In his 35 years in “The Republic of
Brackendale,” the outspoken Froslev has helped put the community and its eagles
on the map, making eagle watching a “national” pastime. He is currently
building an eagle tower.
Bob Brant talked to Froslev last week,
about how he came to Brackendale, how he built the BAG and where his
fascination with eagles came from.
PIQUE: Thor, you grew up in Denmark,
what led to what would become your fascination with eagles?
THOR FROSLEV: I've always liked
animals. I collected bird eggs, snakes and fish, then put them in formaldehyde.
I had a cupboard where I had all my stuff... I was a professional hookey
player. I was always into the animals and the birds. And so when I came out
here (to Canada) this interest never really left me.
PIQUE: Was there any indication in
your youth that you would become a gallery owner?
TF: When I was growing up I always
put on a little cabaret or a little circus in the back yard. I was the MC. I
would get a couple of girls singing. We couldn't get a cannibal, so I would get
this guy who would come in and eat spiders. And, of course I would have to do
something, so I would put a bunch of lizards on me. I'd take my jacket off and
have about 20 lizards all over me. But basically, I was the MC. And I walk
round here (the Brackendale Art Gallery, or BAG) today and I'm thinking this is
the same! It comes from a trait that I have from somewhere. I'm a natural. It
didn't come easy, but I'm a natural.
PIQUE: What motivated you to move to
Canada and to the West Coast?
TF: It was always a foregone
conclusion (of mine) that I was not going to stay in Denmark. Ever since I was
a kid of 12 years old... when we played games, my country was always Canada. It
was like the big wilderness, the bears and the freedom to do what you wanted.
...Where do you go in Canada? Do you
go to Quebec, or Winnipeg or Saskatoon?
Denmark's a seafaring nation, so I
asked the local sailors... they all said you go to B.C., don't stop any place
else. I took that as gospel. I moved to Canada in 1957.
I was going to get off in Victoria,
but I only got as far as Vancouver and that's where I stayed. I got a job as a
longshoreman.
PIQUE: How did you hear about
Squamish? When did you move to Brackendale?
TF: I read in the paper in 1958 that
there was a new road open up to Squamish. So, I thought this would be an
adventure. I had a 1949 Pontiac — this was a great car, man — we
drove up to Squamish. It was an all gravel road. It had just opened up. We got
up the hill past Britannia, you get around the corner, there's only room for
one car and we knew there was logging trucks... it was a scary trip actually.
So we get up here to Brackendale, right by the store, and I said to my wife,
"Hey, we are new Canadians, and this is a new part of the country that was
being opened up more to the public... we should settle down here."
She said, "You moved me from
Copenhagen to Vancouver, if you think we're moving to this remote area, no
way."
That was too bad because an acre then
was $250.
My longshoreman's work would bring me
up to work in Woodfibre and Squamish. I had a couple of friends living up here.
I had a house in Vancouver. They would come and stay with me in Vancouver, then
I would come up to their apartment here and go fishing. So I got to know the area
pretty well.
I bought the land (for the gallery)
in 1970. I moved up here in May of 1972.
PIQUE: The Brackendale Art Gallery is
now a long established entity. How did the gallery come to be?
TF: In 1967, when I became single, I
ahhh, I think I spent eight months drinking pretty heavy and being by myself.
Then I woke up in 1968 and I started thinking, "If you don't want to be
where you are, because that's where your behavior tells you (you are), then
what the heck is it you want to do?" Of course, I didn't have a clue,
’cause I worked all my life. What did I know?
I liked coffee... I had all kinds of
painting and art around my house. It was already there... a teahouse. So, it
came down to an art gallery.
I went to Gastown... talked to
artists and listened — it's really important to listen. I hung out at the
Classical Joint. I learned everything I know at the Classical Joint....
I would go there at eight o'clock and
I'd stay there until one o'clock in the morning... I learned a lot there.
Then I met Michael Malcolm... one of
my favorite people... Michael said build a model. Get your hands on it and
build a model of the gallery that you want. Well, I didn't know what kind of
building (I wanted). I read somewhere... I think it was Arthur Erickson that
said when you build a house you should build it so it reflects the
neighborhood.
In 1969 I went fishing to Quesnel
with Jack Grundle. Jack had successfully started the Fish and Game magazine in
Vancouver. I had great admiration for Jack Grundle... so I asked Jack,
"where should I put this dream of mine?" He said, "It doesn't
matter where you put it Thor, as long as you do a good job they'll find
you."
I thought, "Wow, that's freedom,
I can do it anywhere, I don't have to worry about that part of it."
In October 1969 I'm up here in
Squamish fishing with my fishing partner Gary Weir. Gary says, “I'm sick and
tired of you spouting off about what it is you're going to do. When are you
going to shit or get off the pot!”
I said, "Well if you listen to
Jack Grundle you can do it anywhere as long as you do a good job. I can do it
right here."
We packed up our fishing gear and
went up to the Alpine Cafe (located on the lot immediately south of the current
Gallery location). Mr. Boomer was famous for his pumpkin pie. We went in and
had pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream... we're sitting right by the
window. I looked out the window and see a sign that says "Half-acre,
highway commercial property for sale, phone number, Harry Simms…" It was
$5,500 a half-acre, with $1,000 down and $75 a month at 6 per cent. He said,
"And that's good." I didn't have a clue. I didn't have the $1,000. I
borrowed it from Gary. So, I was then a property owner.
I sold my house (in Vancouver). I
bought a one ton truck — flat deck. I started looking for material. I had
lots of friends (to help me out). I am blessed.
Next door was the Alpine Cafe. That's
where the craftsman would have their coffee every morning. They would come
there at seven and we would be building.... We would be singing opera at the
top of our lungs at seven o'clock in the morning. The guys were going in for
coffee and thinking, "What the hell is the matter with these people
singing this early in the morning at work?"
Well it got to a point where I needed
to know something more about carpentry and I knew Ollie was having coffee at
seven in the morning, so that's where I was, asking Ollie about these
questions. Most of the time he'd come and look at it and maybe even give me a
hand.
That was sort of my work pool. We
were going to raise rafters and needed four or five people... and we were only
three and we needed two... we would go to the Alpine and say, "Hey listen,
I'm doing this (construction) next door and we need a hand of a couple of
people for about 20 minutes." So help would come, I was never turned down.
I opened on August 15th, 1973.
PIQUE: How did you get the
entertainers and artists who commonly perform and show?
TF: Well, they (artists) walked
through the door. We were the only place where that was happening on the West Coast.
They came from Delorme, Minnesota, Hawaii, Denmark... they just walked in and
said they heard through the grapevine about what we were doing and they would
like to give us a hand... I'm not kidding you... it was the network.
With the entertainers, having been
involved with the Classical Joint, I already knew what was happening... it was
like my university. I paid attention. I was there to learn. I hung paintings
there. I hung sculptures there. I got to know the musicians who played
regularly.
PIQUE: What's the story behind the
unicorn?
TF: I noticed Jim Cummins paintings
(in a Vancouver show). He was very innovative. I asked him to come up. It was
in the fall of 1973. I said to him, "In May I want to have a show with
you." He lived in residence and came up with an amazing 50 paintings. He
also did very good clay sculptures of horses... Jim wanted to build a monolith
on the gallery grounds... I said to him "How about building a horse?"
I put up the armature and railway
ties, stood them up, stapled and reinforcement rod over the back. So, we have
many layers of reinforced rod and chicken wire. Mixing cement... Jim did all
that with two helpers.
Half-way there, Florian Sydow came
for a visit from Hawaii. He had a drawing of a unicorn — the head —
in one of his books.
Well, we were innovative people. The
project took on a whole new dimension. So it became a unicorn — in six
weeks. No help from grants or anything. We just did it on our own.
PIQUE: Can you recall your first
eagle experience in Squamish?
TF: Florian... was visiting one time
(25 years ago) and said, "I stood in one place and counted 80
eagles." That's a lot of eagles. Florian was not a guy that would fib or
lie to you about that. But I went down to check it out — that's what you
do. I stood in one place and counted 200 eagles, to my amazement. How did that
happen all around me… "Can't see the forest for the trees."
PIQUE: How did the Eagle Count start?
TF: Twenty-one years ago I read in
the paper that B.C. Wildlife Federation had been up here counting eagles. I
remember the Sunday they were up here. They met in a parking lot downtown. It
was raining cats and dogs. So, I phoned them up and said, "Don't you guys
know enough to get out of the rain? Next time you come up here you should start
at the Brackendale Art Gallery — it's warm and dry — and you should
come back here — it's warm and dry." They agreed. We got the
Squamish Environmental Conservation Society involved. That's what it's all
about... friends and neighborhoods. That was the start of it.
This coming January 8th will be our
20th count.
PIQUE: You were instrumental in the
creation of the Brackendale Eagle Reserve. What is the significance of this
park?
TF: We now know that it's a place
only
designated for eagles
.
Lefty (Len Goldsmith), who died two
weeks ago and for whom we had a memorial for Dec. 28
th
, came in here
while I was hanging Carl Chapman paintings and said, "Have you heard about
Pacific Area Strategies? It's the B.C. government and they want to put 12 per
cent of B.C. into parkland. We're thinking about doing something for the
estuary."
I stopped hammering and I got this
flash and I said, “how about doing something for the eagles?” Lefty said,
"good idea." So we sat down and mapped it out, 1,100 acres... we
wanted it to be right from the beginning... no people, no logging, no mining,
no houses — a sanctuary. I had all the NDP and Liberal meetings here for
fireside chats and I pitched the idea about the eagle reserve and they all
agreed. In 1996 Glen Clark stood at Canada Place and said the Brackendale Eagle
Reserve was a reality. I tell you that was such a high! We (Lefty and Thor)
knew by just looking at one another how important this was.
Glen Clark comes up here every
January. I wasn't too happy with only the eagle reserve and I knew that the
craft paper (industry) wanted the cottonwood trees (from the reserve area) for
making paper. I asked the Premier (in 1999) to make it a sanctuary. Glen Clark
contacted me back and said, "They couldn't get sanctuary status because it
doesn't exist in our Parks legislation, but we have made it a Class A
Brackendale Eagle Park. It's the best we can do, but not only that we've
expanded the park by 400 acres." Glen Clark is very much a friend of the
eagles and Brackendale.
PIQUE: What is the most striking
response you've encountered in people's reaction to viewing eagles?
TF: I took Michael, a professional
tennis player from Boston, down to the dike. We walk up the dike, around a
corner and see the trees exposed with 150 eagles — he weeps. Michael came
to Brackendale as a result of seeing one eagle on the front page of a Boston
newspaper. I then really got the understanding of how important eagles are to
people, especially Americans.