Saga of 70 Mile House

The 70 Mile House was built in 1862 by G. B. Wright and J. C. Calbreath who had the contract to build the first Cariboo Wagon Road from Lillooet to Alexandria, a distance of 244 miles at $2,700 per mile. They leased the 70 Mile House to Saul Bros. and in 1886 the property was bought by Saul and Rogers. After a year or two, Rogers sold his interest to Saul who carried on and extended by adding the Green Lake Meadows. This meadow land enabled the owners to run a herd of milk cows that provided dairy products and meat for the roadhouse table as well as making seasonal shipments of butter to Barkerville.

In 1887 this property was sold to Williams Boyd, an Irishman from Stratford, Ontario. He concentrated on both roadhouse and ranch and during the twenty five years that he and his family owned it, he added to the building. They worked diligently and the roadhouse was widely known as a good place to stop, and the herd of milk cows grew into a substantial herd of cattle.

One of the early telegraph offices was set up at the 70 Mile House in 1909. For eight years it did a real service when phones were more or less a rarity.

Retaining the Green Lake Meadows, Boyd sold the roadhouse to R. Cummings and family in 1917. They stayed but six years during which time the first government school was opened.

The 70 Mile House did not experience the same general decline that most roadhouses did when horses gave way to cars and trucks. It's location at the gateway to the steadily growing North Bonaparte, Green Lake and Watch Lake countryside kept its economy healthy. In May 1922, this property was taken over by C. Matt Porter, a rancher form the North Bonaparte, who had recognized its potential value. He and his wife ran a good place. When Matt Porter died in 1954 management went to Mr. Jack Parrott. Descendants of Mrs. Porter, the McConnells are still very vital members of the 70 Mile House Community.

In 1956 the roadhouse that had welcomed and served so many travelers and visitors, was destroyed by fire.

In 1980 a beautiful large log hall was built by the community and has proved most essential to the surrounding area. Also situated on the same grounds are a riding arena and spectator stands where gymkhanas were held on summer months.

Quite a number of businesses have been started and provide a wide variety of services to the area. These include a tire shop, restaurants, motel, general store/ Gas Bar, mechanical repair shops, machine shop, ceramics, gift wear, collision repair, piano teacher, neighbourhood pub, Canada Post Office and Greyhound Bus Lines. Many independent tradespersons - carpenters, electricians, plumbers, welders, and hairdressers provide necessary services.

Our new 70 Mile Volunteer Fire Fighters have a new hall, a used fire truck, a new chief - Jim Vesterinen and room for volunteers.

70 Mile Elementary

A two room school was constructed at 70 Mile House as a part of the School District #30 (South Cariboo) System. It opened for classes in September 1957. The school was operated on a diesel power plant until electricity came to the area in 1960. The teacherage that is currently on site was built. Brian and Harriet Wilson were the first principal/teachers.

Students who had been going to Tin Cup plus students from the 70 Mile area attended grades 1 to 6 at this two room school. The old Tin Cup school was brought in and converted to another teacherage, which has since been sold and moved.

Due to the extensive logging and sawmilling in the area, the school population continued to grow. The school became overcrowded so the grade six students were bussed to school in Clinton. Later the grade six students plus many younger students who lived in the 70 Mile area (those living along the highway) were bussed to the two room school at the Chasm. The 70 Mile parents protested this to the effect that in 1970, School District #30 decided to move the two room school from the Chasm to 70 Mile House. The two schools were joined and the 'new' four room school opened in September 1970. The school at that time enrolled students from grades 1 to 6 from quite a wide area.

The extreme east side of the school was the original 70 Mile School and the western side was the Chasm School. The addition of the gym and library went under construction and was completed in November 1972. The teacherage form the Chasm was also moved here but has since been sold and moved.

In September 1972 the one room school at Green Lake was closed and the students who had been attending it were bussed to 70 Mile House. At that time the enrolment of 70 Mile Elementary was close to 150 students in grades 1 through 7.

In 1983 School District #30 decided to bus the 70 Mile Secondary school students to Clinton instead of busing them north, out of the district, to 100 Mile House. The parents of 70 Mile Area worked to have the boundary changed so that now 70 Mile Elementary is a part of School District #27 (Cariboo-Chilcotin).

In spring of the year 2000, School District # 27 struck the final blow to 70 Mile by serving notice that their elementary school, the heart of the community would be closed permanently in June. When all the letter writing, protesting, weeping and wailing was over the doors were locked, that part of our lives was over but not forgotten.

A group of energetic volunteers have re-opened the building as the Seventy Mile Access Centre, serving the community with a library, computer lab, internet café, teen drop-in, games room, gym, thrift store and used furniture store.

E-mail: smac@bcinternet.net CC rose@bcinternet.net