Under ownership of Falconbridge Ltd. (1948-1986), Giant Mine was, as described by many employees and their families during that time, as a positive place to live and work. "(The mine) had a really nice community feel," said Cynthia Creed, who moved there with her family in 1981. The mine's town site can be seen here - NNSL file photo

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For some, the headframe of Giant Mine's C-Shaft is a symbol of glad times, of economic and social prosperity and an industry that built Yellowknife.

The iconic Giant Mine head frame is all but gone now. Its deteriorating condition and the potential risk it posed to remediation project workers and infrastructure is it is being taken down. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

For others, the headframe harkens back to darker chapters in this city's history, to colonialism and death and community divisions. And for others still, the headframe represents environmental degradation - a reminder of the hazardous chemicals stored below the surface.

Ask Walt Humphries, though, and the headframe means one thing to him: home.

"In the early days, you'd be driving in from the Ingraham Trail or Vee Lake Road, you saw the headframe and you thought, 'Well, I'm safe now. If anything happens, there's civilization in front of me,'" he said.

Until January 2014, the highway north of town ran alongside Giant Mine, with vehicles passing by the towering wooden structure, literally in its shadow depending on the time of day and season.

For years, Humphries worked in mineral exploration and did contract and consulting jobs for Giant Mine, as well as a number of other mining companies in the North. Today he is the president of the NWT Mining Heritage Society, a group dedicated to preserving the history of mining in the territory. He said he's sad to see to see the headframe coming down.

"It's a pity we couldn't save more of these things because they really are a part of our history, our culture, our way of life," he said.

Giant Mine officially opened in 1948 and for many years was like its own little town on the outskirts of Yellowknife. The gravel road linking them was long and winding, and so the mine had its own general store, post office, fire brigade and rec hall. At its peak, more than 100 people - employees and their families - lived in houses or bunk lodgings on part of the property known as the campsite.

Falconbridge Ltd. - a Toronto-based natural resources company - owned and operated the mine for nearly 40 years and according to many former employees, actively promoted wellness among the workers and their families. The company hosted Halloween and Christmas parties at the rec hall, sponsored many events in Yellowknife and even maintained curling, fastball and hockey teams, which competed regularly with teams from Yellowknife and nearby Con Mine.

"What helped get dad a job up here was that he played fastball and he also played hockey," said Ken Hall, who grew up at Giant Mine. His father was originally hired out of a recruitment office in Edmonton to work as a labourer in Giant's mill. "As soon as they found out he played both hockey and fastball, they said, 'Well you get your butt up here, there's a job for you!'"

Hall was eight when his family moved to the site in 1965 and for him, a childhood at Giant was a real adventure. He and the other children had ready access to the outdoors - they built rafts to float on Back Bay and would run atop the intricate series of wood-covered heating pipes that travelled between the campsite and the mine.

"There were places for kids to get into mischief because even at that time there were old buildings that weren't used anymore," he said. "There was the 'Bone Yard', where all the old equipment and wrecks and things like that would go. A great place to play when you were a kid and hanging out with your buddies. Lots of places to explore."

Cynthia Creed moved to Giant in 1981 with her husband and two small children and lived there until the mine closed in 2000.

"You know, it was kind of idyllic because it was off the road and the kids could sort of run free. They were forever climbing up and down the cliffs and rocks," she said.

Creed recalled carpooling to Yellowknife with other families who had children, a women's exercise group that met twice a week and the many social functions and dances hosted at the rec hall.

"Those were lots of fun," she said. "(The mine) had a really nice community feel."

For Creed, the dismantling of the headframe is a loss of history.

"I really think it's sad," said Creed. "The headframes are physical history and (mining) is basically, other than the government, what built Yellowknife."

The happy days at the mine-site shifted in 1986 when ownership changed hands once and then again. Just six years later, workers' unrest would culminate into a planted bomb that would kill nine mine workers. See Wednesday's Yellowknifer for part two of this three-part series.

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