100 Mile House is seeing a renewed interest in local agriculture, organic gardening, and careful land-stewardship practices.
In 2012, “self-sustainability” is becoming a goal for more and more people in many places. Our South Cariboo Farmers Market is growing and becoming more vibrant, and the vendors and customers forming a small community within the larger community.
It’s interesting our market is located adjacent to the Royal LePage 100 Mile Realty office, the exact site of the old ramshackle original 100 Mile Stopping House.
Bringing all of these interests to focus is the newly formed South Cariboo Agri-Culture Enterprise Centre, with offices located, most appropriately, in the historic 100 Mile Lodge building.
What some people may not realize is this historic landmark and the land surrounding it has been the site of organic agriculture, land-stewardship practices, and self-sustainability for more than 60 years.
At one time, 150 people lived in the buildings behind the Lodge, growing much of their own food. There were large gardens, and at one time or another, horses, dairy cows, goats, chickens, hogs, sheep, beef cattle, barns, root cellars, and even a substantial hydroponics green house. Accompanying this, eventually, was an elaborate kitchen facility for not just meal preparation, but with equipment for all manner of food preservation and storage.
At one point, the Lodge and adjacent property was designated as a Stewardship Farm, and you can still see the large Stewardship Farm sign near the 100 Mile House Community Garden. The property was also designated a “certified organic” farm.
One-time farm manager Jeffrey Newman told me, “I think my most notable achievement was to take the land through the formal organic-certification process. This was done in one year instead of the usual three because of our well-documented history of organic farming on that land.”
William Cecil, the fifth Marquess of Exeter, purchased the land that the municipality of 100 Mile House was built upon in 1912 – exactly 100 years ago.
In the 1800s, Bridge Creek House was a busy place during British Columbia’s gold-rush era, just one of many Cariboo rest stops on the road to riches further north. Eventually renamed 100 Mile House, the stop-over was exactly 100 miles from Lillooet, the jumping-off place for the gold rush trail to Barkerville.
Successive owners of the old road-house catered to the travellers, housing their horses in the big old barn still visible from highway 97, and feeding and lodging the travellers for the night.
In those days, the large barn was located alongside the Cariboo highway, just about where the Central GM dealership is today. It now rests just a bit further north, but still visible from the highway.
I recently learned something new while speaking with William Cecil’s grandson, Michael Cecil. In the early 20th century, realtors from B.C. would travel in the winter months to places, such as London, where they would frequent English upper-class clubs, marketing Cariboo land with the come-on that the Pacific Great Eastern railroad was soon to be built through the area.
At that time, it was fashionable for English gentlemen to purchase property in B.C., and so it happened the new owner of the 100 Mile Ranch and Roadhouse was William Cecil, the father of Lord Martin Cecil, who is considered to be the founder of 100 Mile House.
1917 saw the end of the stagecoach era, and the Red Coach Inn at the north end of town is the resting-place for what is said to be the last surviving wagon of the Barnard Express and Stage Line. Apparently that stagecoach, recently given to the District of 100 Mile House by the Cecil family, came along with the purchase of the Lodge property in 1912.
By the time Martin Cecil first arrived to oversee his father’s holdings, the year was 1930 and the 15,000-acre ranch was now called Bridge Creek Estate, and he was just 21 years old.
He and his father agreed the first priority would be to build a modern hotel or lodge that would attract the travelling public and “put 100 Mile House on the map.”
In his book, One Heart, One Way, author and former Free Press editor Chris Foster writes that while Martin had no experience whatsoever at building, he had brought a book with him from England that gave some encouragement for the challenge ahead. With Every Man His Own Builder in hand, Martin began.
With no one around to help him, he enrolled in a correspondence course on architecture and bought manuals on plumbing, wiring, and other subjects. He studied at night by the light of an oil lamp, and, aided by the mechanical drawing he had learned in the Royal Navy, he drew plans.
There was no planer mill at 100 Mile House in those days, so the lumber was indeed rough. Nevertheless, the Lodge building went up and stayed up, despite some tense moments, and pessimistic comments from observers.
Foster wrote that at one point, the walls began to bulge under the weight of the roof Martin was putting on. His books had not prepared him for such a catastrophe, but he did some quick thinking and hit upon a solution.
He collected some haying gear and rigged a block-and-tackle arrangement between the two walls, with one end of the steel cable attached to his Model A Coupe. He then pulled the walls together and spiked a couple of jack pines across the top as joists. They are still part of the structure to this day.
Michael says Martin’s vision for the property was tourism to make 100 Mile House a tourist attraction. That took major marketing skills, as the roads in those days were rough, and not many people ventured this far north.
In subsequent years, Martin travelled as far south as California, inspiring people to make the journey to 100 Mile House. He made friends with many of the actors of the day, Johnny Weissmuller among them, so various people eventually did travel long distances to stay at the 100 Mile Lodge, including former United States President Herbert Hoover.
Martin and Lloyd Meeker form a partnership
In 1939, Martin met a man from the U.S. named Lloyd Meeker, who was the leader of a group called The Emissaries.
The two men shared the same philosophy, and as their friendship and purpose deepened, Martin joined in the leadership of the Emissaries. In 1948, Martin’s home became the Canadian headquarters for the now International Emissary Society, and a small nucleus of like-minded people moved to 100 Mile to join him.
One of the first families to arrive was the Marks Family. Carolyn Marks, sister of 100 Mile’s beloved first and longtime mayor, Ross Marks, remembers helping to run the Lodge business in the early years.
Apparently the small group would take time off on the weekends to go on a picnic or go swimming. When away, they would just leave signs for travellers at the Lodge saying, “Please sign yourself in,” or “If you need to check out, please leave the money here.”
The doors were never locked and everybody trusted everybody.
As the community grew, the 100 Mile Lodge became a place where people came for spiritual growth, and also to learn and practise what would today be called organic gardening and sustainable living. Homes and barns were built around the lodge, and businesses were established by group members in the larger 100 Mile community, but always the principles of careful land stewardship and nothing less were adhered to.
Today, the main buildings of the Lodge property have been gifted to the District of 100 Mile House, and that property is used as a conference centre, theatre, and meeting place for town events. The many homes behind the Lodge are privately owned, but the community kitchen is still a place to learn nutrition and culinary arts, and the 100 Mile Community Garden still thrives at the back of the property.
As interest in eco-tourism grows, and more people look for education regarding organic food production and self sustainability, 100 Mile’s Agri-Culture Enterprise Centre is in place to help. The Ag Centre offices are inside the historic 100 Mile Lodge thanks to the support of the present owners, the District of 100 Mile House.
So the tradition of land stewardship continues in the place where 100 Mile House began. Contact information and hours for the Agri-Culture Centre are available at www.cariboo-agcentre.ca.
The author wishes to thank Michael Cecil and Chris Foster (as well as many others too numerous to mention) for their invaluable help in the composition of this article.
