In the early part of April 1940, they boarded a train in Toronto and headed to the great and wide-open spaces of western Canada. They arrived three days later on a cold, wet, snowy and muddy day. There was no electricity, no running water, no car or means of transportation and worst of all from Dorothy’s point of view, they had to live with Bill’s parents in the same house!

To conclude, Mount Saint Francis Retreat has had a long association with the town of Cochrane. When the Franciscans arrived in 1949, Cochrane had a mere population of about 250 people. As the Centre grew, a lot of purchasing had to be done in town. Then, there are the thousands of people who have come to Cochrane due to the location of the Retreat Centre. It is hard to say what will happen in the future for Mount Saint Francis as the ranks of the Franciscans are diminishing and few young men today are corning along to replace the ageing Friars.

When the well reached a depth to use dynamite, Tom and Frank let Orr down the hole in a bucket on the windlass. Orr set the dynamite in a hole in the rock and lit the fuse. They pulled him up and sat at a safe distance from the hole then waited and waited. Finally, Orr, against the advice of the other two, persuaded them to let him down the hole again, as he was sure the fuse had gone out. When he got near the bottom of the hole he yelled, “Let me up! Let me up! It’s lit!”

At age 19 Roy was told by doctors he had two weeks to live.

Catherine worked for the Nan Boothby Memorial Library for 25 years and enjoyed the books and the people that she met there.