History lessons

Little Bear Ranch began with a fishing trip, in 1956, My father and mother were camping and fishing on Chief Louis Arm of Ootsa Lake in Central B.C., with my Maternal Grand parents, all were adventurers who loved the places at the end of the road and always gazed at new horizions with curiosity.

The Ootsa country was special to my parents , it was where they had met and fallen in love, she a high school girl from California and he a much older divorcee from Washington. They had been displaced by a dam project in 1952 and returned to the states, where they made a living buying selling and delivering small airplanes. The bush-pilot in my father always was pulled north by his internal compass, he valued freedom , hated bureaucracy , loved the woods and the creatures within them.

On that day as they trolled through a place burnt by a fire 10 years previous and now lush with small trees and promise, my grandmother mentioned that a certain clearing on the North shore would make " A good Home site"

On the way back to California my folks stopped in Victoria and enquired as to the availability of the land as a " Crown Grant " they were very fortunate as six months later British Columbia stopped selling waterfront land. They took position of the initial 1/4 section where the buildings are located in September of 1956. In 1958 they built the first cabin...they journey had begun.