The Columbia Valley Pioneer • 17
October 29, 2010
K2 Ranch returns run-down buildings to their original condition By Kelsey Verboom Pioneer Staff Tucked just below the Purcell Mountains near Invermere is K2 Ranch, one of the oldest still-functioning cattle ranches in the Columbia Valley, and a historic jewel in the pioneering past of the area. Until recently, many of the original buildings on the 10,000-acre ranch had fallen into disrepair after years of use and changing ownership. A sagging barn, blacksmith shop, and log cabin were among the aging historic structures. Then, six years ago, K2 was given a breath of life when Bob and Barb Shaunessy acquired the ranch in a sealed bid auction. The couple, who have recently made the valley their full-time home after living here part-time for 20 years, vowed to restore the ranch to it’s original condition. Instead of removing the run-down buildings, the Shaunessys have injected a significant sum of money into the restoration of each structure, realizing the importance of preserving a unique collection of the valley’s past. “The valley has a long history of ranching,” Mr. Shaunessy said. “It’s never really been a lucrative place to be a rancher, but if you work hard enough at it, you can still make a reasonable living and have a wonderful quality of life. “We have decided to reestablish and restore K2 to its original working cattle ranch glory. We’re fortunate we are able to do that, and are trying our best to bring everything on the land back to what it once was.” In addition to reclaiming the buildings, the Shaunessys have done a significant amount of work to the land, which was aggressively logged by an American company who owned the ranch before the Shaunessys. “They logged it badly and you can still see the scars from town of the clear cut. It has taken almost three years of forest restoration with a continuous
crew working to clean up the logging damage,” Mr. Shaunessy said. They also hired a fisheries biologist who has worked to restore the watershed, replacing culverts and rehabilitating the streams. K2 Ranch is currently a working cattle ranch with 300 head of cattle, but the history of the ranch extends back more than a century to 1898 when it was known as Ellenvale Ranch. Tom Jones, who was a prospector and helped claim the Paradise Mine near Invermere, owned the ranch from 1898 until 1905, until Charles D. Ellis and Walter Stoddart purchased it and began to develop the untouched land. In a letter written in September, 1909, they reported, “When we came in, with the exception of a small cabin, the place was in virgin state. We commenced clearing and breaking at once, and continued until freeze up. Then we made an addition to our house and built sheds for stock.” The partners continued to develop the land, logging with horses, and adding fences and irrigation. C.D. Ellis was an avid mountaineer and made the first ascent of Mt. Hammond — now Mt. Nelson. He often climbed with Captain McCarthy, who was a veteran of the First World War and owned Karmax Ranch on the Toby Benches. Captain McCarthy purchased Ellenvale Ranch in 1923, changed its name to K2 Ranch, and raised Hereford cattle in its pastures. The ranch briefly changed hands to Richard H.C. Harrison, a retired architect, in 1940 before it went to Mr. and Mrs. George Curtis and Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Stick, who renovated the standing buildings. Around the time it was owned by Mr. Harrison, there were small cottages for rent on the land. One of the cabins was rented out by Lloyd and Earl Wilder, who had just moved from Saskatchewan and worked on the ranch cutting timber. The Wilder brothers later went on to develop Fairmont Hot Springs.
COZY CABIN LIFE — An unknown man reads by the fire sometime in the 1940s in the K2 Ranch log cabin currently being restored to its original glory. Photo submitted Walter Stoddart’s daughter, Bernice Stoddart-Hathaway, now 76, remembers playing at the ranch when she was a young girl in the 1940s. “When I was a little child, we used to go over there and I would play in the big barn,” she said. “I can remember it was three stories high, and you could jump from the second story to stacks of hay below. I can remember finding an old chicken egg there that must have been years old.” Ms. Stoddart-Hathaway also remembers visiting the “big house” log cabin (pictured above) and being fascinated with it’s contents, which included a tiger rug and ornate side tables. “There were all these things that the McCarthys had from trips and safaris they had gone on,” she said. “It was full of items they had acquired from their travels from around the world.” In 1959, the ranch sold to Hans and Marianne Hartwig, who ran it with their six children until 1992. During their time managing K2, the Hartwig family raised horses and cattle, harvested Christmas trees and even raised a herd of buffalo.
Under the Hartwig’s management, a number of buildings were added to the ranch, and the main living quarters were added on to. A large forest fire in 1978 almost burnt the buildings, but firefighters saved them using water from a pond on the ranch. It is the main living building that Mr. and Mrs. Shaunessy are currently refurbishing, after already having completed the restoration of the large, 1895 barn, a meat cooler and blacksmith shop from 1960, and a residence known as the White House from 1912. They are choosing to remove the addition made by the Hartwigs, and restore it to its original state as a smaller, circa 1920s cabin with a wrap-around porch, explained contractor Jeff Baltrus. As much as possible will be kept the same, including the wood floors and ceilings, which were made from wood milled off the property, Mr. Baltrus said. The restoration of the cabin is expected to be complete by May 2011. The Shaunessys, who currently live in Invermere, plan to move to the ranch full-time once all of the restorations are complete and continue the K2 legacy.