Press release: 1969-08-13: Mining executive takes over B.C.'s "bad luck" ranch (The Province, Page 7)

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: newspapers.com (archived)

The Chilco near Hanceville, 60 miles west of Williams Lake, has been sold again and has a Canadian-born owner for the first time in 32 years. 

The province's third largest cattle spread more than 500,000 acres is probably B.C.'s most-often-sold ranch. Many previous owners have succumbed to unfortunate mishaps during their short tenures. The new owner is Newsom Cattle Ranch Ltd., headed by Vancouver mining company executive Dick Newsom, 37. The ranch was sold by Jim Stewart of Kelowna, who came to Canada from New Mexico 11 years ago and now has a purebred Hereford herd in the Okanagan.

While the selling price was  not revealed, it is believed to be about $1.5 million, based on current ranch values. Stewart, who was injured in a car accident two years ago and has since undergone two neck operations, said he sold because he is no longer physically able to operate the large ranch. 

Included in the transaction were 20,000 acres of deeded land and about half a million acres of Crown range under either lease or permit to The Chilco. Newsom also bought the Chilco store, all the ranch machinery and 2,000 head of cattle. 

While most of the ranch is between 2,500 and 4,000 feet up on the Chilcotin Plateau, it is no longer the immense size it once was when put together by Canadian born Cousins Spencer, who made his money shooting movies in Australia and returned to buy ranches and merge them into one operation using the name of the original home ranch, The Chilco.

The Chilco of Spencer's time, was about 60,000 acres of deeded land and more than a million acres of range permits and leases. The package bought by Stewart in 1966 after the head of the previous owner syndicate, John Minor, was killed in a plane crash included The Chilco home ranch and the Bell, Scallon, Vedan, Wilson, Davy and Allan ranches. A few others, such as the Deer Creek and Alkali Lake ranches, were sold separately at that time. 

Stewart, who until recently had a 1,200-head commercial herd, bought , the Chilco stripped of machinery and cattle. "We never really got off the engineering drawing board," he told The Province Tuesday. "We managed to build back the herd from stock from Kelowna and other B.C. ranches. "Since the car accident and after the operations, I just can't operate a ranch properly. I can't ride a horse or pickup like I should, and found you can't operate a ranch the size of Chilco from your bed."

Newsom said he will operate the ranch by commuting from Vancouver. "It is too early to tell what we will do but we plan to increase our hay production so we can increase the size of the herd." While much of the Chilco's hay is swamp hay, the ranch has developed large irrigated areas through the years.

The largest is supplied with a flood system with water from Fletcher Lake near Big Creek. Newsom said the old flood system will probably be done away with in the near future and replaced with sprinklers. He also plans to bring the herd up to about 3,500 head. Newsom is the second mining executive to own the ranch.

In the 1880s, the ranch was owned by Pet Eergault, who sold to Mike Milton, who sold to Claud Wilson, a well-to-do Englishman who operated it a few years before selling to Joe Trethewey. Trethewey, who made his money in Ontario mines, soon sold to M. S. Logan, one-time park commissiomer in Vancouver.

After a few baying seasons convinced Logan of the difficulties of running the ranch, he traded it to Cousins Spencer for a ranch in Coquitlam. That was in 1923, and since then, The Chilco has been a dream ranch to its many owners.

The legend says after Spencer bought the ranch, he planned a great circular 36-mile aqueduct to irrigate all the bench lands on his property. Included in the plans was a second lake. However, just after the water started to run, the bottom fell out of the second lake and also out of Spencer's dream. Spencer didn't live to find out what happened. In September, 1930, he drowned in the Chilcotin River opposite the Anaham Indian reserve eight, miles upstream from the current home ranch. The Chilco was left to his widow who four years later married C. M. Vick, a foreman. 

In 1935, Vick completed a large colonial style house as a wedding present. The house, still standing, was built then for $30,000. Meanwhile, the water diverted by Spencer was slowly finding its way to field near the home ranch. Deep depressions and wide valleys took longer to fill than Spencer anticipated and the water did not arrive until 1937, the year that Vick and the former Mrs. Spencer sold the Chilco ranch to the Mayfield brothers from Oregon. 

In 1947 the ranch was bought by John Wade from Los Angeles. Wade, said to be a leader among U.S. subscription salesmen and who once sold Henry Ford a mass subscription for all Ford employees, sold the ranch in 1961 to Minor and William Gilchrist. The ranch gets its name for Chilco Lake and the Chilco River that flows through the property. The home place is just across the river from Hanceville.