HAY RIVER - Eugene Patterson said it took him three trips from California in the early 1960s to get some 20 head of cattle to Hay River where he planned to start a dairy farm - a venture he said didn't last very long.

"We only had the cattle for two years or so," he said. "It was just too difficult to take care of them here. Hay was hard to come by."

The soft-spoken Patterson moved to Hay River in 1963 - from his recollection he thinks it was then - after visiting a friend the year before. Born and raised in Salem, Oregon, Patterson said the South Slave region reminded him of the landscape of his youth.

Eugene Patterson, a 91-year-old Hay River resident, has lived in the North for almost 50 years. After making a visit in 1962, Patterson, originally from Salem, Oregon, trucked up some 20 cattle from California in three trips, to set up shop in the Northwest Territories. Patterson is seen here in one of his greenhouses where he grows flowers with Sandra Lester and his wife of 63 years, Betty. - NNSL file photo

So after working on a dairy farm in California, an hour's drive from Sacramento, which he took over from his father when he died, Patterson and his wife Betty made the move to the North.

"We started doing the sawmill as soon as we got here, in the second year we were here," he said of his sawmill business which he's run for almost 50 years. "It was just a good opportunity."

Since he moved North he's lived on the same piece of land - a place he likes to call home - just outside Hay River. Eugene said he and his wife Betty have been married for 62 years and one story he recalled about his time in the North involved a face-to-face with a bear.

"When we first moved here we built a barn for our cattle, which we lived in for our first winter, we heard a scratching at the door and my wife opened it and there was a bear standing there," he said.

What happened next?

"She shut the door, bloody hell," he said. "I think it ran off. We didn't open the door to find out that's for sure."

Patterson said the first year here was difficult. He said they had no house to live in and started from the ground up.

"We started from scratch, there was no clear land," he said. "I cleared the lot where we built our house. It's about two hectares where we built the original house, but we have a big yard now for the sawmill."

The first winter in Hay River, Patterson said he lived in one end of the barn, an experience he said was a cold one.

"We had a nice barrel stove that we put wood into, so it wasn't so bad," he said.

The next year, Patterson said he built their first home - one he made out of square timber wood which he milled himself.

"I sawed all the wood myself," he said.

For Patterson he said living in the North has been a wonderful way to spend a life. He said the area reminds him a lot of Oregon.

"It's just a beautiful place here," he said.

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