In my many years in the bush banging rocks as a geologist, I met many prospectors. The greatest I ever did meet were Leo, Gustav, Toussaint and Romeo Céré.
I`d
like to find the story of the Céré brothers. In high school I saw a
very romantic picture of a handsome French Canadian prospector.
McLean's mag I think and probably concerning the staking of the
Rix-Athabaska. A cousin of mine had also been on that job working for
Joubin. Who knows what influences one`s choices.
After third year Uni on the way to Chibougamau we were delayed in Roberval the land of the 'bluettes'. This the land surrounding Lac St. Jean was the area where those who hated the Anglais the most, fled after the Papineau Rebellion. Here, I ordered my first beer at a bar. Very strict in Ontario - in Quebec if you could get the money up onto the bar they would hand the beer down to you. Labatts showed up with lots of free samples of a new rice beer. Next we moved on to Ste Felicien where we stayed in a hotel owned by Mme Coffin whose brother was infamous for having murdered an American hunter in Gaspé. I breezed into the bar and the bartender said "no jacket - no service" - presumably Mme Coffin didn`t want trouble with young uni students or simply hated les maudis Anglais. I had a jacket and I went back and got it but as I approached the bar, the barkeep said "sorry we're closing" and closed the door. As I headed up the stairs there was a large man leaning on the newel post with a drink in his hand. I said something like 'I see some people can get a drink around here' not expecting him to understand English. He reached out a huge hand and took hold of the back of my clothes and set me down to his step and pronounced "hey - you know me, I'm Toussain Céré - I'm da guy what steal da gold brick in Val D'Or!"
All summer I would hear stories about Toussain and his three brothers. Apparently any time they sold a large batch of claims they gave it to the ladies as quickly as possible. On one occasion chartering a plane to take themselves and some of Montreal's loveliest to Rio for Carnival. The brother who did the business end in Montreal had to come up to Chibougamau twice that summer to fly them back into the bush. They apparently were always able to get back to town on their own.
Years later, when Maire and I lived in Val D'Or we read a book 'Pardon My Parka' in which the incident with the gold bricks was described. With the snowbanks 10' high and nothing to do Toussain and a buddy walked out to the RR station. While they were lounging about, a truck from the Siscoe Mine pulled up with a driver and a shotgun toting guard. They got out and deposited two of the wooden gold shipping boxes on the platform. The driver had lots of papers for the stationmaster to sign and the stationmaster had as many for the driver. When the signing was done the truck drove off and the stationmaster went off shuffling his papers. It was too good to pass up. They grabbed up the boxes (20 kg each at least) and headed back to town down the long straight road with the 10' vertical walls of snow. At some point they got scared the stationmaster would surely come out any minute with a rifle. They threw the boxes into the snow walls and ran back to their favourite watering hole the Chateau Inn. There they proceeded to get drunk and cried about their loss. At this time there was a fairly active RCMP hi-grade squad. One officer Joe Hedge was famous enough so that his name is on a series of hills north of Val D'Or. He was the shortest Mountie I ever saw and I love picturing him knocking the heads of these two giant men together until they led him to the gold. By the time they got back to the area where they had tossed the gold every pimp and low life from the Chateau Inn was cruising back and forth in all the town's taxiis looking for the gold. Toussain and his buddy got a year in jail for that. Years later a now retired Joe Hedge took me off to see a prospect in Privat Twp.
In Val D'Or the Céré brothers were legend in the mining fraternity. Each new geologist who arrived with one of the mining companies was solicited to come and see their latest discovery. An Englishman who arrived as the junior man at East Sullivan got conned into flying Tous and a native lady into Lac Perdue. Actually, Tous didn't have any claims staked so he told the geologist to wait in camp while he 'found' the claims. The geologist said that at night the woman's head and Tous' feet were all he saw sticking out of the sleeping bag. I got off light with a truck trip to Barrault with Leo. Not much of a prospect but he did keep me entertained as he read the names on the mail boxes we passed and reminisced about the woman who lived at each farm. Thibideau - Oh! you should see Mme Thibideau!.......Grenier - Oh! you should see their daughter.......
Our first winter in Val D'Or seemed long indeed and when the first warm bright day came everyone was out walking in their finery. At this time (1960) Paris fashions arrived in Val D'Or long before they hit Toronto. We met Leo and I nodded. He was accompanied by a shiny clean and beautiful little girl in a bright dress with crinolines. You could see how he doted on her - a granddaughter we presumed. How wrong we were. She'd been missing all winter. They took her back to her parents in Ville Marie and took Leo to the prison there.
When I got back into field work, my first assignment took me back to Schefferville. As I dashed into and out of the hotel, Toussain was always at the reception desk chatting up the receptionist. On one occasion she wasn't there and I said something like "not having much luck Tous?" He said, "no she's very mean she's gone to the toilette and she won't even bring me that little bit of paper". Later that summer I heard that they had finally lucked in with a butch looking girl who coincidentally worked as a butcher for Brinco. The story had it that they put her in an old barber's chair in the Brinco warehouse and played spin the bottle with her.
I had two camps probably 100 and 150 km up the Labrador Trough from Scheferville. The Brinco concessions had just come open for staking and Rio had purchased two groups. Some weeks into the season Toussain walked into our camp, stayed a night and continued on up the trough. Later we heard that one of Tous' first stops on that long march was at a camp much closer to Schefferville. This was Leitch Gold Mining Company's camp where two N.B. prospectors were seeking showings without having any pre-staked land. After availing himself of an evening meal and staying with them overnight he asked to borrow their canoe. By days end he had returned the canoe and continued northward. Only later did they discover that Tous had discovered the only showing in their search area and staked it before moving on. To their great embarassment, the showing was on a small island immediately in front of their camp.
There was nothing they wouldn't try. Tous told me that on a treasury emptying visit to Mexico he explored everything that a couple could do. Finally the girl asked if he had ever seen an asshole operate. She put a glass plate on his face and proceeded. Tous said he should have known it isn't just the tourists who have the touristas!
My last recollection of Tous is a story told by Larry Trenholme, a consultant, in Noranda. In Tous' presence he mentioned an exciting property he was about to option from another prospector. As he talked Tous got restive and finally started hinting about salted outcrops. Larry assured him that no one could put one over on him. Finally, Tous exclaimed, "Larry dat gold was very heavy when I haul her in dere!"
The story mooted about concerning their arrival in Val D'Or is that their father died in Montreal and their mother took them north as there was a relative in Abitibi. At Maniwaki in dead of winter their mother died. The rail wasn't yet through to Val D'Or and the eldest brother pulled the other three 150 miles north to Val D'Or on a toboggan. Not quite true but I can attest to the fact that Toussain was the only man alive who would head out for days in the woods in mid-winter with only a small pack. The French arrived earlier in Canada and took to the woods like natives. In fact, I think French Canadian bushmen are the main preservers of the bush skills most of the 'Native' peoples have lost. I never willingly ventured into the field without recruiting at least one French Canadian to my party.
The brothers made quite a splash at the annual Prospector's and Developer's Convention. Like many other 'winners' they put on quite a show any year when they hit it big. One year they had a bundle burning a hole in their collective pocket. They hired a suite in the King Eddie and invited in every lovely young thing they could find cruising Jarvis which was then the street. They often spoke to them of the romance of the bush in the winter with the crunch of the snow under votre raquettes. They strapped the snowshoes on the girls but it just wasn't the same. On their last days they phoned National Grocers and demanded to know how much corn flakes they had. Send it. How much? All of it! Now the crunch was just right and they were checking out anyway.
It must have become popular because I've heard the same story told of a prospector in Winnepeg and another in Seatle.
Another year and during the P&D someone staked the downtown area. Police were leary of removing the posts with these official looking tags - must have been the Céré's.
I suspect every geologist in Eastern Canada has a story about the Céré brothers. I would hope they have been or will be collected. Are there any Bidgoods, Ferris's, LaTullipe, Mitto, Salamis, Ferderber, Leamy, Beaton, etc. etc. still alive?
It seems to me this is a story that should be told and I fully expected to find a biography on-line but no. The following is all I can find on the internet:
Val D'Or at 75: http://www.75valdor.qc.ca/pdf/
Cere histoire: http://www.75valdor.qc.ca/pdf/
http://books.google.ca/books/
43 page book: En Abitibi avec les freres Cere, deux authentique prospecteurs ou.......l'or du millionieme matin:
/En_Abitibi_avec_les_freres_
If you have a story or know of a source please let me know I can't find email addresses for any of the likely sources.
After third year Uni on the way to Chibougamau we were delayed in Roberval the land of the 'bluettes'. This the land surrounding Lac St. Jean was the area where those who hated the Anglais the most, fled after the Papineau Rebellion. Here, I ordered my first beer at a bar. Very strict in Ontario - in Quebec if you could get the money up onto the bar they would hand the beer down to you. Labatts showed up with lots of free samples of a new rice beer. Next we moved on to Ste Felicien where we stayed in a hotel owned by Mme Coffin whose brother was infamous for having murdered an American hunter in Gaspé. I breezed into the bar and the bartender said "no jacket - no service" - presumably Mme Coffin didn`t want trouble with young uni students or simply hated les maudis Anglais. I had a jacket and I went back and got it but as I approached the bar, the barkeep said "sorry we're closing" and closed the door. As I headed up the stairs there was a large man leaning on the newel post with a drink in his hand. I said something like 'I see some people can get a drink around here' not expecting him to understand English. He reached out a huge hand and took hold of the back of my clothes and set me down to his step and pronounced "hey - you know me, I'm Toussain Céré - I'm da guy what steal da gold brick in Val D'Or!"
All summer I would hear stories about Toussain and his three brothers. Apparently any time they sold a large batch of claims they gave it to the ladies as quickly as possible. On one occasion chartering a plane to take themselves and some of Montreal's loveliest to Rio for Carnival. The brother who did the business end in Montreal had to come up to Chibougamau twice that summer to fly them back into the bush. They apparently were always able to get back to town on their own.
Years later, when Maire and I lived in Val D'Or we read a book 'Pardon My Parka' in which the incident with the gold bricks was described. With the snowbanks 10' high and nothing to do Toussain and a buddy walked out to the RR station. While they were lounging about, a truck from the Siscoe Mine pulled up with a driver and a shotgun toting guard. They got out and deposited two of the wooden gold shipping boxes on the platform. The driver had lots of papers for the stationmaster to sign and the stationmaster had as many for the driver. When the signing was done the truck drove off and the stationmaster went off shuffling his papers. It was too good to pass up. They grabbed up the boxes (20 kg each at least) and headed back to town down the long straight road with the 10' vertical walls of snow. At some point they got scared the stationmaster would surely come out any minute with a rifle. They threw the boxes into the snow walls and ran back to their favourite watering hole the Chateau Inn. There they proceeded to get drunk and cried about their loss. At this time there was a fairly active RCMP hi-grade squad. One officer Joe Hedge was famous enough so that his name is on a series of hills north of Val D'Or. He was the shortest Mountie I ever saw and I love picturing him knocking the heads of these two giant men together until they led him to the gold. By the time they got back to the area where they had tossed the gold every pimp and low life from the Chateau Inn was cruising back and forth in all the town's taxiis looking for the gold. Toussain and his buddy got a year in jail for that. Years later a now retired Joe Hedge took me off to see a prospect in Privat Twp.
In Val D'Or the Céré brothers were legend in the mining fraternity. Each new geologist who arrived with one of the mining companies was solicited to come and see their latest discovery. An Englishman who arrived as the junior man at East Sullivan got conned into flying Tous and a native lady into Lac Perdue. Actually, Tous didn't have any claims staked so he told the geologist to wait in camp while he 'found' the claims. The geologist said that at night the woman's head and Tous' feet were all he saw sticking out of the sleeping bag. I got off light with a truck trip to Barrault with Leo. Not much of a prospect but he did keep me entertained as he read the names on the mail boxes we passed and reminisced about the woman who lived at each farm. Thibideau - Oh! you should see Mme Thibideau!.......Grenier - Oh! you should see their daughter.......
Our first winter in Val D'Or seemed long indeed and when the first warm bright day came everyone was out walking in their finery. At this time (1960) Paris fashions arrived in Val D'Or long before they hit Toronto. We met Leo and I nodded. He was accompanied by a shiny clean and beautiful little girl in a bright dress with crinolines. You could see how he doted on her - a granddaughter we presumed. How wrong we were. She'd been missing all winter. They took her back to her parents in Ville Marie and took Leo to the prison there.
When I got back into field work, my first assignment took me back to Schefferville. As I dashed into and out of the hotel, Toussain was always at the reception desk chatting up the receptionist. On one occasion she wasn't there and I said something like "not having much luck Tous?" He said, "no she's very mean she's gone to the toilette and she won't even bring me that little bit of paper". Later that summer I heard that they had finally lucked in with a butch looking girl who coincidentally worked as a butcher for Brinco. The story had it that they put her in an old barber's chair in the Brinco warehouse and played spin the bottle with her.
I had two camps probably 100 and 150 km up the Labrador Trough from Scheferville. The Brinco concessions had just come open for staking and Rio had purchased two groups. Some weeks into the season Toussain walked into our camp, stayed a night and continued on up the trough. Later we heard that one of Tous' first stops on that long march was at a camp much closer to Schefferville. This was Leitch Gold Mining Company's camp where two N.B. prospectors were seeking showings without having any pre-staked land. After availing himself of an evening meal and staying with them overnight he asked to borrow their canoe. By days end he had returned the canoe and continued northward. Only later did they discover that Tous had discovered the only showing in their search area and staked it before moving on. To their great embarassment, the showing was on a small island immediately in front of their camp.
There was nothing they wouldn't try. Tous told me that on a treasury emptying visit to Mexico he explored everything that a couple could do. Finally the girl asked if he had ever seen an asshole operate. She put a glass plate on his face and proceeded. Tous said he should have known it isn't just the tourists who have the touristas!
My last recollection of Tous is a story told by Larry Trenholme, a consultant, in Noranda. In Tous' presence he mentioned an exciting property he was about to option from another prospector. As he talked Tous got restive and finally started hinting about salted outcrops. Larry assured him that no one could put one over on him. Finally, Tous exclaimed, "Larry dat gold was very heavy when I haul her in dere!"
The story mooted about concerning their arrival in Val D'Or is that their father died in Montreal and their mother took them north as there was a relative in Abitibi. At Maniwaki in dead of winter their mother died. The rail wasn't yet through to Val D'Or and the eldest brother pulled the other three 150 miles north to Val D'Or on a toboggan. Not quite true but I can attest to the fact that Toussain was the only man alive who would head out for days in the woods in mid-winter with only a small pack. The French arrived earlier in Canada and took to the woods like natives. In fact, I think French Canadian bushmen are the main preservers of the bush skills most of the 'Native' peoples have lost. I never willingly ventured into the field without recruiting at least one French Canadian to my party.
The brothers made quite a splash at the annual Prospector's and Developer's Convention. Like many other 'winners' they put on quite a show any year when they hit it big. One year they had a bundle burning a hole in their collective pocket. They hired a suite in the King Eddie and invited in every lovely young thing they could find cruising Jarvis which was then the street. They often spoke to them of the romance of the bush in the winter with the crunch of the snow under votre raquettes. They strapped the snowshoes on the girls but it just wasn't the same. On their last days they phoned National Grocers and demanded to know how much corn flakes they had. Send it. How much? All of it! Now the crunch was just right and they were checking out anyway.
It must have become popular because I've heard the same story told of a prospector in Winnepeg and another in Seatle.
Another year and during the P&D someone staked the downtown area. Police were leary of removing the posts with these official looking tags - must have been the Céré's.
I suspect every geologist in Eastern Canada has a story about the Céré brothers. I would hope they have been or will be collected. Are there any Bidgoods, Ferris's, LaTullipe, Mitto, Salamis, Ferderber, Leamy, Beaton, etc. etc. still alive?
It seems to me this is a story that should be told and I fully expected to find a biography on-line but no. The following is all I can find on the internet:
Val D'Or at 75: http://www.75valdor.qc.ca/pdf/
Cere histoire: http://www.75valdor.qc.ca/pdf/
http://books.google.ca/books/
43 page book: En Abitibi avec les freres Cere, deux authentique prospecteurs ou.......l'or du millionieme matin:
/En_Abitibi_avec_les_freres_
If you have a story or know of a source please let me know I can't find email addresses for any of the likely sources.
| Dale and Norma Hendrick |
| May 21 (5 days ago) | |
|
May 21 (5 days ago)
| | ||
| ||||
Thanks for the story about the Céré
Brothers. I can remember accompanying Leo Céré to look at a prospect
north Of Amos. I think we also hired him to cut picket lines for us.
However, I don't have any colourful stories like yours.
There
are lots of untold stories like yours that will disappear if not
recorded. Thanks again for this story, and we hope that you will share
more of your experiences with us.
Bob Grayhttp://www.75valdor.qc.ca/pdf/chroniques/03_22_mars.pdf
