When the track was being laid from Westlock to Smith they had stockpiles of goods and supplies for the workers, which included food. The store keeper at Jarvie took sick and JW Judge, the all around man in charge, asked a young man to take over until the other gentleman recovered. Thinking this to be easy work he quickly volunteered. Judge took him to the camp and left him there. A week or so later, as Mr. Judge was returning to the camp he kept seeing more and more bear activity the closer he got.
When he finally reached the cabin/office it was barricaded tight as a drum. He had to yell and holler to get the young man to open the door as pounding was not working. Finally the young man opened the door and was in quite a state.
He had a hundred pounds of butter go rancid on him and had thrown it over the bank just behind the building. This attracted just about every bear around. They came in such numbers and were trying to get into the cabin so he barricaded all of the doors and windows.
There was a window in the top that looked over the roof. When he was climbing out of the window to take stock of the situation he came nose to nose with a big black bear who was climbing the wall to see if there was a way in. He had been so frightened that he remained in the cabin until rescue came.