If you drive directly south of Smeaton for 5 miles , then take a left, which would be heading east and then 3 or 4 miles then a right to the end of the road. These old buildings border on the Fort La Corne woods. It was a beautiful spot. I also hunted northwest of Smeadon probably very close to where you lived and it was great hunting there with some very sandy roads. Now a lot of the land, even the bush is posted, so it's hard to find a good spot. We were in ML season and had great weather and saw no other hunters at all. I got a nice bear and a decent buck.
Yes, the Fort a la Corne forest preserve is a beautiful place, fifty miles or so, east to west, Saskatchewan River through the entire length and very historic.
Only a very few miles north and west of Smeaton the arable land turns into sand ridges and swamps, and that is the end of farm land. In other words we were on the extreme northern edge of the farmland.
In the early thirties elk were everywhere, eating up the homesteaders hard earned grain crops, and many of them ended up in our roasting pan on a stove that looked a lot like the one in your picture!. As the settlers moved in, the elk moved out. Harper Lake is seven miles NW of our old homestead and an older brother, who was the hunter, used to walk or snowshoe to Harper Lake, stay with a trapper who had a cabin there, and hunt. If (virtually always) he got an elk or moose, he would come home and then go back with the team and wagon, or team and sleigh, to get the animal.
I was too young to go on any of these trips and as a result have never been to Harper Lake. I went with the family on blueberry picking trips to within about two miles of the lake, but that was it. The trail crossed a swamp of about a quarter mile across to get there.
In 1980 they had the fifty year anniversary of Smeaton and I was invited. Wife and I and a son went from BC in our 1978 Ford 150 FWD, with a camper on it. There is cultivated farm land within four miles of Harper Lake, so I thought now surely I could drive my four wheel drive truck to the Lake. Thus, at the celebration I lost no time in asking one of the oldtimers where I could pick up the trail to Harper Lake. He told me I wouldn't be able to drive to the lake! Couldn't get across the swamp, he said. After all those years, not even a 4 wheel drive trail. So, I have never seen the lake where my brother shot so much game around.
