BC Tel- Meziadin Radio Site Pg 1

Located at Lat 56-05-05 and Long 129-17-23

Meziadin was originally just a Combination Radio and Living Quarters building, and Diesel room attached with an unheated breeze-way.
Site installed in 1966 by Lenkurt Electric.
Originally the site was to be at the edge of Meziadin lake, but legend has it, the cat dragging the site into place, got bogged down in the swamps in the area,
and this then became the Meziadin radio site.
A proper living-quarter building was built by Herman Wiebe and Rolly Anderson.
They called it the “Meziadin Arms”.
Later on this one room building was renovated into 3 rooms, and the porch was converted to a kitchen.
Indoor bathroom was added with a Humus toilet, that very seldom worked due to lack of moisture, from only 1 month visits,
but was way better than the outdoor one before that!
The site was originally equipped with Lenkurt 74 radios, and Lenkurt 71 radios, with no battery back-up.
Meziadin was accessed off of Highway 37, via a 900 ft road

Meziadin 1972
Before the Cabin was renovated
Notice just a few environmental hazards those days!

It was one large empty room, with 2 sets of bunk beds on one side, kitchen on the other.

Ron Strumecki and Chuck Lequereux at the kitchen sink, in the original layout, built by Rolly Anderson and Herman Wiebe.

Me, myself and I in the corner, (when I had hair)

The front porch area was turned into the kitchen and bathroom.

Ron Strucmecki, Chuck Lequereux hard at work, being “supervised” by Don Parr.

Located just off Highway 37, at the start of the site access road.

Art Kerr driving the machine out

Thiokol Spryte Snow Cat views
Art must have had to do some work on the machine that trip.

Helicopter landing at Meziadin

Aerial View of Meziadin, with Highway 37 visible in behind.
Highway 37 here was once called The “Fisheries Road”, and was just a single lane gravel trail,
Which ran from the Stewart-Bob Quinn road, to the Meziadin Fish Ladders, on the Nass River.
Fisheries and our crew were about all that used it.
If we flew into Stewart, we would drive back to Meziadin on the old “High Road” for 40 miles, then to this corner, and down a short distance south on the Fisheries Rd. to our access rd.
Of course the Nass River Bridge was built later on by BC Forestry, and this little gravel road, became a well built proper gravel road, eventually paved.
Armand LeBlond's Meziadin Restaurant and Gas Pumps were built at the Junction of the old Fisheries road and the Stewart access road.
On left a portion of Meziadin Lake can be seen. This would also be the location of the Meziadin Provincial Park, accessed off Highway 37 today (2018)

40 miles of gravel, to the liquor store or bar!!

Heading from Stewart to Meziadin, view of Meziadin Lake.

Most of the pictures above, courtesy Brian Wolfe, Ladysmith BC
note- Some are scanned slides, so quality is not as good as original, My fault, not Brian's!

Click to View Meziadin History Page 2

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