MRS. TIBBETTS: We are now interviewing one of the first settlers in the district, Mr. Denny Cornock, now living at Tupper Creek.
MR. CORNOCK: I first came up here with a man named York. We were working on the river, and at building the Grand Trunk road. We came back and bought four head of bulls and shipped them to Edson. We got out a ways on the Edson Trail in 1912 about the month of November. It got pretty slippery, so we camped on the Edson trail. We had a good team but we had to go back and get the bulls, which took us a long time. Who should we meet but Ed Anderson, who’s still living here. We continued on until we came to the Pouce Coupe Prairie here, and until I got to where I located at Rolla. Then in 1913 me and Dave Scobie — we went down the river on a raft, and got a job on the Hudson’s Bay boat. Dave was the fireman and I was an ordinary deck hand. In 1913 I met Bill Falls (?) at Peace River Crossing, which was only a small trading post at that time. We packed a canoe with all our belongings and a grubstake and came all the way back.
In 1914 Dave and I go back out to work on the boat. We run into Harry Gibson who wanted to get to this country so we took him into the canoe all the way to Rolla Landing. I was delegated to take him overland to where the Gibson brothers were.
In 1914 the war broke out. I was working on the boat still. I quit the boat in 1915 and went overseas to the First War. In 1919 I landed back in Edmonton, and came back here and have been here ever since.
EDNA TIBBETTS: I believe there were several other old timers that you met.
MR. CORNOCK: Oh, yes. [Tom] Jamieson and Mr. Duke or Doke. He had the Post Office on Saskatoon Creek because there was nobody at Dawson at that time.