Yellowknife (Sep 08/04) - Some of the significant projects along the way for Clark Builders included work on the Norman Wells pipeline.

This was a joint venture with Chief Harry Deneron of Fort Liard, on a pipe weight project on the 12" Norman Wells pipeline. Clark supplied forms, batch plant, concrete trucks and supervision. Deneron supplied camp, tractor-trailers, loaders and a 25-man labour crew.

Chief Deneron's comments after the first day shocked Clark.

Deneron said it was so good to see his people working that he really didn't care if our joint venture made any money on the project, Clark said.

As it turned out, the project did go well.

"We put his people to work and we shared a profitable bottom line. But it was a good lesson for me. We had different priorities," Clark wrote in a timeline published for the 30th anniversary of his company.