To many people who visited Plummer’s Arctic Lodges over the years, Chummy Plummer was “the legend.”
The third generation of Plummers in the northern lodge business, he followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father, who built the NWT’s first fishing lodge on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake at Taltheilei Narrows in the 1940s.
Chummy began guiding guests on the lake when he was 13 years old and got his pilot’s licence at 15, before he was able to drive.
He grew the business to include lodges on Great Bear Lake, Great Slave Lake and Tree River. He considered one of his greatest accomplishments to be building the airstrips that welcome guests to those lodges every summer, which can accommodate Boeing 737 jets among other aircraft.
A website dedicated to the history of Plummer’s Arctic Lodges features videos of Chummy talking about the start of the business and some of his memories.
This year was Chummy’s 70th season working in the North.
He passed away on July 4 at the age of 83, leaving a lasting impact on northern tourism and everyone who knew him.
Friends and family remember Chummy as a trailblazer and legend in the sports fishing world who loved hunting and fishing, had an enduring passion for the North, a big heart, and a dry humour and wit.
“Sometimes I would feel like I was living with the rock star,” Lori Poersch said of her late husband.
“He had so many qualities mixed in together, and achievements mixed in together, that people just felt he was a legend.”
Lori said she met Chummy when she wanted to travel to the Arctic after working at fishing lodges in northern Manitoba and landed a job with Plummer’s Arctic Lodges. The couple have been married for 50 years.
She described Chummy as a salt-of-the-earth man who was humble, kind, generous, hard-working and ingenious, with a zest for life.
“He could do anything. He could fix a generator, he could tear a truck apart,” she said, adding he never held a grudge and was a man of his word who did business deals with a handshake.
Chummy would meet every plane that arrived at the airstrip, Lori said. One of the stories she shared took place last year when, while waiting for guests to arrive, Chummy saw about a dozen guides doing pushups to pass the time.
“He walked over to the bunch of guides and handed one of them his HF radio. Then he got down on the strip and he did 40 full pushups, got up, took his radio back, turned around and walked away without saying a word,” she described.
“As he walked away he heard one say, ‘Wow, Chummy must really be ripped.’ So Chummy really got a kick out of that.”
Lori said Chummy was loved by people from across North America and the world.
“He was a unique individual and he touched people so deeply without even being aware of it,” she said.
“There was something about him that really made an impact on so many people.”
One of the people on whom Chummy had an impact was Shane Jonker, hired as a guide at Great Bear Lake Lodge in the 90s. Jonker is now one of the owners of Plummer’s Arctic Lodges.
“I had no idea who he was. He looked like a maintenance man and he behaved like a maintenance man and he kept a pretty low profile,” he recalled of meeting Chummy.
Jonker said Chummy was a “massive mentor” to a large and diverse group of people and had the vision and stamina to overcome the obstacles that can come with working in the North.
“We watched him do it and wanted to be just like him,” he said.
Chummy cared deeply about learning about the North as both a pilot and lodge operator, Jonker said, and had a lot of knowledge about the area and the best places to fish.
“He took the education of the Northwest Territories very seriously and made sure that he delivered with the guest expectations front of mind all the time.”
Phil Reid, whose family has been in the fishing lodge business for decades and currently manages Sabourin Lake Lodge in Ontario, considers Chummy as a mentor and dear friend. He said Chummy was an usher at his wedding, and they travelled, hunted and fished together around the world.
“He’s very, very smart. Sometimes he’s a man of few words but what he did say really meant a lot,” Reid said, adding that Chummy was a good guy who “would do anything for you.”
“I don’t think I have a closer friend than he was.”
Reid said Chummy “went by his own rules,” “perfected the back end” of running a lodge operation and was well respected in the lodge and aviation industries.
“He was very multi-talented and truly loved what he was doing,” he said. “I guess if there’s a good way to go, he did, because he was up at his favourite place in the world – up north – right to the last day.”
Roxy Engel said her late husband Bob, who founded NWT Air, had known Chummy since he was a little boy. She and her husband spent “copious amounts of time” at the lodge on Great Slave Lake.
“Chummy was the ultimate bushman. He was the ultimate statesman for the Northwest Territories. He was the ultimate statesman [for] sports fishing,” she said.
Engel said she believes Chummy’s greatest legacy was showcasing a beautiful part of the world to others.
In a statement to Cabin Radio, Corey Myers, chair of the NWT Tourism board of directors, said Chummy was a “true icon” and “legend in the lodge industry.”
“We are deeply saddened by his loss and offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends, to Chuk and the whole crew at Plummer’s Lodges, and to the countless number of guests who’s lives he’s touched over the years,” Myers wrote. “Chummy will be greatly missed, and remembered by all who had the privilege of knowing him.”
The world-class fishing and hunting expeditions offered by Plummer’s Arctic Lodges attracted politicians and sports stars over the years.
They included Glen Sather – a former professional hockey player, coach of the Edmonton Oilers, and president and manager of the New York Rangers – who developed a decades-long friendship with Chummy.
He said Chummy was a good friend who was caring and passionate about the outdoors.
“He had all the ingredients of a great conservationist but he was also running a business,” Sather said.
“Everybody got along with him.”
Sather shared a story from the time he visited the Tree River lodge alongside former president George Bush Sr and Harry Sinden, then general manager of the Boston Bruins.
He said Sinden brought some lobster for the trip, which ended up attracting a grizzly bear one afternoon.
“The Secret Service guys who were there protecting Bush had their guns out and I said, ‘What are you guys doing? That bear is going to see you and he’s going to leave right away.’ And he said, ‘We have to protect President Bush,'” Sather recalled.
“Sure enough, the bear got a couple hundred yards away and smelled everybody and turned around and ran away.”
He described Chummy as “trying to keep everything calm and cool” throughout the experience.
“When I reflect on it, it was like Chummy was there guarding the bear more than guarding the president,” he said.
Beyond his lodges, Chummy leaves a gastronomic namesake in the North.
Among items on the menu at the Walrus Fried Fish & Griddle food truck, by the Plummer’s floatplane base on Yellowknife’s Back Bay, is the “Chummy dog.”
The business is owned by chef Ethan Mackenzie, who worked at Plummer’s Arctic Lodges for several years as a cook.
“Everybody that works for Plummer’s lodge knows what a Chummy dog is because we eat them every Saturday on a changeover day,” he said.
Mackenzie explained they consist of Chummy’s favourite all-beef Kirkland Polish sausage, which he would fly up from Winnipeg. While Chummy preferred his Chummy dogs boiled, however, the ones served at the Walrus are cooked on a roller.
Mackenzie recalled Chummy always wanting “the obscure, kind-of fatty, tasty parts” of meat from the shank of a ham, neck of a turkey or prime rib.
He said Chummy was “a tough, unique individual” and a hardworking outdoorsman with a dry sense of humour who could be “brash and standoffish but super soft when you got to know him.”
“He’ll be missed,” said Mackenzie, “and I’m glad we get to remember him every time we yell ‘Chummy dog.'”
