recreational living in wester n canada
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Building a Deck the Right Way
Jan/Feb 2011 $4.95
NEW
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History
of Fort St.
James
WINTER
RECREATION
Ice Fishing 101
SURVIVAL
STORIES
When cabins
save lives
BUILDING A
COASTAL
STORM WALL
From squatters
to cabin-owners
THE EVOLUTION OF
Plus
lus
HORNE LAKE
BEARS IN
COTTAGE COUNTRY
Prevention and
protection
w w w. o p p u b l i s h i n g . c o m
GELCOAT
POLISHING
Bring that weathered
canoe back to life
DISPLAY UNTIL FEBRUARY 28, 2011
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RETURN
TO
HORNE
LAKE
The rest of the story of
how this unique cottage
community came to be
BY JOCELYN COOPER
In 1995, Cottage magazine took you on a trip
to Horne Lake on Vancouver Island where hundreds of leaseholders kept cabins along the lake’s
waterfront, while property owner Texada Logging Ltd. (owned by Gloria, Princess of Thurn
and Taxis) made use of the land around them.
Now, 16 years later, just what has become of this
group of cottagers and their lake?
T
he lush landscape and fresh, earthy
scent in the air are the first things
you notice as you drive down the
curvy gravel road leading to Horne Lake on
central Vancouver Island. Bright green moss
creeps up the trunks of trees growing on either
side of the road, and it’s all greenery as far as
the eye can see.
You would never guess that the 7,000 acres
of land surrounding the lake were once destined for industry.
a Brief history After being exchanged
through many hands—from a railway to several logging companies to a cement company—
between the late 1800s and the mid 1900s, the
Horne Lake land was purchased by Prince
Johannes von Thurn and Taxis of Germany and
his BC-based company, Texada Logging Ltd.,
in 1962.
By then however, a number of squatters had
taken up residence along the shore of the lake,
moving into makeshift cabins to enjoy the
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JA N UA rY / Fe brUA rY 2011
the sharp family and
friends ringing in the
new year with a polar
bear dip at horne lake.
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sarah sharp
Above the Dam Family picnic, a regular
horne lake community event held at the Qualicum river “dam site” on horne lake.
Below the horne lake cottagers have created a recreational community while maintaining
the pristine, natural beauty of their surroundings.
22
cottage lifestyle the area
had to offer. The prince,
viewing them as a liability, tried to remove
them, but after limited
success, conceded that
they could stay so long
as rent was paid. An
agreement was reached
dictating the cabin owners could lease the land
on five-year renewable
terms. The first leases
went for $250 per year.
Texada Logging soon
realized the cabin rentals around the lake could
produce significant revenue, and by the late
1970s, the company actually began developing sites for more cabins. Aside from being
simply a source of income, the company also
found the leaseholders had a positive impact;
with an obvious interest in the wellbeing of the
W W W. COTTAGEmAGA ZI Ne.com Novemb er / dec emb er 2010
land, they took care of it, keeping it clean, and
controlling fire hazards and noise levels. And
Texada Logging gave back: Instead of clearcutting, they did a lot of thinning and selective
cutting. Any clear-cuts that were done were
limited to small areas and well away from the
cabins. The leaseholders created a community,
and by the ’90s there were more than 300 occupied lots around the lake.
When Prince Johannes died in 1990, his
wife, Princess Gloria, inherited the land and
continued leasing the Horne Lake lots to cabin
owners up until 1999, when she decided to sell
the land (along with many other assets) due to
her dwindling fortune.
a Cottager’s story
Murray Hamilton
first discovered Horne Lake in 1989. He and his
wife had a small boat, and were looking for a little
place off the beaten path to enjoy with their kids.
“The year we took our lot, my wife and
I both had pretty busy schedules,” says
Hamilton. “After looking in the paper, we
murray hamilton
decided to take a day and go search. We packed
a picnic, went for a drive and drove to the
end of a road where there was a sign that said
‘leased lots available.’ We were just there to
explore but we found the lot we ended up taking that afternoon.”
It was $1,200 a year for the Hamiltons’ chosen lot, and they began camping there.
“We started off with an outhouse, and then
built a small dock, and then a tenting platform,
which would eventually become the floor of
our cabin,” says Hamilton. “It’s a family project,
and as we say at the lake, a cabin is never done
until the day you sell it.”
In the mid-’90s, there were rumblings
amongst the leaseholders that Texada Logging
was looking at developing and subdividing the
land around the lake. The leaseholders were
understandably concerned—at that point,
three and five-year licenses (leases) included
a clause that stated you could be kicked off the
property with six months’ notice. So the license
holders got together to look at their options
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Working together When the HLLHA
bought the land, it morphed into the Horne
Lake Community Association (HLCA), of
which each Strata lot owner is a member of.
The HLCA is there to deal with the interests of
owners within the Strata, which comprises 400
lots around the lake. Since purchasing the land,
the Strata and the HLCA have turned Horne
Lake into a fully functional cottage community,
all the while maintaining its natural beauty.
Horne Lake is an off-grid community, and one
of the concerns of cabin owners was dealing with
waste. Each lot is on the lakeshore, so there wasn’t
an opportunity for septic tanks. A pump and haul
system was recommended, and now every lot in
the Strata is registered with the Regional District
of Nanaimo for pump and haul service.
“Each lot has to have a pump and haul tank,”
says Hamilton, who is now the Strata property
manager. “Over a period of three years, it got
very busy, with everyone installing these 9x13foot tanks. Each owner handles maintenance,
and pays for trucking and a penny per gallon of
what is hauled.”
Another concern was fire safety. Horne Lake
is an unprotected area, so the Strata had to find a
way to protect cabin owners in the case of a fire.
W W W. COTTAGEm AGA ZI Ne.com November / dec ember 2010
Above Brian and margaret yanda’s
cottage—a winter wonderland at the lake.
Fire stations, fire trailers and water tenders were
installed around the lake, and each cabin owner
possesses a key to access all of this equipment.
“We hold fire practices each year, and
encourage owners to get together with their
neighbours and hold practices to get comfortable,” says Hamilton. “So, should the situation
arise, everyone is able to deal with it.”
But when it comes to land that has spent the
last half-century being logged, how does this
community maintain that all-natural feel that’s
evident as soon as you turn down the gravel road?
“Our owners took a very proactive approach
to the logged land,” says Hamilton. “We did
regeneration surveys, formal mapping of the
forest lands, planted more than 200,000 additional trees and are continuing to invest money
into the forest land.”
Cabin owners have also been very respectful
of the riparian area, which is now a 30-metre
buffer around the lake. However, many of the
original cabins were built with only an 8-metre
setback, and when the Strata was formed, cabins had to be just 15 metres back.
murray hamilton
to secure tenure, and in 1996, the Horne
Lake License Holders’ Association (HLLHA)
was born.
“The first meeting was held on the beach
and about 150 people showed up,” says Hamilton. “Texada Logging eventually withdrew
their application [to subdivide the land], and
the HLLHA made three formal offers to purchase the land, which were all rejected.”
On November 1, 1999, the land was sold to
Texada Land Corp., and the first day they took
ownership, they asked if the HLLHA were still
interested in purchasing the land.
“On December 28, we held a meeting at my
cabin with three reps from Texada Land Corp.
and reps from the HLLHA, and we scratched
out an understanding,” says Hamilton. “Our
agreement was that we could purchase 3,500
acres total, and they would be allowed to log
and re-plant to standards. Our goal, as the
HLLHA, was to figure out how to buy the land.
We looked at several options and decided on a
strata and doing a formal subdivision.
“It was a long process, and about 20 different government offices had to have a say in it
at some point. But on January 23, 2002, the
purchase was complete.”
“When the 30-metre rule came into effect,
it really impacted everyone,” says Hamilton.
“We embarked on an environmental assessment, and had someone come out and review
how it had all been developed. The Ministry of
Environment and the Department of Fisheries
then came and looked at how to proceed. It was
agreed that the 15-metre setback was working,
and it was allowed to continue. Owners had
shown that they really respected the land, and
where the cottages were in relation to the lake.”
The maximum main floor area allowed for a
cabin is 750 square feet (with a loft allowed an
additional 375 square feet). The total allowed
when Texada Logging owned the land had been
only 640 square feet, but with the mandated
pump and haul system, owners needed to put in
bathrooms, so it was increased. The size remained
restricted by the wish of the cabin owners.
lure of the lake I had the opportunity
to visit Horne Lake one afternoon this fall and
meet a few of the cabin owners. Driving along
Eastside Road past the quirky cabins lining the
lakefront, my first impression is of a friendly,
welcoming sort of place. An impression only
reinforced when I meet Murray Hamilton and
his neighbours, and Ron and Diane Drewery.
Ron Drewery is president of the Strata, and has
been visiting the lake for 16 years.
“When we first came here, our lot was all
bush,” he says. “We cleared it to create a flat lot,
and started building as we could afford it. Our
kids were all raised here and the six of them
have all worked on it.”
Both Ron and Diane are retired, and spend
six months of the year at Horne Lake, and the
other six (colder months) on their RV in Arizona. Their cabin is now up for sale, and they
plan to start travelling full-time.
I ask what they’ll miss most about Horne
Lake, and the lifestyle, the people and property
manager Murray all come up.
“There’s a real community here,” says Ron.
“We’ve got our friends who are up during the
week, and then the weekenders arrive, and
we’ll get in the golf cart to go down the road
and visit the neighbours. It’s really a lifestyle.”
The daylight is fading and it’s time for me
to, reluctantly, go. I ask Ron if they’re anything
else he’d like to add.
“Yeah!” he says with an emphatic grin. “Our
cabin is for sale!”
on Cot tagemagazine.Com
Check out our Vintage Cottage page online
for the original story of horne lake, which
ran in our march/april 1995 issue.
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