Yellowknife (Sep 20/04) - It had been 29 years since Bill Knutsen walked up the ridge above Itchen Lake to pay his last respects to a trio of friends -- commemorated by a mound of rock overlooking the vast expanse of the Barrens.

Knutsen wanted to see the cairn he and his friend Lou Rocher had built for pilot Norm Byrne and the two prospectors who were working for him, Jim Magrum and John Larkin, who perished in a plane crash at Itchen Lake on a treacherous December afternoon 30 years ago.

Grizzly bears had obviously visited the cairn since its erection in the summer of 1975. When Knutsen flew in to check on the condition of the site last month, the rocks had been mostly toppled over, though its contents were still intact.

Three metal tubes -- time capsules made from PVC pipe -- were placed inside the base of the cairn by Rocher and Knutsen, each one representing the three friends who never made it home. Inside the tubes, the families of the three men had placed photos and other mementos worthy of their lifetimes, which were spent exploring the Northern wilderness.

Knutsen said he intends to pay another visit next summer on the 30th anniversary of the cairn to rebuild it. The 66-year-old is hoping some of the younger clan can help out.

"I want to re-build the cairn and get the tubes back in there and secured," said Knutsen.

"I couldn't pack those 30 rocks now."

The tragedy that befell Byrne, Magrum, and Larkin when their plane went missing on Dec. 2, 1974, caused a notable stir. Like Chuck McAvoy, whose plane disappeared in 1964, the three Yellowknife men were well-known and well-liked.

An intense search began for Byrne's Cessna 185, focusing on Knutsen's Precambrian Mining Services staking camp at Takijug Lake, which Magrum and Larkin were preparing to shut down.

They were originally planning to move to another location 13 kilometres away, with Byrne's assistance, but Knutsen said they opted to return to Yellowknife instead because the weather was getting bad and they missed their families.

A search of the camp revealed that Byrne had been there and had picked up the two prospectors, but there was no indication of where the plane was heading.

Plane was heading home

"The camp never got moved," said Knutsen.

"They just turned the plane around, and said, 'Norm, take us to Yellowknife.' It was their decision and I lived with that."

The plane was found on the tenth day, buried in 20 centimetres of ice on Itchen Lake, 96km south of the staking camp and about 350km north of Yellowknife.

Search and rescue craft had flown over the location at least 40 times, but the Shark 7 beacon aboard the plane had failed to activate.

It was believed that all on board were killed on impact. Whiteout conditions over the lake were considered to be the main factor in the crash.

Magrum, who was 55 at the time of his death, left behind a wife and six children. Larkin, 33, had five children. Byrne, 34, was unmarried.

Byrne's younger brother, Mike, called his older sibling his hero. He figured prominently in his life, particularly after their father died the year before.

"We were still coming to grips with that when, wham, this happened," said Mike Byrne, who participated in the search.

"It really took the wind out of our sails, it really crushed us. To lose all three of them together like that, those guys were basically inseparable. They were very close buddies."

Byrne named a son after his deceased brother and though he has never visited the cairn himself, he would like to take his son and Norm's other nieces and nephews up there next summer to help in its restoration.

He said it would be nice if they could open his brother's time capsule and update it with new mementos from a younger generation.

"Many of his nieces and nephews were just wee kids when that happened," said Byrne.

"I think it would be a good touchstone for them to go up there, help rebuild the cairn and get a sense of who their Uncle Norm was."

Jim Magrum Jr. said he too would like to venture to the cairn next summer.

He paid his father's memorial marker a visit about 15 years ago and noticed it was in rough shape even back then.

"I wouldn't want to open (the time capsules)," said Magrum.

"I know different people had put things in there, basically unsaid things. To me, that's the way it should be left."

Loved and missed

He described his father as a caring, gentle, highly-experienced bushman, who instilled in his children a strong sense of self-reliance.

"He taught us lots of things but we had to learn on our own," said Magrum.

"He would help but he wouldn't do it."

As for next summer's plans and decisions yet to be made, Knutsen said he still has a lot of talking to do with the families.

"That'll be their choice," said Knutsen. "Maybe they want the tubes back, but that's something I'll talk about this winter."