Regimental Number: 101095
Rank: Private
Branch: 49th Battalion; Canadian Forestry Corps
Herman Klukas was born in Russia on July 18, 1892, and came to Canada with his family in 1894. He came up to the Peace country in 1908 and in May 1912 filed on a homestead at SE1/4 35-71-6-W6, just north of the new townsite of Grande Prairie. He abandoned this in 1913 and moved on to the Bad Heart district, where he spent the winter trapping. In July of 1915, Herman enlisted in the Canadian army. He received shrapnel wounds to his chest and abdomen in November of 1916 at Passchendaele, and a bomb wound to his left shoulder in October of 1917 at Ypres. Herman was transferred to the Canadian Forestry Corps in May of 1918 and remained in England for the duration of the war.
After the war, Herman worked for the Egg Lake Ranch near Eaglesham, which used the Bad Heart prairie as their summer grazing lease. Taking a great liking to the land at Bad Heart, in 1920 he filed for a homestead on the SW1/4 28-75-2-W6. This homestead was abandoned in 1922 for a position as game warden in Wood Buffalo Park. While working in Wood Buffalo, Herman, met Catherine Jessie Norris and they were married in 1925. Around 1930 Herman and Jessie moved back to the Bad Heart district. Herman became a blacksmith and mechanic as well as proving up on his homestead where they raised their six children.
As Herman grew older, the old war wounds became more troublesome and he was confined to a wheel chair at Mackenzie Place for the last few years of his life. He died on February 24, 1979 and was buried in the Bad Heart cemetery.
Sources: Pioneers of the Peace p. 297; Smoky Peace Triangle p. 258; Wagon Trails Grown Over p. 46-54, 1147