My wife’s grandfather, Alexander Kushnir, was born in Shubranetz, Bukovina Austria on 5 April 1897. The following are some comments made by Alex’s son Bill Kushnir in remembering his father:

Alex and Dora Kushnir with Bill and Mary About 1930

“When the soldiers began to march in 1913, his mother said there would be war, so she sold some land and sent her 15-year-old son to the land of the free – Canada,  not to return for 52 long years. Dad bade a tearful farewell and road the rods on a 2-day trip to Antwerp in Belgium.

Alex Kushnir about 1919

This ordeal was followed by a cold 3-week boat trip to Montreal by way of the North Sea.  He walked 30 miles to Belleville, Ont. To work in a cement factory for 20 cents an hour. He worked in a pipe factory for 3 months and was fired for being non-union.  He worked in Michigan Centre – USA for 2 months digging ditches for 20 cents an hour. He stayed in a Polish home for $3.00/month – He cooked his own food.

In 1914 he worked on the Welland Canal with a shovel, then he was promoted to a scoop with a horse to work a 15-hour day at 25 cents per hour. Dad had many jobs the next 6 years working his way westward. He was once fired for not paying his foreman $5 to keep his job. On another occasion he was fired for looking too young.  In 1915 and 1916 he went to night school to learn to read and write English. There was much labour unrest, strikes, riots in those days, forcing him onward to Winnipeg.

Alex Kushnir about 1919

In 1920, uncle Dick Guzyk of Red Pass Junction was visiting his brother in Winnipeg and told father there were jobs in BC. Dad started working at Resplendent BC for 30 cents per hour. The pay was good and work was steady so he stayed. He worked for 2 years as a section-man, then he had an opportunity to fix the Road Masters car -  he did such a good job he was asked to apply for the position of foreman – and was posted to Canoe River for the next 3 years. He was very thankful for his 2 years of English education – mentioned earlier.

Alex Kushnir with his Accordion and Friends

In 1924, his cousin Petruik Yokubovich told dad there was some real nice girls on the farm in Insinger, Sask. (the Raddysh and Lukian girls) the 2 men visited, had dinner with them for 3 hours and dad asked mother when she was going to get married, mother was so shy, she didn’t answer. Dad returned 3 days later, a little bit drunk, and asked mom to marry him. Mother’s sisters said it was ok, but grandpa Lukian put the run-on father.

Dora (Lukian) Kushnir

Mom eloped with Dad, travelled by sleigh to Buchanan, Saskatchewan, caught a train and they were married in Edmonton. Dad had saved $3,000 by working hard day and night, and mom stole $20 from her dad because she thought Alex was broke. They returned to Canoe River Station and then dad was transferred to Swift Creek Station in 1925. He engineered the biggest project of the times when he moved the station 3 miles west to its present location. (Incidentally, I was born in that station in 1927, with the legendary Minnie Gordon acting as the midwife).

Alex Kushnir on speeder at Red Pass early 1920s

Dad canvassed the town for a new name. Some residents wanted to call the town Burgoyne (after pioneer logger Jim) while the majority of residents and the CNR named it Valemount. – Land of the valley of the mountains.

Alex Kushnir on left and has crew 40s or early 50s

As a section foreman in those days, dad and his crew of 2 section-men changed 6,000 railroad ties per year (that meant an average of 20-25 ties per day for 6 months of the year. Father was stationed as a foreman at Canoe River, Swift Creek and Valemount twice, and at Chinook Cove, Little Fort, Blue River, and Kalamalka Falls. He was also a foreman on many extra-gangs of 100 men or more. He had excellent eye-sight, and besides being very organized, his strong point on the railroad was lifting and lining tracks. He was ordered by railroad executives to straighten out and upgrade the Grand Trunk Western after US soldiers were killed in a train wreck as US troops were being transported to the Aleutian Islands. Dad retired in 1954 from the railroad with a #9 rank in seniority in the western region – Jasper to Vancouver.”

Construction of the “New" Valemount Hotel

Some of the events Alex was involved in were:

• In 1925 moving the railroad station, now the museum from Swift Creek Siding, about 3 miles north of town to the site in Valemount;
• The naming of the town of Valemount;
• The train wreck at Whiskey Fill;
• The Train wreck close to Lacerne Lake where the locomotive was pushed over the side and buried in fill;
• The wreck of Steam Locomotive 5123, in the included picture;
• The train wreck at Canoe, which is still listed (number 7) as one of the worst train wrecks in Canadian history. Seventeen soldiers on route to the Korean War were killed when two trains collided;
• The ownership of the old Valemount Hotel;
• The construction and ownership of the “New” Valemount Hotel, along with a multitude of stories associated with the running of these establishments in the early years.

I should mention a train wreck that occurred several miles south of Valemount, I believe in the middle of the 1920s. I had the opportunity to discuss this wreck with Alex, a man of typically few words, on more than one occasion. The train included a box car partially loaded with cases of whiskey.  Alex took his crew out to the wreck and they were working hard to reopen the mainline, and didn’t have any food or drink. After a day, being thirsty, they got into the whiskey in the wreck. Most of the whiskey went missing, some of the local people said that some of it was “stashed” in the area. Alex was fired from his job as a result of the men drinking on the job. He was off work for the better part of a year, but did eventually get his job back. The relatively small swamp in which the wreck occurred was after that named “Whiskey Fill”.

Dora, his wife was the mid-wife in Valemount, following Minnie Gordon, and delivered over 300 children without losing a child. She was also the tireless worker in the hotel business and a caring great-grandmother.

Alex passed away after he was involved in a car accident on 29 June 1988 at the rail crossing on 5^th Avenue in Valemount. He was coming back from his farm at mile 2 down the Canoe. The first person to arrive at the scene was Karen Lebans, his granddaughter, and Allan Beeson, who called the ambulance. Alex was taken by ambulance to Jasper where he died about 4 hours later.  Dora passed away at the McBride senior facility at the McBride hospital on 5 October 1992.