The Phantom of the Unuk

I recently introduced you to the late Ozzing Hutchings who, during the last years of his life in Victoria, laboured to compile the history of the ghost town Anyox where his father was the provincial policeman and Ozzie a machinist for the Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Co.

This was during the 1920s and ‘30s. Thirty-plus years later, by then retired, Ozzie still believed passionately that the story of Anyox and that of the mining history of the northwestern corner of the province had yet to be told and must not be allowed to be forgotten.

My writing weekly in the Sunday magazine of what was then the Daily Colonist brought us together and I was able to help him have several articles published in The Islander.

All the while, Ozzie continued to work on his Anyox anthology and a companion history, the story of Anyox’s northern neighbour, Stewart. This was later published in book form by that community’s chamber of commerce under the title, Stewart: The B.C.-Alaska Border Town That Wouldn’t Die.

However, Ozzie’s Anyox history was scooped by a professional journalist who’d been born in Anyox but who, too young to have memories of his own, borrowed Ozzie’s extensive files to tell the story of Anyox for which he was able to find a publisher.

But it wasn’t the story of Anyox that Ozzie wanted to tell and he was disappointed, almost heartbroken.

Which is about where I entered his world, by invitation, resulting in our collaboration in a series of reminiscences in The Islander and his self—published version of the Stewart book that was later reprinted by the Stewart C-of-C.

Which, you might think, is the end of his story. But not quite.

Ozzie Hutchings, machinist by trade, historian and clock repairman by choice, was a born storyteller. I prove it in next week’s Chronicles with his blood chilling story, ‘The Phantom of the Unuk,’ and a second fascinating tale, this one of a remarkable woman’s foolhardy but incredible gamble with death.

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PHOTO: British Columbia’s far northwestern corner could be deceptively peaceful on a chill winter day. But not always for trappers who lived alone and had to rely upon their wits and nerve to survive. —Ozzie Hutchings photo from Author’s Collection