VALLEY HISTORY AND THE WINDERMERE VALLEY MUSEUM BOX 2315, INVERMERE, V0A IK0 August 2016 250-342-9769 After that, they moved to Victoria and lived there until Walters passing in 1970. Melrose moved back to Medicine Hat where she lived until her death in 1972. Just-a-mere-Ranch 1933 (Rev. William Stott, B.A. ) Twenty odd miles away in the bottom of the valley lie the wee towns of Windermere and Invermere, so when the narrow road passed under the rustic arch bearing the leg- end, “Just-a-mere-Ranch”, we knew that a sprightly soul lived here. The road we had come over was scarcely Walter and Melrose Hawke a road. Even on the level one had to proceed with unusual care. And there wasn’t much Walter Lawson Hawke was born at Med- level. Starting from a three thousand foot icine Hat, Alberta in 1884. After early years elevation it was climb, climb, climb. Four in school there he went to Ontario Veteri- gates to open down near the public road, nary Collage in Guelph, Ontario. He gradu- then up past where there was an old sawmill ated with a degree in Veterinary Science. and a tie camp, named “Waverly Station “ He returned to practice that profession in by the cheerful carload passing through. Up Alberta, mostly at a Veterinary Laboratory and still up. And then down, down a steep under Department of Agriculture near Leth- hill, car in low, single track road absolutely– bridge. a shelf on the side of the mountain– miles Mary Lillian Melrose Hargrave was born long. At the foot a little bridge crossing a on July 5, 1882 in Manitoba. After attending lively stream. Then our sign. Then up again school there, she attended nurses training in on more shelf road. At last a field of grain. Regina Sask. She did not complete the Soon after a flock of turkeys, some of them course because of health problems. In 1914 carrying little bells. As we stopped at the she married Walter Hawke at Medicine Hat, garden gate, Walter and Melrose Hawke Alberta. were there to meet us. There was no ques- After the marriage they lived at Leth- tion of the genuineness of our welcome. bridge where Walter was practicing his Vet- There was an old log house with ram- erinary profession. After some time there, bling addition. Walter found that working with animals “We bring our guests in through the caused him to have asthma so they returned kitchen” cheerily announced Mrs. Hawke. to the family farm near Medicine Hat. Off the kitchen, separated by an open arch Some time later, he decided his health without pillar, the coziest, roomiest nook we would be better in a high mountain atmos- had ever seen. A fireplace quite unique. phere. He found a ranch for sale near Inver- Everywhere evidence of culture and ingenu- mere , B.C. ( Royal Antler Ranch ). Walter ity. and Melrose lived there from 1921 to 1943. Page 1 And through the window one caught one’s “Made to match our mountains,” someone breath at an unsurpassed view of the Rockies remarked. “Would we have had men to fitted into the v-shaped opening in the nearer match our mountains,’ ventured another. Our mountains. host, Mr. Hawke replied, “ We have them.” And, what do you think? One of the most “But,” said the other retreating, “I was think- conspicuous objects in that entrance room, ing of the confused political situation in standing on the high arch base, was a Cent-a- British Columbia, and of how no personality meal-box. Across on the fireplace top ( no, emerges behind whom the people will rally not a mantel ) lay a friendly, attractive look- confidently.” Simply, yet directly, came the ing Bible. reply: Just before the delightful supper was “ We do not appreciate our public men at served, I stood outside gazing down the ra- their true worth. If they make one mistake, all vine landscape. Mr. Hawke came to join me. the good they have done goes for nothing.” The inevitable city question came to my lips: One came away from Just-a-mere-Ranch “ Do you not feel cut off living out here ?” with the feeling that our friends live above Quietly came the answer. “ No, not at all. We the clouds in more senses than one. If you did for a year or two when we first came visit in this community you will find them from the prairie, but now we like it.” every Sabbath day during the season that the “But supposing one of you took sick; you car can be run, worshipping in the house of have no telephone. The other would have to God, and a welcome guest at someone's leave the sick one to go for help.” The an- home afterwards. The charge with which they swer came simply, directly: “We have found are associated is one of those assisted through in our experience that there is One who looks the Missionary and Maintenance Fund. We after us.” pass on to others associated with them in the “That is good,” I said questioningly. support of the fund their testimony to the “Yes,” he continued, “ again and again we goodness of God. have been assured of it. ” ( Museum Files ) The call to supper came just then. But oth- ************************************ er corroborative stories came along in the Lake Maye course of subsequent conversation, stories of ( from a letter from T. Starbird ) forest fires that swept the mountain sides, March 14, 1913 and how on one occasion all the furniture had “ I discovered what is now known as Lake been taken out as a precaution, of how a Maye near the glacier of my name which spring freshet had threatened the bridge that empties into Horsethiet Creek. I first visited meant contact with the rest of the world, and it in August 1899 on a trip after some mineral how on that very day a chance visitor had prospects. I came across it by accident. I let come out and discovered the accumulation of the subject of it pass out of my mind until debris, and the two men had worked all day eleven years later when I had Lord Stafford in the water and saved the bridge; and of how as a guest at my home on a hunting expedi- in all the years they had lived on this place tion. This was in 1911. I took him to the they had never met another car on that one small lake . He was so delighted with the way road. gem of a lake that he fairly raved about it. Over the teacups, we talked of the Later the same year I took H.W. Gleason of World’s Championship in garden peas having Boston, famour artist-photographer, with been won at Regina by the local experimental some friends to view it. At her special request farm, and of how the Dominion Government I also took Mrs. Starbird, whose Christian was now offering this experimental farm for name was Maye. Mr. Gleason, in spite of my sale at a sacrifice price. The suggestion was remonstrance named the lake after Mrs. made that perhaps the farm had been laid out Starbird who to my knowledge was the first on too lavish a scale. white woman who had ever seen it. Page 2 Invermere Forestry and the Cross River. May 1953-Feb. 1961 Logging to 4 inch tops, emphasis on utiliza- tion to produce wood chips from what was ( By Vern Hopkins ) Ranger sequence - Joe Johnson, then Ray previously wasted changed everything and Tippie, Vern Hopkins then Les Taft. these changes ere just commencing in 1961 Timber– Portable bush sawmills, some when I was transferred to another district very small and primitive, some large and and lost touch with the Columbia Valley. complex, were the vogue in 1953. Simon Fires- My stay at Invermere was marred Ronacher and Son, operating in Frances and by a number of large remote lightning Forester Creeks, Wilder Bros. Lumber Co. caused fires. The policy of letting ‘back in the Kootenay Valley, just south of the country’ fires burn was finished, and new Park boundary, and a host of smaller porta- technology of aerial attack on such fires was bles, most of these on private land, were in its infancy. Use of helicopters and air active. Only Edgewater Sawmills Ltd., and tankers ( water bombers ) commenced with H. Seel and Son had stationary sawmills, as very primitive equipment and little I recall. knowledge of how to use it. The pack horse Products produced by these mills was chief- was put out to pasture. ly railway ties and dimension lumber. Recreation– During this period, the Provin- By 1958 both S. Ronacher and Wilder Bros. cial Parks Service was established, taking had converted to stationary sawmills, one at over the roadside campsites commenced by Athalmer and one at Radium. Utilization the Forest Service,, eg: Dry Gulch was not improved until the advent of the Campsite, and later remote Provincial Park pulp mill at Skookumchuck and the intro- Areas such as Mt. Assiniboine Provincial duction of “Smallwood policy” by the prov- Park. ince. Small portable mills continued as be- In Summary, my stay at Invermere covered fore with several increasing in size and im- a period of great changes in Forestry which portance. These included Wenger and were far from complete when I transferred Kellough, the Baltic Sawmill ( Ojars out in 1961. Ukass ), Joe Kirsch and Sons and Tegart It should be noted that the last river drive on and Larsen.