Interview with Mike (Greg) Johnson formerly from Red Islands by phone June 30/20
Jeanette: I’m talking to Mike Johnson. You were from?
Mike: Red Islands.
Jeanette: And you worked at the mine in Stirling. What years did you work there at Stirling?
Mike: From 50 to 55.
Jeanette: That was quite a long stint. What did you do there?
Mike: I did about everything, but I ended up being a Mine Surveyor. I started there in construction, wheeling the wheel barrel full of cement up the ramp. Laughter. And then I went in the shaft to work for a while. I went from there to the warehouse and from the warehouse I went to the crew putting in the machinery in the Mill and from the Mill I went to the Engineering Office.
Jeanette: Did you have any experience before doing any surveying or (did you) take a course?
Mike: No, I learned it there.
Jeanette: And after you left there, did you work in any other mines?
Mike: I made my life of it. I moved to Eliot lake. I was here for 35 years.
Jeanette: And what did you do there? Did you do surveying?
Mike: No, I mined. I did a little surveying there (but mostly) I mined and then I was Shift Boss and then Safety Super.
Jeanette: So, a Shift Boss would be down in the mine?
Mike: Yeah.
Jeanette: And when you said you worked down in the shaft in Stirling, was that down in the mine, in the tunnels there?
Mike: Yes. I was in the #2 shaft.
Jeanette: Now the #1 shaft, that was operating probably just around that time before the #2 shaft (was sank).
Mike: #1 was an old shaft that was there years ago.
Jeanette: Yes, but people were still mining there around that time in the early 50s before they got the #2 shaft going, am I right?
Mike: They were just cleaning things up. They had a head frame and hoist, all those types of things; then.
Jeanette: Is there anything that stands out in your mind about Stirling, in particular, when you worked there?
Mike: Not really. It was a great place for me. I sure learned a lot of things. I learned a lot about mining – a lot about work.
Jeanette: It sounds like, despite the fact conditions weren’t perfect, it sounds like you liked working there.
Mike: Oh yeah. Oh, the conditions- I didn’t find the conditions bad.
Jeanette: No? What about down in the mine, wasn’t it kind of wet down there?
Mike: Well, mines are wet. No, it wasn’t that bad. It was a little damp. No, no, it was good.
Jeanette: Now, somebody (Joe Richman) was telling me something about Grout. That the mine in Stirling and some of the mines over in Newfoundland were wet, but (in the mines) in Ontario, there was this grout (used on) the walls where the water came in; they’d plug them, I guess. Did you ever hear of anything like that?
Mike: Yeah. They did that in some places, yeah.
Jeanette: So, the mine in Elliot Lake, did they do that there?
Mike: They didn’t do any Grout in the mine where I was but in other places they did.
Jeanette: So, Elliot Lake, is that a Uranium Mine?
Mike: Yeah
Jeanette: Was that a pretty good place to work? I guess so; you worked there a pretty long time.
Mike: Yeah, I found it a good place to work. It had its problems. It was high speed and that sort of thing. For me, it was good; I had no problems.
Jeanette: And there were people who worked at Stirling who went to Elliot Lake directly. And I think there were people who worked at Stirling who went to Healthsteel, in New Brunswick and then (later) went to Elliot Lake.
Mike: I worked at Heathsteel too.
Jeanette: Did you go there after Stirling (closed).
Mike: Actually, I was away one year. I went to Eliot Lake in 55, September and I quit there in December 56. And then I was away; I went to Uranium City for about 6 months then to Heathsteel for six months and I went back to Elliot Lake in March of 58.
Jeanette: Before Stirling, did you work in any mines as a young man?
Mike: I was right out of high school. I just went there for the summer. It was a long summer. I never left mining. I just stayed with it. Laughter.
Jeanette: How did you get your job? Did you know somebody who was working there, or did you just show up and apply?
Mike: There were a couple of people, neighbours, and they were getting their sons jobs there, so they asked me if I wanted a job there and I said, “sure”. So, I went there and got hired. A man by the name of Roddy MacLeod hired me. Roddy John Alex. Do you know that name?
Jeanette: Yes, I do. I heard his name quite a few times.
Mike: He ended up in Ontario.
Jeanette: OK. Roddie and Annie. I didn’t know them, but I feel Like I know them. They lived on that stretch of road from the mine to the intersection heading toward Framboise.
Jeanette: Where did you live or stay when you were in Stirling?
Mike: In the bunkhouse.
Jeanette: And was that one of the older bunkhouses, initially.
Mike: Well, at first, yes but then, soon after, I was living in a nice two-story bunkhouse. You couldn’t get better accommodation or better meals, then there, I’ll tell you that.
Jeanette: Yeah, I think things were pretty good there. So there were two new ones built. So, I guess you went over and got your meals at the dining hall?
Mike: Yeah
Jeanette: And would you pay anything for your meals? Do you remember did they come off your pay?
Mike: I think it was taken off my check.
Jeanette: And when you’d go underground?
Mike: You’d take a lunch with you when you went underground.
Jeanette: Were you related to Norman Johnson?
Mike: No, but I know Norman. Norman was a shovel operator. I knew Norman but we weren’t related.
Jeanette: So, your name is spelled?
Mike: Johnston.
Mike: Where did you get my name?
Jeanette: Lets see now. I have a list of names on my website, of people who worked at the (Stirling) mine so every time I did an interview, I would ask them names of people who they remember working with or who worked there. And that is how I started compiling names. And early on, the first interviews, I think it was either Bessie Morrison or Dolena MacLeod McLean, (who gave me your name).
Mike: I have two names. My name is Mike really. I got Mike a lot because there were so many Mike’s when I went to school.
Jeanette: If I were to call you again would I call you Mike?
Mike: Yeah. That’s what I go by here. I always sign my name Mike.
Jeanette: When I was growing up, my father would always say whenever I would talk to anybody, especially somebody I didn’t know, for respect, he’d say, “You call them Mr. or Mrs.”. I didn’t know if I should call you Mr. Johnston.
Mike: You don’t need that.
Jeanette: So Dolena, I believe it was Dolena because she was telling me about the people that she worked with and she said “Greg Johnston”, was upstairs, with the surveyors.
Mike: Right.
Jeanette: Joe Mason, do you remember him?. Did you work with him?
Mike: Joe and I worked together surveying for a couple of years. He married a girl from Framboise.
Jeanette: Do you know where he was from?
Mike: He was from Upper Nova Scotia. I can’t remember the name of the place.
Jeanette: So, you were in the main office, upstairs when you were doing the surveying?
Mike: Yeah.
Jeanette: And what would that job entail when you were surveying up around there? Would you just go on the mine site?
Mike: Yeah, our work was just on the mine site. In order to mine you have to know where you are going and where surface proximities are, where buildings are, so you survey underground, and you plot it and bring it to the surface. Actually, you (conduct) a survey on surface first and then you carry it underground, down the shaft, and then you coordinate the whole thing in, so the mine coordinates with the surface so you’re not going to break through somewhere and a building fall in.
Jeanette: Oh, yes. So, one of the persons I interviewed was telling me that they had a place behind Morrison’s store, his parents. It was Doug Landry. His father’s name was willie Landry.
Mike: Will Landry, Yeah.
Jeanette: So, you remember him?
Mike: Oh, I remember Will Yeah. He was from French Cove, I think.
Jeanette: Yes (Samsonville). And they would say that they would hear underneath them…
Mike: When they blasted. Laughter.
Jeanette: Yeah. And he drew me a map. It was like a hub, like a wheel. With all these spokes going out which would be the drifts or tunnels. They were all over the place.
Jeanette: Do you remember behind the bunkhouses, would there have been some old foundations, from where the houses were in the 30s?
Mike: No, I don’t remember that.
Jeanette: And do you know where the dynamite house was? I think it was behind the mill.
Mike: It was up on the hill, past the mine site. It was away from the main property. There are rules: that you have to store that stuff away from people and buildings.
Jeanette: Do you remember the wooden pipes that were running from the main water tank and maybe into the bunkhouse and up on the hill there where the company houses were?
Mike: No, I don’t remember that.
Jeanette: And do you remember those company houses as you were going down the mine road.
Mike: Oh yeah, I remember the houses, like the manager, Mr. Chisholm. I believe they moved that one to East Bay.
Jeanette: Yes, down at the Meadows Rd.
Mike: Bardswich had a house there. He was a Mine Captain and Michaelson, Mine Super, had a house. George Fournier was a warehouse superintendent. So, I remember those houses and where they were located.
Jeanette: So, it sounds like you had an interesting life in the mines. You never thought, I guess, when you went up there (to Stirling), to work - like you said you were only going for the summer - that you would stay mining for all your life.
Mike: And it was good life, I’ll tell you.
Jeanette: I’m talking to Mike Johnson. You were from?
Mike: Red Islands.
Jeanette: And you worked at the mine in Stirling. What years did you work there at Stirling?
Mike: From 50 to 55.
Jeanette: That was quite a long stint. What did you do there?
Mike: I did about everything, but I ended up being a Mine Surveyor. I started there in construction, wheeling the wheel barrel full of cement up the ramp. Laughter. And then I went in the shaft to work for a while. I went from there to the warehouse and from the warehouse I went to the crew putting in the machinery in the Mill and from the Mill I went to the Engineering Office.
Jeanette: Did you have any experience before doing any surveying or (did you) take a course?
Mike: No, I learned it there.
Jeanette: And after you left there, did you work in any other mines?
Mike: I made my life of it. I moved to Eliot lake. I was here for 35 years.
Jeanette: And what did you do there? Did you do surveying?
Mike: No, I mined. I did a little surveying there (but mostly) I mined and then I was Shift Boss and then Safety Super.
Jeanette: So, a Shift Boss would be down in the mine?
Mike: Yeah.
Jeanette: And when you said you worked down in the shaft in Stirling, was that down in the mine, in the tunnels there?
Mike: Yes. I was in the #2 shaft.
Jeanette: Now the #1 shaft, that was operating probably just around that time before the #2 shaft (was sank).
Mike: #1 was an old shaft that was there years ago.
Jeanette: Yes, but people were still mining there around that time in the early 50s before they got the #2 shaft going, am I right?
Mike: They were just cleaning things up. They had a head frame and hoist, all those types of things; then.
Jeanette: Is there anything that stands out in your mind about Stirling, in particular, when you worked there?
Mike: Not really. It was a great place for me. I sure learned a lot of things. I learned a lot about mining – a lot about work.
Jeanette: It sounds like, despite the fact conditions weren’t perfect, it sounds like you liked working there.
Mike: Oh yeah. Oh, the conditions- I didn’t find the conditions bad.
Jeanette: No? What about down in the mine, wasn’t it kind of wet down there?
Mike: Well, mines are wet. No, it wasn’t that bad. It was a little damp. No, no, it was good.
Jeanette: Now, somebody (Joe Richman) was telling me something about Grout. That the mine in Stirling and some of the mines over in Newfoundland were wet, but (in the mines) in Ontario, there was this grout (used on) the walls where the water came in; they’d plug them, I guess. Did you ever hear of anything like that?
Mike: Yeah. They did that in some places, yeah.
Jeanette: So, the mine in Elliot Lake, did they do that there?
Mike: They didn’t do any Grout in the mine where I was but in other places they did.
Jeanette: So, Elliot Lake, is that a Uranium Mine?
Mike: Yeah
Jeanette: Was that a pretty good place to work? I guess so; you worked there a pretty long time.
Mike: Yeah, I found it a good place to work. It had its problems. It was high speed and that sort of thing. For me, it was good; I had no problems.
Jeanette: And there were people who worked at Stirling who went to Elliot Lake directly. And I think there were people who worked at Stirling who went to Healthsteel, in New Brunswick and then (later) went to Elliot Lake.
Mike: I worked at Heathsteel too.
Jeanette: Did you go there after Stirling (closed).
Mike: Actually, I was away one year. I went to Eliot Lake in 55, September and I quit there in December 56. And then I was away; I went to Uranium City for about 6 months then to Heathsteel for six months and I went back to Elliot Lake in March of 58.
Jeanette: Before Stirling, did you work in any mines as a young man?
Mike: I was right out of high school. I just went there for the summer. It was a long summer. I never left mining. I just stayed with it. Laughter.
Jeanette: How did you get your job? Did you know somebody who was working there, or did you just show up and apply?
Mike: There were a couple of people, neighbours, and they were getting their sons jobs there, so they asked me if I wanted a job there and I said, “sure”. So, I went there and got hired. A man by the name of Roddy MacLeod hired me. Roddy John Alex. Do you know that name?
Jeanette: Yes, I do. I heard his name quite a few times.
Mike: He ended up in Ontario.
Jeanette: OK. Roddie and Annie. I didn’t know them, but I feel Like I know them. They lived on that stretch of road from the mine to the intersection heading toward Framboise.
Jeanette: Where did you live or stay when you were in Stirling?
Mike: In the bunkhouse.
Jeanette: And was that one of the older bunkhouses, initially.
Mike: Well, at first, yes but then, soon after, I was living in a nice two-story bunkhouse. You couldn’t get better accommodation or better meals, then there, I’ll tell you that.
Jeanette: Yeah, I think things were pretty good there. So there were two new ones built. So, I guess you went over and got your meals at the dining hall?
Mike: Yeah
Jeanette: And would you pay anything for your meals? Do you remember did they come off your pay?
Mike: I think it was taken off my check.
Jeanette: And when you’d go underground?
Mike: You’d take a lunch with you when you went underground.
Jeanette: Were you related to Norman Johnson?
Mike: No, but I know Norman. Norman was a shovel operator. I knew Norman but we weren’t related.
Jeanette: So, your name is spelled?
Mike: Johnston.
Mike: Where did you get my name?
Jeanette: Lets see now. I have a list of names on my website, of people who worked at the (Stirling) mine so every time I did an interview, I would ask them names of people who they remember working with or who worked there. And that is how I started compiling names. And early on, the first interviews, I think it was either Bessie Morrison or Dolena MacLeod McLean, (who gave me your name).
Mike: I have two names. My name is Mike really. I got Mike a lot because there were so many Mike’s when I went to school.
Jeanette: If I were to call you again would I call you Mike?
Mike: Yeah. That’s what I go by here. I always sign my name Mike.
Jeanette: When I was growing up, my father would always say whenever I would talk to anybody, especially somebody I didn’t know, for respect, he’d say, “You call them Mr. or Mrs.”. I didn’t know if I should call you Mr. Johnston.
Mike: You don’t need that.
Jeanette: So Dolena, I believe it was Dolena because she was telling me about the people that she worked with and she said “Greg Johnston”, was upstairs, with the surveyors.
Mike: Right.
Jeanette: Joe Mason, do you remember him?. Did you work with him?
Mike: Joe and I worked together surveying for a couple of years. He married a girl from Framboise.
Jeanette: Do you know where he was from?
Mike: He was from Upper Nova Scotia. I can’t remember the name of the place.
Jeanette: So, you were in the main office, upstairs when you were doing the surveying?
Mike: Yeah.
Jeanette: And what would that job entail when you were surveying up around there? Would you just go on the mine site?
Mike: Yeah, our work was just on the mine site. In order to mine you have to know where you are going and where surface proximities are, where buildings are, so you survey underground, and you plot it and bring it to the surface. Actually, you (conduct) a survey on surface first and then you carry it underground, down the shaft, and then you coordinate the whole thing in, so the mine coordinates with the surface so you’re not going to break through somewhere and a building fall in.
Jeanette: Oh, yes. So, one of the persons I interviewed was telling me that they had a place behind Morrison’s store, his parents. It was Doug Landry. His father’s name was willie Landry.
Mike: Will Landry, Yeah.
Jeanette: So, you remember him?
Mike: Oh, I remember Will Yeah. He was from French Cove, I think.
Jeanette: Yes (Samsonville). And they would say that they would hear underneath them…
Mike: When they blasted. Laughter.
Jeanette: Yeah. And he drew me a map. It was like a hub, like a wheel. With all these spokes going out which would be the drifts or tunnels. They were all over the place.
Jeanette: Do you remember behind the bunkhouses, would there have been some old foundations, from where the houses were in the 30s?
Mike: No, I don’t remember that.
Jeanette: And do you know where the dynamite house was? I think it was behind the mill.
Mike: It was up on the hill, past the mine site. It was away from the main property. There are rules: that you have to store that stuff away from people and buildings.
Jeanette: Do you remember the wooden pipes that were running from the main water tank and maybe into the bunkhouse and up on the hill there where the company houses were?
Mike: No, I don’t remember that.
Jeanette: And do you remember those company houses as you were going down the mine road.
Mike: Oh yeah, I remember the houses, like the manager, Mr. Chisholm. I believe they moved that one to East Bay.
Jeanette: Yes, down at the Meadows Rd.
Mike: Bardswich had a house there. He was a Mine Captain and Michaelson, Mine Super, had a house. George Fournier was a warehouse superintendent. So, I remember those houses and where they were located.
Jeanette: So, it sounds like you had an interesting life in the mines. You never thought, I guess, when you went up there (to Stirling), to work - like you said you were only going for the summer - that you would stay mining for all your life.
Mike: And it was good life, I’ll tell you.