Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Sep 16/05) - In 1964 the Beatles invaded America, the U.S.A. amped up its war effort in Vietnam, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison and Ford unveiled its classic sports car, the Mustang.

George Hurst, brother of the late Bobby Hurst, visited friends in Inuvik and surrounding region last week for the first time since moving to Alberta in 1964.

For trapper George Hurst, 1964 was the year he went south to seek a different life from the one he had been accustomed to.

As a trapper on Thunder River, Hurst and his brother Bobby were known for their skill and success at making a living from the land.

However, the lure of working to construct the Defense Early Warning (DEW) line brought Hurst from Aklavik, where he was living at the time, to Tuktoyaktuk for four months. Then it was off to Cambridge Bay for eight months before he called it quits and set his sights on Alberta.

"It was miserable in Cambridge Bay," recalls the 75-year-old. "They had to have ropes to hang on to (between the buildings) because the wind was so strong."

Born in Fort Norman in 1930, Hurst was moved to a convent in Aklavik where he attended school briefly. Thirty-four years later, around Christmas time, Hurst found himself on the busy streets of Red Deer, Alta., where his sister had previously moved.

"That was really something, sometimes I would get lost," said Hurst of what must have seemed to him a big city compared to the hamlet of Aklavik and the serenity of living on the land and tending his trap line. "You might see a plane (fly over) once in a while on the trap line. (In Red Deer) there were so many people wearing so many clothes because of the cold but I had to take clothes off because I was hot."

Working a series of maintenance jobs, Hurst earned a living down south and eventually settled in Whitecourt where he was befriended by resident Bob Walker, a recreational trapper who met Hurst on his trapline.

"He's one of the best skinners in Alberta," said Walker, who accompanied Hurst on his trip back to the Delta. "The fur buyers at the depot know a quality skinner when they see their work."

As for what Hurst thinks about the new Inuvik, which was just a newly-constructed outpost when he left the region in 1964, of course, he felt, much had changed.

During his visit, Hurst caught up with old friends like Noel and Alice Andre and John and Jessie Firth. As well, he visited the grave of his brother Bobby, who is buried at the Inuvik Cemetery.

When asked what he missed most after leaving, he replied that it was the landscape and "especially the animals."

"But home is where you hang your hat," he said.