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Abandoned Fishing Resort #6549492
06/04/19 05:53 PM
06/04/19 05:53 PM
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152
Northern Minnesota
BernieB. Offline OP
trapper
BernieB.  Offline OP
trapper

Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152
Northern Minnesota
Just finished this video. This place is really amazing and I barely scratched the surface of what's there in this video.


Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549512
06/04/19 06:45 PM
06/04/19 06:45 PM
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 5,536
fayette,al.
G
grisseldog Offline
trapper
grisseldog  Offline
trapper
G

Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 5,536
fayette,al.
Interesting video, I enjoyed watching..
Buddy you got to do something abt the music you play on them..

Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549513
06/04/19 06:46 PM
06/04/19 06:46 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 37,406
Minnesota
W
wheelers Offline

"Trap Shed Sheriff"
wheelers  Offline

"Trap Shed Sheriff"
W

Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 37,406
Minnesota
Very interesting

Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549514
06/04/19 06:50 PM
06/04/19 06:50 PM
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,954
RI / MN
C
Cameron Kelsey Offline
trapper
Cameron Kelsey  Offline
trapper
C

Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,954
RI / MN
Really interesting video. Thanks for sharing.


CWO4, SC, US Navy
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549516
06/04/19 06:57 PM
06/04/19 06:57 PM
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 34,759
Central, SD
Law Dog Offline
trapper
Law Dog  Offline
trapper

Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 34,759
Central, SD
New bear camp?


Was born in a Big City Will die in the Country OK with that!

Jerry Herbst
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549530
06/04/19 07:16 PM
06/04/19 07:16 PM
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 10,421
mn north of blakely
S
Steven 49er Offline
trapper
Steven 49er  Offline
trapper
S

Joined: May 2010
Posts: 10,421
mn north of blakely
https://people.com/archive/in-canad...st-a-threatened-new-minamata-vol-4-no-7/

Interesting story



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It was in 1970 that Barney and Marion Lamm first heard of mercury poisoning. “(This word is unacceptable on Trapperman),” says Lamm today, “I didn’t even know what mercury was.”
Today the Lamms are in the fifth year of a costly and lonely battle against the dangers of mercury poisoning and those who deny them—and what the Lamms have learned has changed their lives.
For a quarter of a century, Barney Lamm’s Ball Lake Lodge was the most popular tourist fishing camp in northwest Ontario. “It was our whole life,” says Marion, who helped pyramid a two-room log cabin into a million-dollar resort. Born in Fargo, N. Dak. but a Canadian citizen since 1955, Barney, now 55, became the most influential citizen in Kenora, Ontario (pop. 11,000). An expert bush pilot, he also owned a private airline, and his businesses had made him a millionaire.
In the spring of 1970, the Lamms were notified by the Ontario government that the fish in 80-square-mile Ball Lake had been contaminated by mercury from a chemical plant 100 miles upstream. “That’s all we were told,” recalls Lamm, “not how dangerous it was to eat the fish or what we should do. They said the problem would disappear within three months. So we closed the camp and started asking ‘what’s mercury?’ ”
Mercury, they discovered, is a chemical that can attack the human nervous system, causing brain damage, crippling deformities and ultimately death. Its ravages cannot be cured or treated. The ugliest contemporary example of industrial mercury poisoning occurred in the Japanese fishing village of Minamata. The first victim was discovered in 1956, and eventually 110 residents died and hundreds of others were maimed and crippled.
The Lamms knew nothing of the Japanese tragedy in 1970. After shutting down the lodge they haunted the offices of government officials for more details of their predicament. “They had the results of testing fish for mercury but wouldn’t release them,” says Lamm. Angry and frustrated, Lamm himself paid a team of specialists $50,-000 to test the fish along the English-Wabigoon River system, which empties into Ball Lake. “We learned,” says Lamm, “that our river system was one of the most polluted in the world, that mercury levels in our fish tested up to 50 times the accepted international level. In some cases they were higher than in Japan.”
That fall the Lamms went to Ann Arbor, Mich. for a scientific conference on mercury pollution, the first of 50 such meetings they attended. “When they heard our mercury levels, everyone just sat there in silent disbelief. That was when we decided something had to be done. We knew that the three-month waiting period had no basis.” Federal scientists have subsequently admitted that the waterway is ruined for at least a century.
The Lamms claim there is sufficient evidence to fear an outbreak of poisoning such as in Minamata. “All we ever asked was that the government declare our area safe or unsafe,” says Barney Lamm. “And if unsafe, close that part of the river and relocate or compensate the camp owners.
“Instead,” complains Lamm, “they’ve tried to hush us up and keep the camps open. Some of the owners even took loans to stay open when business dropped off because of the mercury scare. Leo Bernier [the Minister of Natural Resources and the MP from the area] tried to sell me on a ‘Fish for Fun’ idea: that fishermen would be happy to throw the fish back. I knew (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) well they wouldn’t. He said stay open: I said someone’s going to die.”
So far, the Lamms say, they have spent half a million dollars of their own money in legal fees and scientific studies. (In 1971 Lamm filed a $3.7 million damage suit against Dryden Pulp and Paper and Dryden Chemical, the offending firms.) “We were prepared for the financial burdens. What has disappointed us was that most of the other camp owners have never even warned their guests. Tourists are eating the fish and taking them home. To me that’s like inviting a friend over and offering him a glass of poison.”
The more the Lamms publicized the issue of mercury in Kenora, the more resentment they encountered. “For three years not a day went by without a threatening call or letter,” says Marion Lamm bitterly. “We have five daughters who were taunted. I knew everyone didn’t agree with our closing up but I never expected friends of 25 years to turn on us.” Mrs. Lamm and her daughters have remained U.S. citizens, a further source of resentment against the family, she believes. In 1973 the Lamms put their $75,000 home in Kenora up for sale and moved southwest 100 miles to Gimli, headquarters of their charter airline. The Lamms’s strongest support has come from the area’s 950 Ojibway Indians who depend on fish (mainly pike and pickerel) for their diet. “We have no alternate food supply,” says Chief Roy McDonald. “The government’s offer to us was to move or take welfare.”
After what both federal and provincial officials admit was inexplicable delay, Indian hair and blood samples now are being taken regularly. In some cases mercury levels are as high as those of Minamata victims. “I am convinced some of my people are sick,” says Chief Andy Keewatin. “They have tremors, restricted vision, speech difficulty.” Says Dr. James Stopps, chief medical consultant for the Ontario health department, “If you have all three symptoms and a high mercury level, that’s Minamata.”
Reed Paper Ltd., the parent company of the Dryden plants, claims that the two situations are not comparable. The kind of mercury the plants leaked into the river is less harmful than that in Japan, the company says, and it insists that it took immediate corrective measures upon being warned. The company says it is now dumping 1/5 ounce a day into the river system, hardly a cause for alarm.
One Japanese doctor, however, who visited the Kenora Indians found their mercury levels “shocking.” According to Dr. Tadao Takeuchi, a pathologist and Minamata expert who has tested cats from the Indian reserve (cats first showed signs of the disease in Minamata): “If fish consumption continues, signs will appear sooner or later.” Late last month, Barney Lamm accompanied a group of Ojibway to Minamata to meet victims and medical experts firsthand. More Japanese doctors will visit Kenora this fall for further testing. “What’s tragic about this situation,” says Lamm, “is that if people are hurt it will be too late. But at least when someone dies I know I won’t have contributed to it.”


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"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon". Milton Friedman.
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549534
06/04/19 07:25 PM
06/04/19 07:25 PM
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
O
Osky Online content
trapper
Osky  Online Content
trapper
O

Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
Bernie I started as a camp boy up that country in the late 60's, babes lake with Babe Vannesee, then up to Rowdy lake with Joey Dale. I knew Barney tho not well being a young teen. It was a small community of camps/owners that pretty much used Kenora as a base. Some international falls, some maybe Selkirk direction I'm not sure. I think Barney ended up in Winnipeg? After the pollution? Ed Showalter, McCloud senior and his son Glen of Nestor Falls were all good friends in that group as well.
I have fished people often on the English a lot out of Lount lake. Good fishing. People don't realize the watershed goes from thunder Bay Area roughly, all of it west, to lake Winnipeg, then thru the big lake north then out back to the northeast and hudsons bay. Circuitous route for sure.
I have gone over that lodge I bet 100 times or more, I always look down and smile. Working in the small camps I did everyone knew of Barneys operation, I think they could handle more than you said, maybe 80 plus?

Osky

Last edited by Osky; 06/04/19 07:28 PM.

"A womans heart is the hardest rock the Almighty has put on this earth, and I can find no sign on it"

Jabless in Minnesota

www.SureDockusa.com
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549535
06/04/19 07:25 PM
06/04/19 07:25 PM
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 10,421
mn north of blakely
S
Steven 49er Offline
trapper
Steven 49er  Offline
trapper
S

Joined: May 2010
Posts: 10,421
mn north of blakely


"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon". Milton Friedman.
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549539
06/04/19 07:29 PM
06/04/19 07:29 PM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,265
james bay frontierOnt.
B
Boco Offline
trapper
Boco  Offline
trapper
B

Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,265
james bay frontierOnt.
I remember that disaster back in the 70's when the paper mill in Dryden destroyed the English-Wabigoon river system with Mercury.
I don't think I would eat fish from that area.


Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: Boco] #6549542
06/04/19 07:37 PM
06/04/19 07:37 PM
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
O
Osky Online content
trapper
Osky  Online Content
trapper
O

Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
Originally Posted by Boco
I remember that disaster back in the 70's when the paper mill in Dryden destroyed the English-Wabigoon river system with Mercury.
I don't think I would eat fish from that area.



They are fine. They still test the heck out of that area to be sure.

Osky


"A womans heart is the hardest rock the Almighty has put on this earth, and I can find no sign on it"

Jabless in Minnesota

www.SureDockusa.com
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549556
06/04/19 07:56 PM
06/04/19 07:56 PM
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 25,386
williams,mn
trapper les Offline
trapper
trapper les  Offline
trapper

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 25,386
williams,mn
Interesting


"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: trapper les] #6549584
06/04/19 08:50 PM
06/04/19 08:50 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,717
Maine
M
Mac Offline
trapper
Mac  Offline
trapper
M

Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,717
Maine
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. 49er guy, thanks for sharing that write up. Very sad in lots and lots of ways.
Also pretty sad that the government did nothing to help the camp owners, typical government crap.

Last edited by Mac; 06/04/19 08:56 PM.


Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: Mac] #6549588
06/04/19 08:58 PM
06/04/19 08:58 PM
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 6,117
Northern Wisconsin,Rhinelander
Hodagtrapper Offline
Muskrat Master
Hodagtrapper  Offline
Muskrat Master

Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 6,117
Northern Wisconsin,Rhinelander
Originally Posted by Mac
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. 49er guy, thanks for sharing that write up. Very sad in lots and lots of ways.
Also pretty sad that the government did nothing to help the camp owners, typical government crap.


I couldn't agree more!

Chris


>>In God we trust<<
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549592
06/04/19 09:02 PM
06/04/19 09:02 PM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,265
james bay frontierOnt.
B
Boco Offline
trapper
Boco  Offline
trapper
B

Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,265
james bay frontierOnt.
Why should the taxpayers bail out a private company facing lawsuits from millionaire camp owners?
The taxpayers didn't pollute the river.

Last edited by Boco; 06/04/19 09:03 PM.

Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549601
06/04/19 09:09 PM
06/04/19 09:09 PM
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 6,117
Northern Wisconsin,Rhinelander
Hodagtrapper Offline
Muskrat Master
Hodagtrapper  Offline
Muskrat Master

Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 6,117
Northern Wisconsin,Rhinelander
Sounds as if the government did nothing to keep the mercury from entering the system in the first place. Then once it was there the CYA was in full effect!

Chris

Last edited by Hodagtrapper; 06/04/19 09:38 PM.

>>In God we trust<<
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: grisseldog] #6549602
06/04/19 09:09 PM
06/04/19 09:09 PM
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152
Northern Minnesota
BernieB. Offline OP
trapper
BernieB.  Offline OP
trapper

Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 5,152
Northern Minnesota
Originally Posted by grisseldog
Interesting video, I enjoyed watching..
Buddy you got to do something abt the music you play on them..


What you don't like my music?

Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549607
06/04/19 09:18 PM
06/04/19 09:18 PM
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
O
Osky Online content
trapper
Osky  Online Content
trapper
O

Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
Millionaire camp owners?


Osky


"A womans heart is the hardest rock the Almighty has put on this earth, and I can find no sign on it"

Jabless in Minnesota

www.SureDockusa.com
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549618
06/04/19 09:31 PM
06/04/19 09:31 PM
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
O
Osky Online content
trapper
Osky  Online Content
trapper
O

Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 9,295
Northern MN
Thanks for posting that Bernie, wow the memories.

Why does a lifetime ago seem like yesterday?

Osky

Last edited by Osky; 06/04/19 10:07 PM.

"A womans heart is the hardest rock the Almighty has put on this earth, and I can find no sign on it"

Jabless in Minnesota

www.SureDockusa.com
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549635
06/04/19 09:58 PM
06/04/19 09:58 PM
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,265
james bay frontierOnt.
B
Boco Offline
trapper
Boco  Offline
trapper
B

Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 45,265
james bay frontierOnt.
You Lefty Libs always want the Gov't(taxpayers) to bail you out.
The proper procedure is a lawsuit against the offender,who is liable,in this case a multinational corporation.


Forget that fear of gravity-get a little savagery in your life.
Re: Abandoned Fishing Resort [Re: BernieB.] #6549644
06/04/19 10:15 PM
06/04/19 10:15 PM
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 25,386
williams,mn
trapper les Offline
trapper
trapper les  Offline
trapper

Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 25,386
williams,mn
I agree.


"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."
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