From switchboards to satellites: Northwestel champions the history of northern connectivity
It’s no coincidence that Northwestel’s story is deeply woven into the fabric of Northern Canada. From the earliest days, our ability to connect communities across vast and rugged terrain has helped spark industry, strengthen services, and shape the modern North. For our team, this shared history isn’t just a legacy – it’s a lived experience, one that some of our teammates are eager to share.
Among those passionate about sharing Northwestel’s incredible history is Craige Hoff, a Communications Tech in Fort Nelson, who has supported the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum and the Fort Nelson Historical Society over the years and joined the Society’s board of directors in 2019.
“I have inadvertently been a volunteer – on occasion – for the museum over the years, helping to lift lines for a building being moved in, or running cables for the old camera system. This support eventually led to me taking on a bigger role as a director in 2019,” said Craig, who has become the Historical Society’s go-to guy for anything tech-related. (Craige is known as the ‘Cable God’ and the ‘Master of All Trades’ by his team leader, Brian Beal.)
Northwestel has a long and storied history of partnering with and supporting the Society and the Heritage Museum, donating all kinds of cool and quirky objects from the North’s telecom past to be displayed in the museum’s CN Communications Building, the name a nod to Northwestel’s previous owners – Canadian National Railway (CN). Northwestel was founded by CN in 1979 and was owned by CN until 1988, when it was sold to Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE). (In-the-know folks will note that Northwestel’s origins go back much further than 1979; those curious to learn more are encouraged to visit the recently updated history section on the Northwestel website.)
Craig’s and Northwestel’s support for the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum and the Fort Nelson Historical Society was recently highlighted at the 20th anniversary celebration for the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum’s CN Communications Building.
The anniversary festivities, held Aug. 23 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the museum, brought together Craig, several former Northwestel employees, and other museum supporters to mark the building’s two-decade milestone and reflect on Northwestel’s lasting contributions to northern communications.
The celebration featured a barbecue and saw some former Northwestel employees share their stories about the development of telecommunications in Northern Canada.
Preserving northern telecommunications history
In comments shared in the lead-up to the anniversary event, our VP of Strategic Growth, Tammy April, noted that we’ve been gifting funds to the museum and the Fort Nelson Historical Society for the past five or so years.
“All of us at Northwestel are incredibly proud of our partnership with the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum and the Fort Nelson Historical Society. Since 2020, we’ve been making annual contributions to support the museum, and to mark this 20-year milestone, we’ve contributed $5,000 in honour of the CN Communications Building,” Tammy said.
However, our support goes beyond financial contributions from our Community Investment Program. As noted above, since the building opened in 2005, our team has been donating a wide range of fascinating objects from the North’s telecom past, including old phones, phone books, switchboards, insulators, and photographs. Many of these items have been displayed in the museum’s CN Communications Building ever since.
“The display is made up of everything from old open-line insulators to a set of spurs to an old switchboard and an old telex machine. There is a wide range of old technologies and old tools, which I personally find interesting. I am more than happy to play my part in the preservation of the North’s telecommunications history,” Craige said.
Craige is presently one of the Historical Society’s longest-serving directors.
Decades of partnership
In a Facebook post published after the anniversary celebration, the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum noted that they received their first donation of old telecom equipment and other items two years before the CN Communications Building was even built.
“In 2003, the museum received a phone call about a donation from Northwestel. We were told to have a forklift on hand for the delivery, and boy, wasn’t that an important piece of advice when nine pallets – weighing in at 3,500 pounds – of equipment, tools, manuals, and other odds and ends arrived,” reads the post.
Construction on the CN Communications Building began in 2004, and the displays were moved into the structure upon its completion. Northwestel provided a luncheon at the building’s grand opening event on Aug. 23, 2005.
“Northwestel has been extremely generous to us over the years, providing funding for several years to go toward our phone and internet, lending a hand and providing cookies for the Festival of Lights we held last year, [and] purchasing us a brand new barbecue for our event on Saturday [as] the bottom of ours was completely rusted out,” reads the Facebook post.
We’re delighted that the 20th anniversary celebration was a success, and we want to extend our sincerest congratulations to everyone at the museum and the Fort Nelson Historical Society on two decades of expertly sharing the story of northern telecommunications. Also, we’d like to acknowledge and thank Craige and all other past and present Northwestel employees who have dedicated their time to preserving the incredible history of communications at the top of Canada.
