Madden’s Lake

In 1957, Vic Tribbick, Blaine Francis and my Dad, Russell Shaw bought Madden’s Lake. Their intention was to build a fishing lodge and cabins to rent out but first there was a lot of work to be done.

As a point of interest, Madden’s Lake was one of three lakes in B.C. that was unique in that the land UNDER the water was also privately owned.

Their first job was to clean up the area around the existing cabin and build two picnic tables that they placed on slabs of wet cement so they could not be moved or stolen. We spent almost every weekend at the lake, cleaning up around the shore until an area had been cleared and a long dock was built that went out into the lake.

The lake itself was full of noxious weeds so the Department of Fisheries came and poisoned the lake, killing off the weeds and what few fish were there. After a period of time they came back and stocked the lake with rainbow trout and it wasn’t long before we could see fish jumping all over.

With Madden’s Lake, came the large meadow that was leased out to a local rancher. He kept his cattle there until winter. There was another very large tract of land beyond the meadow where in the winter, we harvested trees and sold them at Christmas.

There came a time when the men were forced to put up a gate and padlock because of the damage done to the cabin and the litter that was left just lying around. Anyone wanting to use the lake knew to go to Fairweather’s and get the key…there was never any charge for using the lake or the cabin as long as it was kept clean.

In those days, money was always tight and the plans to build were kind of on hold when the Provincial Government started to apply pressure in their desire to buy Madden’s Lake and make it public. Dad, Vic and Blaine held off for a couple of years but in the end they realized that it was probably the best decision and it was sold finally in the mid 60’s.

In the years that our fathers owned Madden’s Lake, we had a lot of fun camping and fishing and especially our annual Christmas Tree harvest! Good memories with good friends!