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Page last updated June 26, 2008
Beaverdam Lake is on the road running west from Clinton to Gang Ranch. This little "resort" or collection of fishing shanties reminded me in a way of the Maritimes. I'm presuming it is a fishing camp. There was nobody there late in June. Anyway, I thought it was very typical of the Cariboo-Chilcotin: rolling countryside, low hills in one direction but high mountains in the other, extraordinary clear air giving translucent skies and a turquoise lake.
Conversation with Mike Brundage: The cabins began life as Pollard's 3-Bar guest Ranch on the main road, but were trucked up to the lake and reestablished in the 1960s as the Beaverdam 3-Bar Guest Ranch. Mike Brundage of Clinton is a former owner, who got out of the guest-ranch business due to the cost of liability insurance and the complexities of making his mounted guests sign waivers.
Note from Kathleen Boeriu: In response to your question about what has happened to the dude ranch at Beaverdam Lake......it is now privately owned by a group of Norwegians. My cousin being one of them. We have all (from our parents/grand-parents) had property across the lake. My parents built their retirement home there. We now still have the cabins and I have beengoing up there to enjoy the quiet for the last 50+ years! I too have great memories of the fun times at the dude ranch!
Note and photos from Monika Venthien-Schubert: It was 35 years ago this week that I arrived from Germany in Vancouver, BC . Almost 22 years old, single and full of adventure, I was going to stay for a year and then move on. In the early fall after my arrival, I went on a weekend trip with a group of young people to the Beaverdam 3 Bar Guest Ranch. I was (and still am) a city slicker with a love for nature and animals. The experience of riding a horse for the first time in my live was exciting, even though I fell off not once but twice.I enjoyed the weekend so much I went back several more times This last weekend my husband took me on a surprise trip to Vancouver (we now live in Calgary) to celebrate my 35th year in Canada. We visited places from our past and looked at photos from the 70s and 80s, including one with me sitting on a horse at the Beaverdam 3 Bar Guest Ranch...... and I came to wonder whatever happened to this place
All photographs from Monika Venthien-Schubert
