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Ten thousand years ago, that seems to be a reasonable time to start, this whole country was covered with ice. We are told it was 7000 feet thick. If Hunters Range and the mountain peaks were the same height then as they are now, there were only a few spots sticking out above the ice.

In the last 10,000 years as the ice melted, vegetation became established and the transformation continues with the most noticeable modification being the gradual expansion of the forest growth into the alpine areas. I would guess it is only going to take another two to three degrees rise in the annual mean temperature before we might well see all the meadows covered with forest. There will not be any alpine areas left as such.

The first economic activity was by the trappers who covered the area from all directions. Harry Blurton, an old, old, timer from the Mara area, came up from Mara on the western side and made the circle down through Sicamous Creek. The Dale brothers, Tom Mant and Jack Bulmont covered the eastern watersheds of the range. That was the Noisy, Kingfisher, Cook Creek and Wap drainage areas. I believe this chap Jack Bulmont was actually over at Wap Lake, but if there was a piece of country that wasn't being utilized by any other trapper, they ignored the boundaries of the area they were supposed to be covering. So it was not uncommon for him to go right up into the Noisy country, also into the Kingfisher. I got that from one of the Dale relatives.

In 1880 the Dominion Government granted to the C.P.R a strip of land extending twenty miles on each side of the main line in return for building the railway. This was known as the Railway Belt and included all of Hunters Range. This Railway Belt, incidentally, was turned over to the Provincial Government in 1930.

There seems to be a bit of a discrepency as to who was up on Hunters Range first. It was my understanding that the Bostock people were the first ones up there and it took a lot of searching to find out, but I finally phoned one of the sons of one of the Bostock girls. He didn't know, so he phoned his mother in Toronto, Ruth Bostock, the youngest of the girls of the Bostock family. The outcome was that the Bostock Ranch of Monte Creek first took sheep to Hunters Range in 1922 and continued for many years. It was my understanding that it was back in the 1920s and Ruth verified that. Eric Anderson, who was over in the Chase Creek country, went with R. A. Davidson of Vernon in 1932 to Hunters Range and he noted that Bostocks had 1000 head of sheep grazing there at that time.

In 1926 Sam Edgar, who some of you remember had a hook on one arm having lost a hand, working for what I assume had to be the Dominion Government, built a sheep trail up from Zettergreen's place at Mara to the Meadows and on to the Lookout. I say I believe it had to be the Dominion Government because the trail, although steep, was built to a pretty good standard, a lot higher standard than I believe the Provincial Government would have built it. The trail was well built with the muskeg sections corduroyed and rock cairns erected to mark the trail across the open meadows. Once on top, sheep corrals were built, the remains of which are still visible today, nearly 70 years later.

Keith Davy's eldest brother packed on that trail when it was being built and I had a chat with Keith the other day to gather additional information. Unfortunately his eldest brother is not able at this time to remember anything. He's getting on in years. At that time, places for driving the sheep through a bluestone solution to control footrot, were also built.

R.A. Davidson started using the trail two years later in 1928, but grazing the back side of the range necessitated bringing his market lambs down the Sicamous Creek trail for the early market. I believe the Schwebs also, when they were at the backside at that time of year, when they first brought their lambs down for market, they also went down the Sicamous trail. These lambs were sold under the "Alpine Lamb" label and earned a premium price.

The last flock of sheep on West Hunters was owned by Bert Smith who remained until 1964, the same year Keith Davy and Zolton Balas took cattle to the range from the Mara area. It was no longer viable to move sheep on our highways due to the increasing traffic and, because predators were not as great a problem for the larger animals, cattle gradually took over grazing the alpine areas.

In 1930 there were three to four thousand sheep grazing on Hunters Range. Today there are one thousand cows on the clear cut logging sites and the alpine areas. The clear cut logging sites are just about up to the 6,000 foot level. The grazing fees in 1950 were 9 1/2 cents per ewe for the whole alpine season of 2 1/2 to 3 months. The cost today for cattle is $6.09 per head for the 2 1/2 to 3 month grazing season, up from $1.86 in 1962.

A considerable amount of lookouts were built by the Dominion Government to protect the timber in the Railway Belt. The Railway Belt, although it was still administered by the federal government, actually belonged to the railway. Joss Mountain Lookout was built in 1921, Eagle Pass in 1922 and Mara Mountain, one of three peaks on Hunters Range, in 1925. All the lookouts had trails and telephone lines into them. The Mara Mountain trail started at Sicamous and went eastward up the mountain along Sicamous Creek. A service and line cabin was constructed about six miles north of the lookout and has been called the "Cache Cabin" ever since.  It was used by the men maintaining the trail and telephone lines as well as the packers bringing in supplies. It was fully stocked with lamps, dishes, bed, etc. and to this day has the original guest book with many pioneer names and comments recorded. The trail is still used by hikers from the Cache Cabin on up to the lookout, with the cabin still used by snowmobilers in the winter. The cabin is still in pretty good shape.

In this area, many lookouts were closed down when the Federal Government turned the Railway Belt lands over to the Provincial Government in 1930. Mara Mountain was retained by the Province, was rebuilt in 1950 and used until last year, 1994, by the Provincial Forest Service. No decision has been made about the future of this lookout.

Incidentally, although Joss Mountain was closed in 1930, it is still in pretty good shape, probably because it is difficult to access it and vandalism has not been great.

In 1949, Charlie Hawes, who was my partner at that time, and I made an arrangement with Jack Smith of Armstrong Sawmills and Harry Danforth to finance a road up to some timber limits at the four and five thousand foot level on Ashton Creek. I laid out every foot of this road and it is still in use today 46 years later. That road, at that time, and of course I didn't get paid for it, the cat work that was done on it cost $1700 per mile. Today it would cost you many, many times that amount.

We reached the 4000 foot level that fall and built a camp which is still visible today. We logged most of that winter which many oldtimers will remember hit 40 degrees below zero. By 1951 the road had crossed Ashton Creek and started up the slope to Hunters Range.

In 1956 the B.C. Forest Service decided they needed an access road for fire fighting, so it continued on from the end of our logging road up the mountain to the meadows and for several miles to the north. This road was very steep and only passable with a four-wheel drive vehicle in dry weather. The criteria to determine the maximum steepness of the grade was that if Kalke and Lawrence's Cat, which was a T.D. 14, which was hired to do the work, could back up the road it wasn't too steep.

Inspite of the road's limitations, people now had better access to the beautiful 6000 foot alpine meadows with their magnificent views, wild flowers and beautiful clean air. In 1957, the Hunters Range Alpine Club was formed with the idea of having an annual trek to various parts of the range. And they did. They went up the Ashton Creek and Kingfisher sides right up to the lookout. With the announcement by the Department of Transport in 1959 that they were planning to build air navigation structures on the mountain, interest in the club subsided.

In 1959 and 1960 a contract was let for the world's first underground radio range set on top of a mountain. Rather than extending the roof for 300 feet to get the required flat unobstructed surface, the mountain top was blown off and levelled while the bulding was constructed inside the mountain with access via a tunnel. This is the second highest VOR site in Canada, being 6600 feet to Kimberley's 7500. So Kimberley is the only site that is higher than the one on Hunters Range. It is interesting to note that in the early days the cattle people were able to go into those buildings with their thousands or millons of dollars worth of equipment because they didn't lock the doors, but that only lasted about a year of two. The people who service that area, originally from Enderby but now from Kelowna, have to go up by snowcat all winter long.

Although changes have taken place over the last 10,000 years, some of them quite dramatic, it seems that those brought about by man cause the most controversy. Some of them, such as animal grazing or navigational aids, have economic and other benefits for everyone. However, wanton destruction of the plant life by people in large four-wheel drive vehicles churning up the meadows, benefits no one. This is happening all too frequently today.

Inspite of it all, Hunters Range will still be there for people's enjoyment for many more thousands of years.

Len Bawtree
Okanagan Historical Society 1995