Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 06/99) - John Bollenbacher returned to Inuvik last week along the Mackenzie 51 years after his first visit -- but came by a slightly different kind of boat.

An American living in Denver, Colo., Bollenbacher and his wife, Martha, arrived in Inuvik last Thursday on the Yellowknife-based Norweta passenger ship. They enjoyed a leisurely 10-day cruise downriver, dropping in on the communities that Bollenbacher saw for the first time in 1948 -- by canoe.

"I was 26 and had just come out of the army then, and my friend and I were living in New Mexico and wanted to get to Alaska and cool off," he said.

Bollenbacher said the pair travelled north by rail and bought an 18-foot wood and canvas canoe in Edmonton before setting off on Lake Athabasca and making their way along the Mackenzie.

"I recognized the communities, though they're very different now," he said. "The biggest difference is there were no sled dogs on the beach this time -- they used to be all chained up there and it was hard to figure out a path through them."

Bollenbacher said he's always dreamed of making a return trip North.

"But my canoe partner passed away last year," he said, but then smiled and added, "so I recruited my wife."

While the Bollenbachers' age dissuaded them from paddling the length of the mighty Mackenzie -- they did bring a canoe on the Norweta and occasionally set out ahead of the ship to enjoy a more traditional view of the river.

The Norweta and owners George and Margaret Whitlock brought up a total of 19 passengers on this last trip, a diverse group but one which shared a common love of the North and river-travel.

Guests also included another American couple, Chuck and Alice Johnstone from Prudeau Bay, Alaska, and Alex Fisher, a truck driver based in Edmonton.

"I've hauled lots of loads to the barges at Hay River," said Fisher, "and I just wanted to come down the river myself -- and when I saw the ad for the cruise, I jumped at it."

Also aboard the ship to help entertain the passengers was the Norweta's resident story-teller Randy Freeman -- a Yellowknife-based historian and toponymyst for the GNWT overseeing changing place-names across the territory.

Freeman said he typically tells passengers about the communities they're passing along on the cruise, lecturing on both historical fact and local legend.

"I try to avoid stories like those about the Mad Trapper that everyone knows and talks more about unusual things," he said, adding, "though stories about unusual deaths seem to go down well."

Freeman said he's spoken about Gaston Herodier's grave out behind the Fort Good Hope church an American woman with a famous name, Elizabeth Taylor, who became the first female tourist to the North in 1892.

Freeman said he does his best to answer the passengers' questions and accompanies them on trips into the communities. He said the only problem arises when he's expected to be not only an historian but also an ecologist -- identifying the different types of wildlife and plants encountered along the way.

"I'll get questions like what kind of bird is that," he said laughing, "and maybe that's something I've got to look into, too."