Cassiar, June 1966 – July 1967. Huddled comfortably at the base of the spectacular Cassiar mountains, the small hospital delivered a full range of health care and surveillance to the 2,000 personnel who worked the open cast asbestos mine.
I was one of a small team of four registered nurses and a doctor. Set among the stunning scenery of NW British Columbia and the Yukon territory, the high grade, long fibred green asbestos was recovered from the ore, trucked to Whitehorse, then on to the Whitepass train to Skagway, Alaska and exported via Vancouver around the world. Cassiar asbestos was used in heat shields on NASA space capsules and astronauts’ space suits. The White Pass train follows the narrow gorges that the Klondike Gold rush miners followed in 1898. Very well worth the ride through the spectacular scenery.
Here I learned of herbal medicines as used by the local band of Tahlatan citizens; saw grizzlies, moose and eagles soaring high; what 46 degrees below zero felt like and marvelled at the aurora borealis – the curtains of colour dancing across the sky. Fish really were t-h-i-s big in rivers and lakes. Shut down and now abandoned since 1992, I re-visited in August 2009. More of that later.
