Burwash Bounce

Burwash Bounce didn’t mean a thing to the Army, but it meant everything to Willis and his fourteen fellow surveyors.

Link to Part 1 “Willis Grafe, Civilian Roadbuilder”

Needing surveyors for the Alaska Highway Project, the Army blithely ignored the fact that most of Willis’s group of fifteen had exactly zero experience as surveyors. In early 1942 an airplane dropped them at Burwash Landing at the north end of Kluane Lake. Apparently Burwash would provide the adventure that had attracted Willis and the young member of the crew to Yukon. and the very next morning they headed out to survey. Burwash Landing at the north end of Kluane Lake would provide the adventure that attracted Willis and his fellows to Yukon.

The day after they arrived they trudged up the lakeshore against a cold wind for about two hours until Chief Fred told them to stop. “This is where we start.” Fred drove a short stick into the ground, and “at last,” Willis remembered, “I was beginning to learn about surveying, the first lesson being that a hub is not always the middle of a wheel but may be a stick in the ground with a tack in it.”

It didn’t take Willis long to figure out that most of his surveying would consist of swinging an axe to clear trees and brush out of the way of the few real surveyors.  They walked and surveyed and cleared brush, activities that didn’t leave a lot of leisure time. For that matter they didn’t leave a lot of energy for leisure activity.

That’s where the Burwash Bounce came in.

Saturday night became sacred. The Burwash camp housed, in addition to the surveyors, some Pan Am radio operators who had a gramophone. More important, the Burwash camp employed Babe, Belle and Ada to run the dining room.

Dance in the 40’s

“The dining room, about 12 by 24 feet, would be cleared for action, and the linoleum floor swept clean.” And the Burwash Bounce commenced.

They would dance until 1:00 or 2:00 am or until the three badly outnumbered ladies gave up in exhaustion.