We began hauling over the Mackenzie Highway in 1948. At that time, the road was little more than a trail and I can recall road closures in mid-summer caused by heavy rainfall.
There was only the one road in the Northwest Territories and that road was from the border to Hay River. There were no roads into Yellowknife, Fort Smith or Fort Simpson. In fact, the freight movement into these three points was via barge from Waterways with the portage at Fort Fitzgerald. Fort Smith was the Capital of the Northwest Territories.
We have been hauling into the N.W.T. on a continual basis since our inception. We built and maintained winter roads into Fort Smith and Yellowknife. We opened the winter road into Yellowknife for a period of five consecutive years prior to the construction of the existing highway around the west side of Great Slave Lake. We provided the first extra-territorial - door-to-door service into Yellowknife by utilization of our winter road and a fishy-back system in the summer months which was accomplished by placing specially modified trailers on barges at Hay River.
Wherever there was a demand for our services we went. Some other successful projects were opening winter roads into the Rayrock Minesite, the Snare Falls Hydro Project and the Taltson River Dam.
We hauled every sort of goods imaginable from tanker loads of fuels and acids to foodstuffs, construction materials, machinery and so on.
During the time frame of 1948 to 1970, a period of 21 years, we hauled all goods to all points in the Northwest Territories, wherever the demand would take us. If ever there was a case for Grandfather Rights, Grimshaw Trucking is an excellent example. To further substantiate this point, I quote from a letter dated July 31, 1973, in which Gordon Carter of the Highway Transport Board states "IF THE JURISDICTION OF THIS BOARD IS EXTENDED TO INCLUDE ALL OF THE DISTRICT OF MACKENZIE YOU WOULD HAVE GRANDFARTHER RIGHTS AND A CERTIFICATE WOULD BE ISSUED ACCORDINGLY".