Behind the scenes: December 2024

Earlier this month we visited Dresden with drone operator Luke Koudys to create a 3D scan of the riverbank where the Dresden cave-in occurred. We will use that scan to reconstruct the site as it would have been in 1957. We also shot a short segment for our next video, a new overview of the Dresden 1957 story. Here are some behind the scenes images and a sneak peek at some of the people you'll meet in the new video.

Overhead view of the top of the south bank of the Sydenham River in Dresden. If you look closely, you can see me.

My colleague, Joseph Crawford with Luke Koudys planning guiding the drone. Luke's company donated the drone services as part of our June crowdfunding campaign.

Joe working on the edit for the upcoming video.

In the background, you can see Wilma Wellman, whose husband Glen was in the pit for nearly 3 days, helping to recover the bodies after the cave-in. Wilma went down into the pit herself several times to make sure that Glen was okay. She said his face was "white as a sheet."

Neil Freeman is an expert in the history of the Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC). The 1950's, under Ontario premiere Leslie Frost, saw the construction of major infrastructure projects, like the 401 highway and water systems for many towns and cities in southwestern Ontario. A new waterworks for Dresden was one of the first first projects undertaken by the new OWRC. It was just two weeks into that project that the deadly cave-in occurred.

Rhonda King grow up in Dresden. Her father, C.W. (Curly) King, was the manager of the Dresden Utilities Commission, who would be operating the new waterworks.

Martin Tenhor was 15 when he first met Enne Hovius and his son Wiebrand (Wilfred). Martin's family had a tobacco farm near Aylmer, and Martin taught Enne and Wiebrand how to pick tobacco in 1955, two years before the father and son lost their lives in the Dresden cave-in.

Ena Vandenbrink was the niece of Dirk Ryksen, the foreman of the Dresden work crew, who lost his life with the other men. The Ryksen's were Ena's only relatives in Canada. The rest of their family stayed in Holland.

Jim Coyle was one of the first people into the pit after the cave-in. In the early going, there were still hopes that some of the workers might be found alive. As Jim related, in their frantic efforts to get the men out, some people were digging with their bare hands. Unfortunately, there were no survivors. Jim is haunted by the memories to this day.

In the evening on August 14, 1957, John Drenth was playing with a friend when he noticed a car circling the block Eventually the car stopped and asked the boys where the Drenth's lived. John told them he was a Drenth, and that's when he first heard the news that there had been an accident in Dresden. The body of John's father, Hendrik Drenth, was the last one recovered, 38 hours after the pit collapse.

These are just a few of the people you'll see in the next video.