Dave Gagnon (Baker City) is a highly detailed master mason, who has worked for nearly four decades in the age old craft of building or restoring structures of stone and brick. Ojibwa/Chippewa on his father’s side, Gagnon is one of 50 family members involved in the trade.
Bio
A master mason, Dave Gagnon is part of the age-old craft of building or restoring structures of stone and brick. Ojibwa/Chippewa on his father’s side, Gagnon is just one of 50 family members involved in the trade. His Uncle Arnold laid 2,200 concrete blocks in a day in Alaska, and his father, whom his peers held in the highest esteem, was a recipient of The Golden Trowel, the most sought-after award in the concrete flooring industry. After his father died, Gagnon, then 12, took his place in the circle of men at the funeral and announced, “I’m the man in the house now, and I want to begin my apprenticeship.” Mentored in part by his father’s former apprentice, Gagnon completed his own union apprenticeship at 26. Gagnon has worked in his trade for nearly four decades. “It’s really hard work...getting all your lines right…architecturally back to period,” Gagnon remarked. It is often necessary to “finesse” the work to make it look plum and level when the working area is not. “You got to go to the building; you got to go to the lines that are there.” For an aspiring apprentice, the level of detail Gagnon demands can be “crushing.” “I am the uncommon. I am the natural at this trade...I never struggled with this trade,” Gagnon proclaimed. Gagnon’s son maintains the family tradition of masonry, now four generations deep. “It’s in his bones,” Gagnon declared. “We [as a family of masons] are all around the ring of fire. We rebuild these cities when they fall down.” When disasters strike in the Northwest as far north as Alaska, Gagnon continued, “There will be family there rebuilding the place.”
