As a marrer of fact, where I live now, on Packard Street, this was all under water then. Ifi remember right, there was a log jam at the bridge on the Coquitlam River, and I think they didn't get it cleaned up and tl1c water backed up everywhere. I got married in 1950. We were married in the rectory of Our Lady of Lourdes Church because it was a mi.xed marriage. There was no mass said in rectory marriages. My husband was a Scot, but he could read and write french -he excelled in French at school. In fact, my dad's mum in Winnipeg used to write to me in French, and my husband would translate it for me, and I'd write back in English, and her oldest daughter would translate it for her. My husband became the caretaker of the Oxbow Ranch, in northeast Coquitlam, in 1976. When we moved out there, Ken Gillespie hired us as caretakers. My husband was the only one working there then, and I worked with him. We were mere until 1983. The ranch was at Oxbow Lake, and they had a whole bunch log cabins at one time. It was so secluded. And it was so run down by the time we got tl1ere; eight cabins were still left. The last owner had built a nice, big home- it was unfinished on the inside - and we were comfortable in the house, had lots of room. When we went in, we wanted to know the history of the place, becaus<: we;: had heard so many stories. We phont:d the Toronto Star- actually the Star Weeklyand got me write-ups about tile famous movie stars and actresses tlut had been there. The week after we moved in, there was a Clark Gable tribute, and we lived in his cabin for a while. In the '30s, when there were lots of cabins, tl1e stars would come out in boxes on pulleys, so people wouldn't see mem. Clara Bow stayed there. And Clark Gable and Errol Flynn. Kin1 Novak, she was the most recent. I think when Errol Flynn was there, I'm pretty sure it was tl1c year he passed away.
A stunt man from Hollywood started tl1e place . He came up witl1 his girlfi·iend, and started the place as a hideaway for movie stars. They had a huge, gorgeous dance hall. We would get to the ranch along Shaughnessy, which was a winding, very nice, gravel road. When Mr. GiJJespie was bought out, the new owners wanted to develop tl1e property. The cabins were rented monthly at the time; some were an absolute disgrace. There was one family tl1at refused to leave and they finally had to get a court order. The trend then was towards mobile homes, but the rezoning for the trailer park called Oxbow Lake Estates took a long, long time. Council kept defeating it. By the time it went tllrough, mobile homes had gone up very high in price, and the owners, Clear Holdings, figured people could build a house tor the same price as a mobile. The first phase of what is now called River Springs was 50 homes. Then people wanted houses with basements, not just ranchers, so the land had to be rezoned again. The original company did all the servicing, and what-not, then sold all tl1e lots to another company. They then built the houses right on the lots. They were al l strata, the first in North America where you also owned the house and the lot, as well as the strata . River Springs today is on the same property - I forget just ho·w big it was- as the Oxbow Ranch. After the first 50 homes were built, the Clark Gable cabin was still there. They wanted to keep it, but when tl1e land around it was surveyed, they found the cabin was sitting in the middle of two lots. They checked it out, too, and it was all rotting underneam. They kept the main house, though, moved it down the road where all the rancher houses are. People used to think Oxbow Ranch would be a flood area, but I saw the diking that went in, and I feel the place will never flood. Subdivisions like New Horizons might, but not Oxbow Lake Estates.
Samuel Langis "Sixteen thousand residents of Coqujtlam district have their homes and business buildings protected by 15 volunteer firefighters who built tl1eir own fire truck, and dug into tl1eir own pockets for uniforms, hip boots and helmets," began a Vancouver Sun story dated June 16, 1953. Alongside the story was a picture of Chief San1 Langis and Capt. Gerry Proulx. The story goes on to say how the volunteers acquired a $12,000 truck for half that by building it themselves, and how they had raised the money ro buy a $3,500 emergency panel truck. "The Coquitlan1 fire laddies are proud, too, of having saved $135,000 worm of property from Art Olson, a Polunteer fire chief, stands with the first pumper truck built by the Polunteer fire department. Picture 1vas taken in front of the No. 2 fire hall at Blue Mountain Park in 1955.
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