James Thomas Hickling (1929 - 2015)
Jim Hickling was born in Carrick Township, Ontario. He grew up on the family dairy farm and then travelled west where he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).1) He trained at Regina and was sent to Prince Rupert where he relieved officers at Stewart, Ocean Falls, and Klemtu. In 1952, he applied for northern service, was accepted in 1953, and received training in Edmonton.2) Hickling was twenty-four years old when he was stationed at Herschel Island in 1953. Herschel served as a home base for two constables and a special constable who handled the dog teams. They would rest there from their dog patrols between Aklavik to north-eastern Alaska and Old Crow. The area was aparcely populated: an Indigenous family, Old Roland and Kitty and their daughter Margaret, lived in nearby Ptarmigan Bay, and there were trappers looking for Arctic fox along the Arctic coastline. Sixty-five km down the coast was Bagnell Bay, site of the first DEW Line construction in the summer of 1953. The RCMP checked the aircraft coming into Canada as part of their duties at Herschel. They were not at Bagnell Beach to clear every aircraft but they knew who was coming and going. The Herschel Mounties never arrested anyone but they did investigate the occasional accidental death and a theft of traps that ended up to be a misunderstanding.3)
The Mounties travelled to Aklavik about three times annually. In April they were there to bring the local dogs to Herschel for the summer. There were lots of fish and seal at Herschel for dog food. There might be two or three teams plus the detachments’ fifteen or twenty dogs. Hickling only made it to Old Crow once in three years but travelled some part of the trail every year. In Hickling's first year, Father Plaine, from Old Crow, travelled with the Old Crow RCMP to Fort McPherson, Arctic Red River, Aklavik and up to Herschel. Special constables Billy Cockney and Hickling took the priest back to the trail at the head of the Firth and then he was on his own for a day before meeting the trappers on the Old Crow flats. The next year, Hickling went with the Old Crow RCMP to help them with their heavy load on the annual northern patrol.4)
Hickling finally made it to Old Crow in 1956 and stayed for six days before hiring Andrew Tizya to guide him back. They returned on the “snow monster” trail. The Alaska Freightways machine had passed through in the fall of 1955 to supply the Blow River camp for DEW Line construction. In the 1930s, the Gwitchin people travelled along the Firth River, Blow River and the Black Fox Creek trails. They had not been to Herschel between then and 1953. Tizya took part of his wages in flour, sugar and tea and had a heavy load on the way back by himself. When Hickling was contacted over the route for the re-enactment, he referred the officers to Tizya who had been along several routes both ways.5)
In 2004, Tizya was in his 80s and planned to escort the Herschel memorial patrol out of Old Crow for the first few kilometres. This was the first patrol done by snow machine. Hickling had a hand with the 1969 Last Patrol and the sled dogs that made that trip were either descendants or the actual dogs Hickling raised for the RCMP in Fort Norman. Hickling was transferred there in 1960. In 1962, the dog breeding program was transferred to Herschel Island. The detachment closed down in 1964, the program was cancelled and the dogs went to Old Crow. The RCMP long partnership with dogs ended officially with the Last Patrol from Old Crow to Fort McPherson and the era of airplane and snowmobile patrols began. Hickling would patrol to Bagnell Beach for a week and then Const. Bill McFarland would head out in the other direction to Ptarmigan Bay or up the Firth River. 6)
In the summer, the RCMP travelled in a six-metre canoe with a 10-horsepower motor. Every year they tried to visit the families at Barter Island, Alaska. Hickling and McFarland kept contact and returned to Herschel together in 1995 for four days where Hickling recognized the warden as boy he knew in the 1950s. McFarland was in charge of the Herschel detachment from 1953 to 1955 before he transferred out to make Hickling the boss. In that last year, Hickling was joined by Constable George Strathdee.7)
Hickling married and moved to Nova Scotia after he left Herschel Island. He served in Mayo, Fort Norman, Fort McPherson, Fort Smith, and Inuvik before he retired to Manitoba in 1986 as a staff sergeant. After retirement, he became a NWT renewable resources officer.8)