.”

One end of the power station was not illuminated. Behind a barrier were two huge holes. I peeked down. A six story building would have easily fit into the hole. Another five stories could rise from the floor to the ceiling. I was impressed; an eleven story building would fit inside the power station.

The Manager was explaining “The two holes were excavated with the future expansion of the power station in mind. These holes would cushion the shocks of blasting that could damage generators.” Later in his office he told me about the engineering job I was interviewed for. “The Nechako reservoir holds enough water to produce an additional 640 megawatts of electricity and Alcan holds the water rights until the year 2000. After that date the water rights return to the province. The deal with the Provincial Government, signed some forty years ago, specified that the company will in the future expand the power station and build another aluminum smelter.

The portal

However the production of aluminum in the world has exceeded the demand and the project was put on the back burner. A few years ago BC Hydro extended a power line to Kitimat and the Kemano power station was hooked up to the BC grid. Now we can sell any extra power, usually to the States, at premium. But the existing power station is running at full capacity and suddenly the new power station became a high priority, especially with the looming deadline. Preparations are already under way. It will be called the Kemano II project. Our station will require many changes and we need an engineer to implement them.”

The manager filled me in on the extra benefits for Kemano employees: two weeks of additional holiday, isolation bonus pay, a family bungalow with low rent, subsidized hydro and heating fuel, private school, free trips on the company boat MV NECHAKO to Kitimat, company covered motel accommodation if the trip was for medical reason. He pointed out the recreation facilities: an indoor swimming pool, a gym, a bowling alley, and various clubs.
Then he warned me: “Many people accept the job here because they are drawn by the beautiful nature, clean air, benefits package and outdoor living or fishing. Then after a little while they start to feel the isolation. There are no restaurants here, the road is only ten kilometers long and the grocery store is small. Shopping in Kitimat is a two day trip in NECHAKO…”

I did not need convincing, I had already made up my mind and a month later we were on MV NECHAKO moving to Kemano. The town was a beehive of activity. Engineers, geologists, contractors and surveyors were working in the area, the latter group accompanied by a guide carrying a high powered rifle after a grizzly bear forced them to spend a night in a tree.

We were getting used to the different way of life in an isolated community. Kemano even had its own TV station thanks to a local handyman who built a satellite dish and TV transmitter to rebroadcast CBC North. All was well until a local TV addict complained to the CRTC about poor programming and picture quality. The Power Station manager received a letter ordering him to shutdown down the transmitter immediately because Kemano didn’t have a broadcast licence! Fortunately (for him) he ignored the order rather than face the revolt of TV-starved residents.

For many people the weekend entertainment was the Legion where the booze was cheap and homes were within walking (or staggering) distance. If you liked clubs there was a choice of darts, swimming, fitness, bowling or badminton. There was always a party going on in somebody’s house, but to be invited you had to belong to one of several cliques and smoke marijuana. Every Sunday afternoon a film was shown in the gym and I recall watching (with a bunch of screaming kids) a pirated version of “Star Wars”.

In the evening many people went to the local zoo. It was actually the garbage dump and entertainment was provided by four or more black bears with cubs. Whenever the bears got agitated and started to leave, it was a sign that a grizzly bear was coming. Grizzlies would not tolerate any competitors.

Kemano was a man’s world; all the men had jobs working in or around the powerhouse. For leisure there was fishing and boating, hunting in the fall, building boats or fixing old clunker cars. There were many of them handed down because road in Kemano was private and cars didn’t need ownership, licence plate or insurance.

Women had a tougher time. Jobs were hard to come by and many were housebound with a lot of free time. The lucky ones had children to look after, some found hobbies to keep themselves busy but many were bored busybodies and gossip was their main amusement.

All newcomers were treated with indifference by the old-timers (anybody who had resided for more than two years) until they demonstrated they would stay and would fit into the tight-knit community. We didn’t have problems fitting in. I joined the Kemano yacht club and two old-timers helped me to sail my boat from Kitimat to Kemano. The two day sailing trip broke the ice and I got many tips on where to go fishing, and where safe anchorages and hot springs were. My wife was lucky and got a part time job as a tour guide in the power plant, meeting some interesting visitors.

For a family with school-aged children, Kemano was the perfect place to live. The private school was run by Alcan and had classes from kindergarten to grade eight. Class size was flexible, according to the number of students and teaching was hands on. After grade eight students went to school in Kitimat and boarded with a family or were sent to a private boarding school, with the company picking up the tab.

The school and a playground were just across the street from our house, and it was easy to keep an eye on our kids. Occasionally a bear would wander through Kemano, scaring parents, but there was an efficient bear warning system in place: A couple of designated women were on call and each would have a list of five other women to phone with the bear warning, who would in turn call five more. Within a short time most children were safe at home and security was sent to deal with the bear.

Winter was a real test for newcomers. People working in the power house saw daylight only on the weekend. Sunlight was a real treat because the high mountains kept Kemano in shade for all but two hours. Christmas shopping in Kitimat was a two-day affair because the Alcan boat MV NECHAKO sailed to Kitimat one day and returned the next. Since the company covered the cost of a motel if the trip was for medical reasons, many residents became Christmas hypochondriacs, trying times for the company nurse, because she had to sign the medical pass. Our first winter was cold with a lot of snow but we were now used to the remoteness and isolation of Kemano and enjoyed living there.

It was time for my mother to meet our family. I invited her to come for a visit, a complicated task because the Czechoslovak government didn’t permit free travel abroad. I was a bit anxious about the visit. How long should she stay? How was she going to get along with my wife and how were they going to speak to each other? My wife didn’t speak Czech, my mother had just started to learn English. I would be at work most of the time and no one was there to interpret for them. How about our kids? I decided to give them a crash course in Czech and taught them a few swear words. My mother would be surprised. We took MV NECHAKO to Kitimat and rented a car for the 1400 km drive to Vancouver while my mother flew 12 000 km from Prague to meet us there.