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Mabel Lake Reminiscences
1907-1975

Gone is the cable bucket which lifted water from the river in front of Mr. Louis Bussere's home at the top of Kingfisher Hill. Gone are the coal-oil lamps and lanterns, the wash boards and the tin tubs, the corduroy roads with their horse-drawn wagons, sleighs and cutters, -- all are gone from the Hupel-Mabel Lake community which lies in the beautiful valley of the Shuswap River, extending from the lake to the "summit" -- a point midway between Enderby and Mabel Lake. Many are the changes which have taken place during the past century.

As in most other communities of B.C., the first white people to visit this area were prospectors in search of gold, trappers for furs, followed by loggers who, around the turn of the century, began the industry that has remained the most important and productive to the community. Surveyors had arrived also by this time to map the countryside. It was an engineer of a survey party during the 1870s who named the lake after the daughter of his friend, William Charles, Hudson Bay Company manager at Kamloops.

The fish and beautiful countryside are still here to lure tourists from many parts of the world, and it was in 1908 that my father, J.F. Moore, who lived in the Armstrong district, became one of the first tourists to camp and fish in this area. I was just a baby -- the first white baby to visit Mabel Lake, according to Bob McDonald, who at that time, was living at the river mouth -- when father and mother packed the open prairie grain wagon with food, clothes, tents, fishing tackle and hay to commence the long journey to Mabel Lake. Travelling thirty miles behind a slow team of horses, it took two whole days to reach Kingfisher Creek, camp was made beside the Shuswap River at a point known as the "chucks" where a long high rock juts into the rapids making a perfect place to cast one's line to lure the beautiful rainbow trout which were very plentiful in those days. This camping spot became "Heaven on Earth" to my parents, our close friend, Winnie Robinson, and the four of us children, and it has remained so to this day. Each summer we returned, camping in tents, sleeping on bracken and cedar boughs, eating outdoors, fishing and bathing in the lake, which, for a long time, we had all to ourselves. Eventually, father was lucky enough to purchase the property along the river on which he built a cosy log cabin. This "camp" is now used each summer by members of the family, their children, and grandchildren.

Before 1908, there were few settlers as yet in the valley. Mr. Mike Hupel was the first homesteader, clearing a spot by the river where now is located the Hupel Service Station and recently a store. He had the first mail contract in the valley and operated the first stage service.

A story remembered about Mike Hupel has to do with a man who lived in a small cabin by the river at the foot of the Martin Robert Hill near Campagnolo's, or "sand hill" as we used to call it. Upon arriving one day to visit this trapper, Mr. Hupel found him lying dead upon the floor. Not knowing what else to do with the corpse, he buried it in a shallow grave near the cabin, reporting the death when next he canoed to Enderby. When a rumour started that he might have murdered the man, Mike was ordered by the police to remove the body from the grave and take it by canoe to Enderby. However, nothing could be found to prove him guilty of the crime and he was freed of all blame in the case. The road that followed along the flat between the two hills became known as "Deadman's Flat", and, as a child, I can recall a squeamish feeling whenever we travelled along this part of the road, thinking that the body was still there.

Other pioneers arrived in the valley. In 1905, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Dale moved from Enderby with their family, Douglas, John, George, William, Walter, Bella, Agnes, and Mary. They brought with them their blue ox which served them faithfully for many years, in their land clearing, logging operations and wood hauling. One day, when turned out to pasture, it disappeared and was never seen again.

Many were the interesting tales of life in the early days and about trapping on the mountains around Mabel Lake that were told by John and still are by Douglas, living on the original homestead with his nephew, Robert, and family. John told of trappings on Park and Mabel Mountain where he and his brothers, Douglas, George, and Bill, had to climb four miles to altitudes of 7,250 feet before starting on the forty mile trap lines which sometimes took two or three weeks to cover. Breaking trail through driving snow all day and into the night made the simple fare of beans, salt pork and venison a hearty meal when they reached the next cabin on the line. Snow, forty to fifty feet of it, settling to fourteen to twenty feet, was recorded in John's diary which he always carried on these trips, to mark what food was left in each cabin on his way out.

Towards the lake from Hupel place, lived Mr. Albert Price, his wife, the first woman settler in our valley, and two children, Pansy and Robert, who squatted on the land taken over by the Simard family. When Mr. Price left the valley in 1906, he went to Enderby and joined the Mounted Police Force, later transferring to Regina. In 1917, he retired from the Force and returned to Mabel Lake, homesteaded, and built a house now owned by Jim Heyland. Here he remained for the rest of his life caring for his prize goats and white rabbits and growing the finest strawberries and garden produce in the valley.

We shall always remember him as a kind and generous neighbour. After Mr. Price's death, Mr. and Mrs. Helps bought his place, then Mr. and Mrs. Barrett, both families carrying on with the gardening he had started. Mrs. Price, now ninety-two, lives near her daughter and family in North Vancouver. Other pioneers at this time were Mr. Bulgum living across from the Dales on the Walter Dale place where the Malcom Dale family now lives, Billy Radeau on the farm now owned by the Prevost family, Ben Cameron and Mr. Bass at Falls Creek, John Nordleau, where the Sam Bartons lived for many years and which property is now owned by the Steeles of California, and Charlie Walleen at the Tom Dale farm now owned by Douglas Clark and wife Jannette.

Towards the lake on the Cawley place, formerly owned by Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin and before that, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Bramble and family, lived Jack Roarke, and at the lake was Bob McDonald employed by the A.R. Rogers Company as caretaker of the log warehouse and other buildings at the river mouth. Bob McDonald, a huge man weighing over two hundred pounds, was an expert with the broad-axe and hewed perfect fitting logs for building cabins. He built a log cabin on a mining claim across the river form the Henry Simard residence but never lived in it. One day a bear pushed its way through the door and, becoming a prisoner inside the poor creature died finally of starvation. Later Mr. Pitton moved the building to his place, now owned by Wilfred Simard, where it has been used as a barn ever since.

By this time, Leighton's log house at Dolly Varden Beach, for many years the summer home of Mr. H.M. Walker of Enderby, at present the summer home of Mrs. Vera McCullough of Vernon, had been built by Bill Kavanaugh. After completing it, Mr. Kavanaugh sold it to Mr. Leighton for the sum of fifty dollars and moved to the north end of Mabel Lake where he lived as a hermit in a camp vacated by Albert Johnson, a sub-contractor for the A.R. Rogers Company. He lived there for almost twenty years going out once a year to the south ind of the lake for a few groceries. In a home-made boat fashioned from a cedar three, with rude sail attached, he sailed the length of the lake, a distance of twenty-six miles, to visit Proctor's Store. He lived mainly off the land, always had a good garden and even grew his own tobacco. Trapping was his main occupation. Finally, he left the North End and went to live with his old friend, George Cargill, above Lusk Lake, where now live the Norman Dales and nearby, their son Gordon and Carolee.

Living across the lake at this time, was a very young couple from Armstrong. They were Mr. and Mrs. Fred Abbot, who built their cabin in the bay bearing their name and where Mrs. Alice Large now has her summer home. Later, they moved with their family to the river mouth in order that their children might attend school. Fred Abbot was the first to own a motor boat at Mabel Lake.

In 1909, the two Simard families moved into the valley Napoleon, father of Henry, Wilfred, Adelard, Joe, Louis, Rosario, Edward, Mina, and Virginia, followed two months later by his brother Joseph, father of Napoleon, Rudolph, Edmond, Laura and Blanche. A friend of Napoleon Simard, namely Mr. Martin Roberts, came and homesteaded the property now owned by Mr. Campagnolo, and formerly owned by our son David and his family -- wife, June, David Jr., Lynne and Morva. Mr. Roberts planted the first orchard in the valley and some of the original trees are still bearing apples despite the damage that bears have done over the years.

Another pioneer who took up a homestead on the property now owned by Wilfred Simard, was Louis Bussere who came at the same time as Joseph Simard. They both came from Grand Forks, Louis settling at the top of the hill and Joseph at the bottom on the flat east of Kingfisher Creek. Henry Torrent, logging at that time in the district, married Laura Simard and with their daughter Yvonne, lived for many years on the Harder place, formerly owned by Mr. Kingston. Mr. Torrent, a lumberjack, arrived in the district in 1904 to work for Mike Hupel at digging ditches. He left to work at Lumby returning some years later to remain with us for several years. He was one of the four trustees of Kingfisher School when it was first built in 1927, the others being Alec Kemp, Charles Hadley, and Joe Kass.

The first road to Mabel Lake was merely a logging trail, impassable at certain times of the year and always very rough. How the wagon rumbled and jerked as it passed over the corduroy which bridged the creeks and swamps! I remember too, how nervous we were travelling around the rock cut". The ledge seemed barely wide enough for the wagon to travel over safely and the horses shied at their shadows on the bare rocks. While the road was under construction, an incident occurred concerning Mr. Bulgum. When road engineers came with a court order to cancel his homestead grant for refusal to allow the road to go through his property, he left the valley in a huff, never to return. The road, which Mr. John Dale helped to build, was finally completed to the lake in 1909, but the corduroy bridges continued to be used for many years thereafter. In 1916, automobiles were beginning to replace wagons and buggies. The roads were being widened and bridges made stronger but many "danger" points still stand out in mind on that long trip to camp, now taking about three or four hours.

The narrow bridge at Cook's Creek, Dale's long narrow hill, where two cars could not pass, the big rock in the middle of the road at the summit and last but not least, the "sand hill" where the car, always loaded to the hill, had to have an extra push to get it to the top, were a few of the danger spots. Henry and Wilfred Simard, owning the first car in the valley, knew what it was like to take their Overland over these roads, and John Dale, who drove the stage for many years, could relate many adventures he experienced while freighting goods to the lake.

Prior to the First World War, a number of Englishmen and Scotsmen immigrated to this district, pre-empting land along the lake-shore of Mabel Lake and in the valley. These were Mr. Jones, Mr. Isherwood, Mr. Stanley Wilkenson, Mr. Walter Johnson, Mr. Morton and daughter and Mr. Newman. Up on the hill west of Kingfisher Creek where the clearings and tumbledown log houses still remain, lived Mr. and Mrs. Peeters and son Joe, Mr. Bill Glaves and his friend Mr. Mike Roahn, and farther up the creek, Mr. Bill Burroughs. A homestead on the hill east of the creek was owned by Mr. Fred Kemp. When war broke out, many of these men left to join up and never returned. Mrs. Peeters lost her husband in the war and later married Mr. George Pitton. They moved from the homestead on the hill to the Louis Bussere place where they built a large log house and raised their family of five --Joe, Marion, Albert, Alma and Gladys. I shall always remember the enjoyable times we had at their Saturday night dances which they held during the summer months. Fred Kemp was another who was killed in the war. His brother, Alec, took over the property up the hill, living there for many years with his wife Maggie, and children, Fred, Pearl, Jim, Dennis, and Dorothy. A brother of Mrs. Edna and raising a family of five -- Frank, Ralph, Evelyn, Grace, and Margaret. Mr. and Mrs. Beattie still remain with us as next door neighbours. Mr. Mike Rohan eventually moved to Falls Creek, taking over the Joe St. George place. Oldtimers remember Mike as being most realistic Santa Claus who, year after year, acted the part perfectly for our Christmas concerts.

In 1913, Sir James Baird bought the Hupel place and named it "Frog Ranch"! He took over the post office and stage service and opened the first store in the valley which proved a great asset in those days. My father always stopped there to replenish our empty food box on the trip home. When war broke out, Sir James Baird returned to Scotland leaving John Dale and his wife, an opera singer, whom he had married during the war. They stayed for two years which they sold the place to Mr. Petch and Mr. Todd. They, in turn, sold to Major Taylor and Captain Simons.

Mr. Dick Blackburn was the next owner, followed by Mr. Adams, Mr. Fred Chantler and now Mr. Crossley. Fred's father, Ernie Chantler, was the man who built the modern dwelling which now replaces the original log structure, with coffee shop and store combined (now closed) and who lived there with his wife, Martha, and family -- Carl, Fred, James, Margol, Dorothy and Gwin for several years.

Another well known pioneer of the district was Mr. Rene Potrie, who, before the war, claimed the land known as the Knight place, where for many years, the Sid Knights lived. Mr. Potrie moved away from the valley and the government reclaimed his land, his son, Emil and wife Nada live today. Two other sons, Ernest and George and daughter, Mary-Jane, live with their families nearby. It was Mr. Potrie who, with the help of Louis Simard, built Hupel School in 1922 and was the efficient School Board Chairman for most of the years the school was in session. At one time, when I was teaching at this little log school house, six of the eight pupils attending were Mr. Potrie's children, namely George, Ernie, Elizabeth, Madeline, Angelina, and Mary-Jane.

Mr. John Wickenberg took over the place that later belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Sid Knight. He cleared the land and built the house in which several families have since lived -- The Fred Petries, the Marshalls, the Fred Chantlers, and Fred Oshas. In order to clear the place, Mr. Wickenberg needed dynamite, so one day, he walked all the way from Enderby with a fifty pound box of stumping powder on his back!

Mr. Azel Nordleau who was the first who was the first settler on the Jim Boot farm, now owned by Dr. Newman, lived there for years before selling to Mr. and Mrs. Mechvatal. He is remembered as being a very clean, tidy bachelor and a peace-loving man.

Little log schoolhouses sprang up along the roadside to educate the children of the community wherever the population was densest. The first to be built, in 1916, about a mile from the lake, had Mr. Ferguson as its first teacher and later Miss Adams, sister to Mosie Adams. Hupel School was built next, in 1922, and Kingfisher School in 1927. These schools were not only places of learning but served as community centres where dances, concerts, wedding receptions, meetings, church services, political rallies, and card parties were enjoyed. In 1960, the little old schoolhouse at Kingfisher where I began my teaching career in 1927 and where I taught for so many years was set afire having electric lights, oil heating, telephone, and a community hall nearby. Oldtimers still participate in concerts, bazaars, dances, political meetings, movies, and other modern entertainment, mixing with the newcomers and the younger generation of the valley.

Many were the hardships experienced in those early days but children must have their education. Often during May and June, pupils and teachers waded knee deep in flood water to attend their classes, or had to cross upon windfalls to by-pass the flooded areas. The Dale children, Tom, Agnes, Don, Norman and Betty were taken to school by their faithful horse, Shorty, a distance of seven miles, winter and summer, rain, snow, or shine, never missing a day. Mrs. Ann Dale, who now lives in Enderby, relates that when Shorty was wanted for hauling wood, he reared up in protest -- he was too well educated for such trivial jobs!

In 1919, Mr. and Mrs. Large and family of four sons, Milton, Lloyd, Russell, Harry and daughters Eva, Laura, Alice, and Winnifred arrived in the valley, first to rent the Martin Robert place and later to purchase the Roarke property. Their daughter, Elsye, came later with her husband, Charles Hadley who, with their children, Gene and Stuart, homesteaded the piece of land across the river from the Roberts farm. Here, they built an attractive log home, surrounding it with beautiful vines and flowers which still bravely bloom after all the years the place has been vacant. Alice Large married Mr. Joe Kass, who at that time, was foreman of a large logging camp up Kingfisher. He was the first resort owner at Mabel Lake and was the first to build boats and rent them to tourists. Mr. Kass also ran the stage services for many years, making a trip to Enderby every Friday and returning the next day with mail, freight and passengers. In the winter, the trip was made with team and sleigh, and one New Year's Day, it was thirty degrees below zero when we left the Enderby Hotel to make the trip to the lake. With hot bricks at our feet, and plenty of warm rugs around our legs, we did not feel the cold. Joe Kass finally sold his business to his brother-in-law, Mr. Russell Large, who with his wife, Alice, and Ralph and Renie Stevenson as partners, continued to build boats and to enlarge the resort with attractive cabins and store. Even an airstrip was made for tourists who might come to Mabel Lake by private plane, roads were improved and a camp-area set up. The Larges finally sold their business and moved with their family -- Helen, High and Marjorie, to Vernon.

Another wonderful neighbour who came to the valley in 1920 with her husband, Bert and son Ray, was Mrs. Hall. For several years, they lived at Abbot's Bay where Mr. Hall trapped for a living. Later, Mrs. Hall became post-mistress of the Hupel Post Office which was moved from the Hupel Ranch to the property now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Heyland, formerly by Mr. Gardener. She started a small store in conjunction with the post office, selling homemade bread, pies, cakes and cookies. How we relished her tasty syrup cookies and her pies, and her freshly baked bread while we were in camp!

Later, she moved her store to Dolly Varden Beach into a log structure that Louis Beckman, living at Lusk Lake, had made for his boat, below the present store owned by Mr. and Mrs. Laureson, before that by Mr. Adamson and Mr. Bruns who own Mabel Ridge Estates Sub-division. Prior to that, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Fast owned the resort having purchased it from Mr. and Mrs. Ring and the Wittals. Mrs. Hall sold her store to Mr. Russell Large and went into retirement taking a well deserved rest after many pioneering years.

A few people who braved the dangers of crossing the river by boat attached to a cable (and sometimes without) settled on the opposite shore. The first were Mr. and Mrs. Adelard Delorme who, with their family of six came from Lumby in 1912 to homestead a tract of land opposite the present Schalin farm. Here, they lived for about ten years beside the creek that now bears their name, before moving to Vernon. Some years later, a son, Al, returned with his wife, Betty and his father to settle on the adjoining land opposite the Hupel Ranch. They cleared a large acreage and planted it in hay for the beef cattle they were raising. The Delorme children, Denis and Dawn, at one time attended Hupel School.

Mr. Louis Simard had a place opposite the Cawley farm, and lived in a log house now owned by Mr. Brandt. He finally drowned while crossing the river during high water. Next to the Al Delorme farm, Mr. Rudolph Simard, upon his discharge from the army after the First World War, acquired a homestead through the soldier's grant. These two properties are at present owned by Mr. Warren Fitzgerald. A bridge, petitioned for over and over again, never got beyond surveying stage so the families on the other side of the river still have to cross by boat.

The Simard brothers, Henry and Wilfred, remaining in the Valley to run the farm, began beef raising in a big way and then the raising of sheep. Pasturing was a problem and until they had cleared their land to plant hay, it was difficult to find enough fodder for the wintering of their cattle. They had to travel long distances to find meadows of wild grass which they could haul to the farm. This meant building roads to the meadows, one of which, known as Simard Road, still winds through the woods to Leighton's house up past Lusk Lake to Kemp's meadow. In the fall, when it came time to take the beef to market, the Simards invented a unique way to transport the animals there. Can one picture twenty to thirty fat steers moving down the road peacefully and quietly in their own home corral? This actually happened and it took two days to reach Enderby.

The front of the transportable corral rested on a heavy wagon, the rear on two wheels, the whole being drawn by a four-horse team. People along the way came rushing from their homes to stare curiously and to take pictures of this strange "object" as the cattle moved to market.

Some years, they went all the way to Armstrong where Fed Murray's slaughterhouse was located. Upon arrival, the cattle were none the worse for their leisurely "walk" to market! Henry Simard married Martha Antilla of Enderby and through thick and thin, good years and poor years, they raised their family of six -- Maurice, Lawrence, Yvonne, Jack, Tom and Peter. They still live with their son, Jack, in the home built by Mr. Kass at the river mouth.

Logging has been the chief industry in the valley over the years. It still is in full swing though timber is now more scarce and contractors must go farther afield in search of limits. Present day methods are a far cry from those of early days when hauling and skidding were done by horses and cutting was all done by hand. When the Roger's Company manager, Mr. Stevens, decided that a quicker and better method was necessary for moving the booms of logs down the lake, he went to Vancouver and purchased a large steam tugboat which was freighted to Enderby by train and from there to the lake on a set of sleighs pulled by a six-horse team. Many difficulties were experienced during this last lap of its journey, as the roads were narrow and steep in places. For many years, one could see the marks on trees where cables had been anchored in order to winch the boat along. This tugboat was a vast improvement for towing the log booms. It replaced to old horse-cap method where a horse, going round and round on a large raft, wound on to a winch a long cable that had been fastened to a tree on shore or anchor dropped into the lake ahead of the raft. Towed in this manner from tree to tree, or anchor hod to anchor hold, the boom of lags eventually reached the river mouth, taking weeks and weeks to reach its destination. The new tugboat could now do the job in less than half the time. It was often brought down the river to a bay opposite the present Kingfisher Hall and one time in turning around, it lost its propeller, drifted downstream, and lodged against the rock in front of our camping spot. The men managed, with difficulty, to get it back to the lake but it was not until forty years later that Wilfred Simard picked up the propeller from the bottom of the river, still in well-preserved condition. Logging in those early days was a winter time occupation and it is said about the men employed by the A.R. Rogers Company that "there was one crew on the road, one at the bar and one in the woods," which involved altogether nearly a thousand men.

Until recently, the only boat known to have navigated the whole length of the rapids known as "SkookumChuk", a distance of about two miles of the Shuswap River, formerly named Spallumcheen River, was a Wanigan -- a thirty foot by ten foot scow covered with canvas and used as a cookhouse by the river drivers. The men who piloted it through the "Chucks" were Angus Woods and Sam Derry of Lumby while taking a log drive to Enderby for the A.R. Rogers Company in 1910.

Modern methods of logging and lumbering gradually came to the valley. Harold Acutt (who married Noreen, sister to Marjorie and Joyce Kass) and his partner Ed Tipton, built a fine mill at Kingfisher, later owned and managed by Al and Connie Noble, at that time owner of the Mabel Lake Resort, and our son David. Since then, lumber and shingle mills have come and gone, bringing with them and taking away the employees and their families who have helped to build the community.

Names of those people who have come and gone include the Tobers, the Phillips, the Leon Hills, Mrs. Hoffman, Vi McNight, the News, Phelps, Everett Browns, Lepages, Stewarts, Eva and Adelard Simard, the Skovs, Fred Petries, Shulties, Baumles, Hobbs, Howards, Millers, Olsens, Monkhouses, Mr. Main, Fitzgeralds, Turners, Abbeys, Edwards, Watts, Crouches, Wilfred Russells, Bells, the Wittals, Kingstons, Bigneys, the David Reals, Hatts, Rings, Blackburns, Grahams, and the Dacks. More recent community builders have been the Woods, the Trenholms, Olds, Chantlers, the Hays families, Zilstras, Burns, Fleurys, the Charlie Russells, the Clark brothers -- Bob, Stuart and Bill, and their families, the Jones, Mellishes, Burns, Gublers, Sweigards, Schalins, Grays, Lorne Dales, Karsgaards, and others whose names have been mentioned, most of whom still live in the valley today. We even have a group of young people living across the river who call themselves "The Common Good Co-op" -- something quite new for our community.

How different Mabel Lake is today from those first summers we spent camping by the river. Motor boats buzz around the lake coming to anchor at cabins located along the shores. People are everywhere, laughing, shouting, working or simply relaxing on the beaches where once no one could be seen for miles.

Pleasure boats came slowly to Mabel Lake beginning with the two canoes owned by Mr. Rogers. The first motor boat was owned by Mr. Abbot and when the Simard brothers, Henry and Wilfred, each purchased a beautiful launch manufactured at Brockville, Ontario, they were the envy of everyone. Today, boats and canoes come by the hundreds on top of cars of pulled by trailers, and even houseboats cruise up and down the length of the lake anchoring in some protected spot for the night.

Yes, time has changed our Mabel Lake valley and its people. Modern water facilities, electric lights and power, paved roads for modern travelling, equipment and logging trucks, telephones, radios and TV in nearly every home and cabin, modern school, community hall, and resort have made a completely new picture. But despite the changes that have taken place, the lake itself, the river, the Indian paintings, the surrounding hills and mountains are still there to make the valley a most wonderful spot in which to camp and to live.

Isobel Simard
Kingfisher 1979