Ragnar Jonsson; Trapper for 60 Years in Canadian Bush

Ragnar Jonsson, 88, a Swedish-born trapper who lived in a tent in northern Manitoba and spent more than 60 years in the Canadian bush. Jonsson came to Canada in 1923 and made his living cutting wood and fishing around Big River, Saskatchewan, before starting his trapping career in the 1930s. For more than 40 years he lived off the land near Neultin Lake. His shelter was a small tepee, just big enough for an oil drum converted into a stove, an oil lamp and sleeping bags. Mail reached him once or twice a year and every decade or so, he ventured into a city. In 1982 he went to Winnipeg after an absence of 59 years to have a cataract removed. “Now I could see a moose or a caribou moving 50 miles away,” he said before heading back into the bush, where his favorite foods included lake trout, ptarmigan and pancakes made with the blood of a caribou or moose. “If you’ve ever tasted it, you’ll never ever want any other kind of pancake,” he said. In The Pas, Manitoba, on Saturday.