“7:30 a.m. We look outside. There’s the river, moving slowly and shiny as glints of steelhead in the morning sun”
By R. M. Reid
We creep in around midnight, careful not to wake the other guests. Stepping inside the Inn at Spences Bridge is like opening a portal into the past. A spacious lobby with ambient light from glass lanterns reveals soft leather chairs. The warm colours create the cosiness that would have received gold miners, panners, pioneers and their weary wives arriving in wagons, stopping at their door to wipe dust — or stomp snow –off their boots.
In the morning we’ll see the river we crossed, find out where we’ve landed, and learn how Michael Findlay and Dorothy Boragno are managing after leaving the Sunshine Coast to renovate the Inn, bringing it back to life.
Dorothy moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1973 from Merritt, raising three girls in Roberts Creek. She owned a clothing store in the Creek called Ragazza, worked for CBC, taught line dancing and owned and operated a painting company called Ready to Roll.
Mike settled on the Sunshine Coast in 1993 and met Dorothy two years later. He worked as a mechanic for the Shishalh Nation and Howe Sound Pulp and Paper.
7:30 a.m. We take our first look between the curtains. There’s the river, moving slowly and shiny as glints of steelhead in the morning sun. There’s an osprey nest on a power pole, a man-made perch atop a platform supported by 2×4’s. A couple of picnic tables sit almost lost in tall dry grasses, a ruddy coloured shed not far from them. A window some eight feet from the end of our bed frames a small white building in the distance. I see semis go by on Highway 1. The Inn at Spences Bridge is on the east side of the river, on Highway 8. From here, power poles look like toothpicks stuck in the earth.
Over a breakfast of fresh eggs, toast and locally grown melon, we chat with Michael and Dorothy about the work that went into restoring the building. It cost $1,200 in dump runs (at $5.00 a load), walls had to be removed, the roof had leaked badly and needed to be replaced, rugs had to be cleaned.
I thought the carpets were new but no, they were cleaned every day for several months. “Had a minute, steamed a rug,” says Michael. They are grateful the arid climate made it possible to clean and dry them quickly. The air is fresh, and the carpets are soft.
It is hard to imagine a couple working side by side when so much needed attention. Dorothy tells me they each had their own projects and were usually working in different parts of the Inn. Michael smiles and adds that Dorothy planned, and he obeyed.
Spences Bridge is a small community. According to StatsCan, it had a population of 99 in 2016. There aren’t enough kids to warrant a school. With such a small population, Michael and Dorothy have found it very hard to get anyone local to work for them for any length of time. For eighteen months they depended on each other, doing most of the renovations themselves. They did hire roofers.
Dorothy takes me on a tour of the hotel. If she were twenty years old, she says, she’d have built hotels all up and down this highway. I picture her in a long dress with sleeves rolled up, giving orders. I don’t see how anything could have stood in her way.
As she opens doors she tells of the farm workers they housed during the summer, and of European guests. She describes the train fans that often come to rent the rooms facing the CNR and CPR tracks on either side of the river.
Two train enthusiasts are staying at the Inn now, in a room with a covered deck. Their chairs are positioned for viewing the tracks, and they sit there all day. Dorothy tells me one of them is working on a replica of the entire railroad system, including township crossings, in Canada.
The Inn has twelve guest rooms, some with shared washrooms. All rooms are spacious and impeccably kept. Dorothy painted the walls and added sketches and signage. She scoured thrift and antique stores for original and timeless fabrics, lamps, and décor. The extent to which she has kept this hotel true to the past is impressive. I admire the curtains in our room: how thick a weave they are, how unique the pattern is, and how one corner shows a bit of fraying where the hemming failed. It is a reflection of hours spent hand sewing clothing, curtains, pillows, making do by mending, and darning socks.
Michael’s pride is his ‘museum.’ He has collected a hallway of information about the history of the Inn and Spences Bridge. Photographs, antiques and items of interest are displayed and he enjoys telling their story.
It was he who inspired me to choose the book Widow Smith of Spences Bridge from Dorothy’s gift shop. I recommend this small book that let me into the lives of the John Smith family. Ever heard of, or eaten, a Granny Smith apple? At the peak of the family’s productivity, 3,000 fruit trees were carefully pruned, fertilized and watered, after which countless apples were picked and packaged. They were shipped by railcar all over B.C., Canada, the U.S., and even Europe, from the award winning Smith orchard in Spences Bridge.
The Inn helped establish Spences Bridge as the gateway to the Fraser canyon, the gold rush, new industries, and B.C.’s nascent agriculture. The aboriginal peoples of the area, immigrants, migrant and Asian workers helped build the railroads that eventually no longer needed to stop at Spences Bridge.
Dorothy shows us another project she plans to take on: the wine cellar. In the construction of the basement, the original owners hauled hefty river stones and cemented them together, a beautiful example of stonework from the 1800s. The basement is a museum in itself. Here wine will have the coolness it needs to mature.
We end our stay at the back of the property, on the deck above the river. At the spot where Cook’s ferry was once situated, sunflowers thrive among a row of mixed blooms. I ask how they managed to garden, on top of everything else. “We just threw flower seeds in there” Dorothy says. The grass, recently laid down, is a vibrant green. This was where the Inn’s first wedding was held and it went very well, Dorothy says, pointing to the spot where the bride and groom exchanged their vows. Ever mindful, she dead-heads a wilted flower as she speaks.
Dorothy has collected armfuls of wild baby’s breath, and local farmers have brought the couple baskets and crates of fresh fruits and vegetables. I sense Mike and Dorothy are much appreciated in the community.
What a great thing.When i was very young we would always stop at Spences bridge on our way into the interior.Dad for the customary beer and kids for the orange crush.If it was getting on in the afternoon we would stay overnight.It was such a big trip in those days that now only take a matter of a few hours.That was in the late 50’s and into the 60’s.My parents both had family in Kamloops and Armstrong,summer vacations fondly remembered.On the way home we usually stayed at the Big Horn Autocourt just up the hill from the inn.I’ll always remember the night shattered by the sound of a train rumbling thru the canyon.Right close to the settlement it was awesome.Congratulations to the new owners.
Unless I missed something, this article doesn’t mention exactly when (what year) the new owners took over the Inn, which is kind of an important detail to have omitted. My partner stayed there on a business trip a few years back, and he said it was absolutely awful. If it’s been renovated since then by this couple from the coast, that would be wonderful.
The current owners bought the Inn at Spences Bridge in April 2016. The article is a result of a visit in 2017, and yes, the renovation is wonderful to see and experience. Thank you for pointing this out.