The Great Manitoba Carrier Recovery

[David Dunlop]

Many of you on this forum are probably already familiar with the huge excavation that took place in Manitoba a few years back which resulted in the recovery and restoration of several Mk I* Carriers which had been buried underground for over 50 years. There were lots of video and photos of the recovery operation in various media, but what none of you saw was the preliminary work Gord Falk and I undertook a year earlier to confirm all the rumours we have heard for a quarter of a century about these machines. I thought you might enjoy a look at that ground breaking moment (yes, pun fully intended). I will do this, hopefully in four consecutive posts.

These first two photos show the beach property where the carriers had been placed to stabilize the shoreline in front of what had been at the time in the mid-1950's, a private duck hunting lodge, frequented by the likes of Clark Gable and many of his friends each Fall.

The first photo is looking East. The lake is immediately along the tree line at the left, the Lodge complex to the right, just beside the small dark shrub. A friend of Gord's had just finished sweeping the area with a metal detector and we had placed stakes along the run of most interest, which totals some 140 feet in length.

The second photo is looking East. The lake shore is to the right now and one of the smaller out buildings can be seen downslope, close to a boat launch.

Gord had spent many years combing Manitoba and surrounding areas for carriers and related parts, so hunting carriers for him is like a well trained hog hunting truffles! I let him pace about a bit and pick his starting point. Here he is just peeling away the sod prior to putting foot, to shovel, to ground.