Yellowknife (Nov 03/04) - In Yellowknife for his grandchildren's baptism, Jim Chisolm could be forgiven if he thought things looked a little unfamiliar. After all, the city has gone through a lot of changes in the 50 years since he was last here.

Jim Chisholm surveys the Pelly Mountains in the Yukon during the summer of 1956. - photo courtesy of Jim Chisholm

"It's hard to imagine, looking out there now, what the town of Yellowknife was like then," he said.

In those days, Old Town was the happening place and Franklin Avenue consisted of nothing more than a few shops and a hotel, he explained.

"Now it's a very vibrant capital city."

The retired civil engineer and field officer with the federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources spent the early days of his career creating some of the first maps and surveys of the North, including Yellowknife.

Just out of school in 1953, he took some of his first steps away from the Nova Scotia farm where he was raised.

His first big adventure was a 650 km trip up the Mackenzie River from Fort Simpson to Aklavik. He and his crew lived in primitive tent camps and travelled by boat, canoe and on foot for three and a half months as they surveyed the land and gathered information for maps.

"I'm the grunt who carried the pole from one end of the Mackenzie to the other," he joked.

In those days, Chisholm explained, maps were made by physically placing points on the land which could later be used to judge distances and grades from aerial photos.

"Now it'd all be done by satellite."

Along the way, no wolves or bears were spotted, as one might expect. The hardships of camp life were simply isolation and being away from his wife Dot. And a lack of proper toilets.

"It was certainly a big deal when the mail came in," he said, which was only every three weeks or so.

Further expeditions would take him east along the Great Slave Lake and then north, or into the Yukon, northern Manitoba or Quebec for months on end.

Within a few short years though, technology improved, radio communications were less tenuous and camps featured helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

Surveying was no longer a piece-by-piece physical labour. Radio frequencies could be used to map larger and larger areas.

Chisolm continued to work making maps until he retired in 1990, helping lay the groundwork for the geographic information systems we now use.

When asked if he was eager to get back out to the land, Chisolm responded:

"I'm content now just to look out the window."