The Packet

Back in time. Treaties and the Treaty relationship. Canadian’s legacy lives on.

I write in connection with the article “Eleven Days Over Death” ( The Beaver, Winter 1960). The article, found online at CanadasHistory.ca/ Archive, describes the loss by fire of a tug, Speed II, while towing a barge across Great Bear Lake from Fort Franklin (now Deline), Northwest Territories, to Cameron Bay, in what is now Nunavut, in October 1933. The skipper was Vic Ingraham, after whom the Ingraham Trail, the highway from Yellowknife to Tibbitt Lake, Northwest Territories, was named.

My father, Neil McKechnie, was a friend of Ingraham. In July of 1951, they met for lunch in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. My father was delayed and arrived late. When he returned to his hotel at the end of the day, the desk clerk handed him both his room key and a package.

In it was a gold Gruen pocket watch (pictured) with a note that said, “Next time ... don’t be late! Vic.” The face of the watch is surrounded by gold nuggets, the back is covered with nuggets, and a nugget forms every second link of the chain. On the inside of the back cover is inscribed, “NSM, from Vic Ingraham, July 28, 1951.”