SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Rick Muyres was a man as unique as the art he created.

Rick Muyres, a well-known cabin builder in the North, talks to media outside the Wildcat Cafe in Yellowknife in 2011. He had been tasked by the city to rebuild the cabin. He died June 22 at age 63. - NNSL file photo

"He's one of those people that is one-of-a-kind," said friend Walt Humphries. "There won't be another Rick Muyres."

Derrick "Rick" Muyres passed away from pancreatic cancer in Lloydminster, Alta. on June 22. He was 63 years old.

Born and raised in Yellowknife, Muyres was a well-known artist and woodworker who left his mark on both the city and the North. From the bench dedicated to his mother outside city hall to the many structures created out of old mining equipment, Yellowknife is littered with Muyres' extraordinary tributes.

"A lot of what Rick did was driven by his interest in history and heritage," said Mike Vaydik.

"He was a key player in preserving and celebrating our mining history. His work in that regard is really all over town."

Muyres' parents were Marcus and Joyce Muyres, known throughout Yellowknife by their nicknames "Lanky" and "Smitty," said Muyres' brother, Ron.

Muyres' love for all things mining was a result of their father's former occupation.

"That was somewhat inspired by the fact that our father had come north to work in mining up in the Great Slave Lake area and in the Great Bear Lake area," Ron said. "So in some ways, Rick was following literally in his footsteps."

Muyres took care to follow in the footsteps of both of his parents, Ron added. Both were active members of their community and their dedication is evident through the Smitty Muyres Memorial Scholarship Fund, Lanky Muyres Memorial Award and Yellowknife's Lanky Road, which is named after Marcus.

"I think that at this point in time, the legacy of the Muyres name I guess was really well represented by Rick in Yellowknife," Ron said. "I think that's a bit of a hole that others will have to fill now. It is the legacy that our parents handed down to us and he fulfilled it."

Muyres' work in Norman Wells is also renowned.

"Rick really left his stamp on that community," Vaydik said. "The whole look to the community really reflects a lot of Rick's artistic input in terms of log bridges, log buildings. His own house that he built there is quite a showpiece for log building art."

Muyres also helped restore the Trophy Lodge in Fort Reliance. Like he did with other projects, he gathered many of the logs he used from the Mackenzie River, built on the river's bank.

"He took it all apart and had it barged to Reliance and put it back together," Vaydik said.

He also helped to restore Yellowknife's Wildcat Cafe, as well as provide artifacts and historic objects to the Norman Wells Historical Centre.

"He dragged more stuff out of the bush for display in there than we can probably count," Vaydik said. "He was very much a player in preserving that heritage and that history."

Muyres owned his own plane and often took friends along to find old mining equipment and other items that interested him, Humphries said.

"All you had to say to Rick was, 'I saw a really funny piece of equipment out in the bush' and the next thing you knew you were going out there to look at it," he said.

Muyres sometimes flew his plane to his other home in Guatemala, where he spent his winters. Over the past 40 years, Muyres became fluent in Spanish and dedicated time to learning about Mayan culture, Ron said.

Muyres had also owned and operated Mountain River Outdoor Adventures Inc., an outfitting business in Norman Wells.

"He had a lot of irons in the fire," Ron said.

In addition to his work, Muyres was also known for his easygoing nature and warm heart.

"He was a tall, lanky, very friendly, easy-going person," Humphries said. "He was one of those people who was really easy to get along with."

Muyres was never too busy for a chat, Humphries said.

"Rick was a great ambassador for the North. He was one of those types of people that would stop in the street and talk to anybody," he said. "If he was working away and someone came up and asked him questions, that didn't bother him. He was very friendly and outgoing and he would go out of his way to help people."

Muyres' attitude toward life was also reflected in his work. Never in a rush, his projects sometimes took longer than expected.

"Because of Rick's intense interest in heritage, he was more interested in doing it right than doing it quickly. That's the way Rick worked," Vaydik said.

Vaydik, who was chair of the Yellowknife Heritage Committee while Muyres was working on the Wildcat Cafe, said Muyres' attention to detail was extraordinary.

"He took the whole old building apart, numbered each log and really rebuilt it out of the old logs as much as possible, but there were some that were rotted that were beyond repair," Vaydik said. "So he measured those and went out and looked for logs that as closely as possible recreated the exact dimensions of the old ones. It was a big job, it took a lot of time."

Ron said a memorial for Muyres is currently being organized and is scheduled to take place in Yellowknife on July 15. A memorial in Norman Wells will also take place at a later date.

Vaydik said he will be missed.

"Rick was a hell of a guy," he said.

Muyres is survived by brothers Allen and Ron and sister Lesley.

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