"People go north for a variety of reasons, some stay for a lifetime, while others can't wait to leave at the end of whatever term they have signed on for. The north tends to be either loved or hated with equal passion." These are the words of Keith Billington, who with his wife Muriel, arrived in the Northwest Territories outpost of Fort McPherson, 1,700 miles north of Edmonton, in mid-September 1964. They were among those who loved the North and stayed for six years. Keith, a nurse, and Muriel, a midwife, were barely into their twenties and fresh from England when they arrived, eager to put their brand new skills to work. Their clients were the Gwich'in people, who taught them how to snowshoe, choose a dog team and live off the land. These two young professionals were all the medical help available at the births of babies and the tragic deaths of other children, they were the first to tend gun-shot victims and deal with illnesses made worse by the isolation. Their story also tells of caribou hunts, fishing in summer lakes and travelling in winter by dog team, of sun-returning parties, and drum-dancing and New Year feasts. The book concludes with Keith leading a group who retrace the route of the tragic RCMP "Lost Patrol." This is a delightfully warm celebration of the north in the days just before skidoos and cell phones took the edge off the isolation.

House Calls by Dogsled: Six Years in an Arctic Medical Outpost

Biographies & Memoirs

Billington, Keith

Professionals & Academics

Lost Moose Books

In 2008 Keith Billington's surprise bestseller, House Calls by Dogsled: Six Years in an Arctic Medical Outpost, vividly described Billington and his wife Muriel's experiences providing medical care to a string of isolated First Nations settlements in the Northwest Territories during the 1960s. In Cold Land, Warm Hearts: More Memories of an Arctic Medical Outpost, Billington dishes up more of the hair-raising and heartwarming stories about medical emergencies and Native traditions that made his first book such a hit. In one story, he and his RCMP escort get more than they bargain for during a patrol of hunting camps as they find their loaded dogsleds plunging over a massive waterfall, which is only navigable owing to the fact it is frozen solid.Time and again the Billingtons are awoken in the wee hours to find a life-threatening emergency unfolding before their sleepy eyes, which frequently ends by lighting a makeshift airstrip with rolls of toilet paper soaked in kerosene so a steel-nerved bush pilot can be summoned on a pitch-dark mercy flight to the hospital in Inuvik. Through it all Keith and Muriel become ever closer to the Gwich'in people of the North who serve as foster grandparents to their growing family and in whose life dramas the Billingtons inevitably become involved. In this book Keith and Muriel return to their northern haunts after the passage of more than a quarter century and learn the endings to many of the stories started in the first book. They are moved beyond tears to discover their old medical post in Fort McPherson replaced by a modern two-storey facility named for their faithful Gwich'in assistant, William Firth. Grippingly written and infused with great warmth, Cold Land, Warm Hearts is an absorbing adventure story that rounds out the Billingtons' Arctic saga with a deepened understanding of the far North and its people.

Cold Land, Warm Hearts: More Memories of an Arctic Medical Outpost

The Tse-loh-ne from the Sekani First Nation were known as "The People at the End of the Rocks." This small band of people lived and thrived in one of BC's most challenging and remote areas, 1600 kilometres north of Prince George in the Rocky Mountain Trench. They were isolated and nomadic, and survived by following the seasons, walking hundreds of kilometres each year, hunting and harvesting food as they travelled. In 1988, Keith Billington, a former outpost nurse in the Northwest Territories, worked as the band manager for the isolated Sekani Indian Band at Fort Ware. In addition to his role as an administrator, he performed dental work, sutured victims of violence, delivered babies that wouldn't wait and prepared deceased persons for burial. Several years into his new job, Billington was invited on a traditional Sekani trek. The travellers would follow the Aatse Davie Trail using pack dogs, traversing 460 kilometres in some of BC's roughest terrain. Like the Tse-loh-ne before them, they carried little food, relying instead on what they could hunt or gather. Throughout the twenty-five days it took the party to hike from Lower Post to Fort Ware, Keith and his companions suffered cold, starvation and injury. They faced grizzly bears, swollen rivers and the incessant rain so typical of northern BC. Their adventures offer a poignant glimpse into the hardships and rigours of the Sekani people, who have one foot in their past and the other in their future--a people who reluctantly try to adapt to today's values knowing that change is inevitable.

Tse-loh-ne (The People at the End of the Rocks): Journey Down the Davie Trail (Extraordinary Women)

Community & Culture

Caitlin Press Inc.

In Keith Billington's new book, "The Last Patrol," he shares one of the most tragic stories of the far north. It was a quiet December morning in 1910 when Inspector Fitzgerald and his crew left Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, on a dog team patrol to Dawson City, Yukon. Their departure was without fanfare, and after a brief handshake and a salute, the men pulled out of the village and onto the frozen Peel River. Sadly, these four officers of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police would be remembered as the Lost Patrol of 1911. During the grueling 764-kilometre journey, after running out of supplies and experiencing brutally cold weather, they faced starvation and eventually froze to death. Sixty years later, Keith Billington, an outpost nurse working in Fort McPherson, organized a re-enactment of the historic trip using dog teams before Dempster Highway was built. Intrigued by the story of the Lost Patrol, he recruited ten men to join him. Nine of his companions were experienced Gwich'in men, two of whom had previously made the trip. Unlike the original patrol, Billington's departure attracted much media attention. On February 15, 1970, television crews and dignitaries from different agencies all descended on Fort McPherson to document the start of Billington's "Last Patrol." Some wished them well and some were convinced this expedition might also end in disaster, or that they would be forced by harsh conditions to abandon their journey and return home. Billington weaves together these two stories, revealing the details behind both the men who lost their lives and the men who risked their lives to commemorate the sacrifice made by Fitzgerald and his team. This gripping story illustrates the commitment and determination of the men of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police and is a tribute to the legacy of the Gwich'in people who lived and survived in this beautiful but inhospitable land.

The Last Patrol: Following the Trail of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police's Legendary Lost Patrol

History

Americas

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Billington, Keith. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Billington, Keith

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Billington, Keith. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

House Calls by Dogsled: Six Years in an Arctic Medical Outpost

Cold Land, Warm Hearts: More Memories of an Arctic Medical Outpost

Tse-loh-ne (The People at the End of the Rocks): Journey Down the Davie Trail (Extraordinary Women)

The Last Patrol: Following the Trail of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police's Legendary Lost Patrol