The Columbia Valley Pioneer • 23
July 18, 2008
Wealth of memories wakened by sale of historic CPR Lodge By Sally Waddington Pioneer Staff A century of valuable valley history is contained between the walls of the old Weir family home on Fort Point, Invermere, now listed for sale. The lodge has been transformed repeatedly over its lifetime. Initially, the land was owned by the Canada Pacific Railway. In 1920 the company built tourist camps in the area, capitalizing on the popularity of rail travel. Camps existed in Golden and Emerald Lake, and in March 1920 a visiting CPR official decided that Lake Windermere would be the next location. Work began in April with the help of Columbia Valley Irrigated Fruitlands. Local pioneer R. Randolph Bruce was closely involved with the project, encouraging the CPR to advertise the camp further afield. A letter from the CPR’s general publicity agent J. M. Gibbon to Invermere resident W. H. Cleland, dated April 28, 1920, reported, “I think quite an interest will be aroused in the valley this year. Believe me, we intend to keep you pretty busy.” On July 1, 1920, the Lake Winderemere Bungalow Camp was officially opened. An advertising pamphlet described the facilities: “It consists of a large main building, with a wide verandah, and containing a combination dining, recreation and lounging room, with an open fireplace; and of separate small living and sleeping bungalows.” That first summer, 486 people stayed at the camp from as far afield as England and the United States. Rooms cost $4 a night over a weekly stay. Activities included boating, golf, horseback riding and hiking – not very different from today. However, the depression during the 1920s saw the downfall of tourism, and the bungalow camp was transformed into Lake Windermere Ranch Camp for Girls
in 1929. It was leased by two American women: Mary E. Cutler of Minneapolis and Harrriett E. Cooke of Chicago. A brochure enticing wealthy American girls to the valley said, “Here are ample accommodations for those who, unaccustomed to roughing it, demand warm dry cabins and modern sanitation.” Though Jean Weir didn’t purchase the lodge until 1965, her daughter Jenny, now 91, remembers being invited to the girls’ camp in 1930. Her father was in contact with the camp through his work, but he couldn’t afford the $200 for Jenny to attend. So she went as a guest. “I remember feeling very welcome,” Jenny said. “I learnt swimming, diving, leatherworks . . . And there were good musicians. I remember the pianist, Miss Kathleen Overstreet from Minneapolis.” The camp lasted about four years, until the Invermere Contracting Company purchased it for $500 in 1933. The property was subdivided and the accommodation cabins were gradually sold off. During this time, the lodge was used as a valuable social centre for the valley. Saturday night dances were conducted in the lodge’s main room. Invermere resident Joy Bond remembers attending the dances as a teenager in about 1936. “The house hasn’t changed much since then,” she said. Audrey Osterloh of Invermere also recalls the dances. In the summer of 1942 she went with her then-fiancé, Charlie. They dressed up for a night of waltzes and foxtrots. Jenny Weir, who now resides in Columbia Garden Village, will never forget the lodge in those days. “I can still see the delphiniums against the fireplace,” she recalled. “They looked marvelous against the big fireplace in the dining room.” Jenny’s father, William, died in 1964 and the following year his wife Jean decided to buy the lodge. On a recent visit she had noticed an old photo of the bungalow camp’s 1920 opening – with
herself in the shot. According to Jenny, Jean bought the lodge just so she could own that photo! Over the next decade, Jenny’s brother Ian Weir and his family used the lodge as a summer home. His youngest daughter, Nancy Ballard of Invermere, has fond memories. “The big room was a magical place with a grand piano, a massive fireplace and a moose head,” she said. “Strand’s (now the Strand’s Old House Restaurant) was our main house when we were growing up. We’d move to Fort Point at the end of April for the summer. It was the sort of house where you could run around the living room in your bathing suit. “We spent a lot of time in the water. My mother taught us to swim there.” When she married Larry Ballard in 1974, Nancy’s wedding reception was held in the dining room of the lodge. “We had about 100 guests,” she recalls. “People played the piano and the accordian, and the evening finished with a dance.” The following year her brother Brian was married in the lodge, standing between two giant totem poles that still remain there today. Thirty-two years later, last August, their nephew Craig Panattoni was married in the very same spot. The Weir family moved to the Fort Point house permanently in 1978. Nancy’s mother Lucy had a rule that the family must sleep outdoors on a long verandah attached to the lodge. Until she was 82 years old, even throughout the winter, Lucy continued to sleep on that verandah, only adding an electric blanket in the last few years. Eventually her children built a main bedroom and moved her into it. The greatest mystery surrounding the lodge is a secret ghost whom many members of the Weir family have heard moving about at night. Jenny Weir described one occasion when she was sleeping in a room off the kitchen. “I heard someone in the kitchen,” Jenny said. “The big black Labrador we had was sleeping at the foot of my bed and he heard it as well, because his ruff came up. I thought someone was unwell and since I was a nurse, I got up to look. But there was no one there.” The family believe the ghost could be the wife of former CPR president D’Alton Corey Coleman. While visiting the bungalow camp, Mrs. Coleman drowned at the beach below the lodge and the Weirs wonder if perhaps she still walks the halls today. “It’s kind of creepy but nothing has ever happened,” said Nancy. “We just say, “Oh, it’s Mrs. Coleman.” At this month’s council meeting, the District of Invermere discussed purchasing the historic building and moving it to another site. The property including the half-acre lot and the house is listed for sale by Maxwell Realty for $1.29 million.