In 1884 (sic) (actually 1894) Dad got a job managing a hops farm at Squamish," He recalled. The trip up to Squamish from Vancouver was something he never forgot. "There was my parents, my two older sisters, me and my little brother. The road was rough and there were stumps all over the place. It was barely wide enough to take the wagon."

Thorne remembers his astonishment at the tick moss growing on the Black Maples. "Hey Mum, look at the plush on the trees!"

Life in Squamish was very isolated. "There used to be a little steam tug come into Squamish every two weeks - "Bubble and Squeak," we called it. There was an old Englishman [who] used to run the store and the post office and he'd take the mail sack and just dump the mail on the floor. 'There it is,' he'd say. 'Get your own mail'."

CANOE TRIPS

"Sometimes we couldn't wait for the tug to come in, and we'd head down to Vancouver in our canoe. We'd pick a day when the tide was right and we'd leave Squamish about six at night. There was always a breeze from the north, and we'd be in Vancouver for breakfast. On the return journey, it was just the opposite. We'd leave at six in the morning, and there was always a strong wind up Howe Sound, and we'd be home in time for supper. We'd stop off in Horseshoe Bay to make tea on our way home. Nothing but rocks and stumps there, then. And look at it now."

Thorne was working for himself by the time he was 14, after only a few years in the little red schoolhouse. "I only had a very common kind of education. One of my sisters was quite clever, but eventually she had to quit school because she knew more than teacher did. He couldn't teach her anything else."

FIRST JOB

At 17, Thorne was making $2.50 a day hunting deer up at the Cheakamus Valley with his brother. "There were whole herds of 'em. We's ship them down to Vancouver, to a butcher I knew on Robson Street." Thorne showed a photograph he took of his brother on his horse at the head of their pack team, two huge stags on the backs of the pack horses.

He spoke fondly and sadly of his wife, Bitrell (sic) Mary Irwin, they called her 'Burt', dead now for 40 years. "I miss her still." They were married in 1914 and had two children, a son and a daughter.

PACK TRAINS

Thorne also worked on survey teams in the bush, and for a time he rode a pack train supplying work gangs between Squamish and Pemberton. He remembers BC Rail when it was the Pacific and Great Eastern Railroad and further back than that, when that was the Howe Sound & Northern. "After my wife died in 1944, I built myself a log house at Brakendale (sic) (north of Squamish). I was working on the Howe Sound and Northern doing the survey work in the summer. Of course, you couldn't get that kind of thing done in the winter. There was a lot of logs lying around, just the right size, where the power line had gone through, just near where I wanted to build. I got permission to use the logs and built my house with them. Took me three years and I lived there for 12. Had no help with it at all. There was a nice trout stream nearby. I've always liked to fish. Used to go about once a week to the store to get supplies."

NORTH FORK

Later on, Thorne bought a cattle ranch up the North Fork and after a number of years, he and his son ran it together. He remembers being out on the range for three or four days at a time. "You couldn't always find the herds. The range covered 15,000 acres of leased land, up Lynch Creek." He'd take his saddle horse, a pack horse and a plastic sheet for his lean-to.

But now, after 83 years as a pioneer Thorne finds himself restricted in getting about. His eyesight isn't as good as it once was. He isn't that interested in socializing either. "If you can't see and you can't hear too well, what's the point?" He enjoys Boundary Lodge and says he is quite comfortable. "I've lived alone a lot, and I find I can entertain myself quite well. I have my radio and I can get anywhere in the world on that."

And besides, he has his wonderful memories.

Excerpt from letter his mother, Cora Emma, wrote  (as best it could be deciphered):  1944 Apr 10  (written in pencil from Brackendale to her son-in-law, Ralph Van Horne, at 626 West 13th, Vancouver).  "... then at 7pm my dear son Clifton ran in to see me or us & Jack while he was up to cemetry to put a lovely bouquet of flowers on his wife's grave, he never forgets. He brought me flowers as well, & he has joined the Rangers. Harold got him at last. He said he'd get shot but not before he shot five. Got home at supper time, went at eleven & nothing to eat, but when he went home there was a lovely dinner Bonnie left him. Chicken, baked potatoes in oven, parsnips & pudding & a note on table saying 'be home for dinner', & he said it was a big surprise & a good one. Said all he had to do was set the table & eat. He looks so well & walks like a man & sure of himself. Oh it does me so much good."

More photos of Squamish Hop Farm at SQUAMISH VALLEY HOP RANCH

Excerpt from letter from Bonnie Bennett to her Aunt Edna & Uncle Ralph Van Horne November 2, 1962 from her father Cliff's place near Grand Forks B.C.   "Dad is just fine, and enjoys it here.  Nice & warm and 'Indoor Plumbing'.  So he's OK.  He has very good neighbours, who come over once a day, so there is no need to worry about him at all.   I am certainly thankful that Julie is up here, or I'd go nuts.  It is too darn quiet for my liking.  Thank heaven I married a City Man!"   Excerpt from letter from Cliff to 'All the Van Hornes' September 7, 1971 "Have all our harvesting finished.  Over 7000 bales of hay and combined 5 tons of barley.  Everything (storage rooms) full and will have plenty of feed for winter.  Have 101 head of stock and 5 horses.  May not sell many this fall as the price is going down.  Better prices in the spring.  Got everything in without being rained on except the first part of the first cutting. ... The day we finished it rained torrents all that night so will have good pasture this fall.  Was a touch of frost last night but Julie has her garden well in hand.  Nothing but corn that could be hurt.