The familiar first view of Alexandra Lodge, as it looked to me in September, 2001, travelling east on the Trans Canada highway.

Written in 2001: There has been a roadhouse or lodge at Chapman's Bar in the Fraser Canyon since 1858, four years before the Cariboo Road opened and Joseph Trutch's workers completed the Alexandra Bridge nearby. The question is whether any portion of this building is the original (actually the second, 1864) roadhouse, which would make it one of the oldest and most historic buildings in B.C. The provincial government gave it a heritage designation in the early 1970s, but withdrew it a decade later when a subsequent review appeared to reveal that the building only dated from the 1920s – the highway era when auto tourism and long distance trucking began and the Fraser Canyon Road reopened along the old Cariboo Road route as a toll road. In the early 1980s, the provincial heritage branch dismissed the lodge as "only of local significance" – rather a death sentence as it has turned out, exacerbated by the loss of traffic on the Fraser Canyon highway due to the opening in 1986 of the Coquihalla highway (#5).

By 1864, two years after the Cariboo Road and Alexandra Bridge opened, innkeeper William Alexander went into partnership with Louis Waigland, who had purchased 32 acres beside the Cariboo Road above Chapman's Bar. They built a large, two-storey frame roadhouse there, an 1867 photograph of which (by Frederick Dally) survives in the BC Provincial Archives (the image number is A-03865 if the pathway in the link doesn't work).

That building had a simple fore-and-aft pitched roof with side gables, a central chimney and five windows along its front facade. Much of the original property was forfeited for CNR construction in the 1910s.

The current Alexandra Lodge has obviously been assembled from other buildings, some portion of which may be the 1864 roadhouse (but that's unlikely).

Old photographs confirm that the current building had "emerged" by the 1930s. The roofline and main floor of the northern half (minus a proposed dormer) reflect the 1926-1927 plans by Vancouver architect Willliam Frederick Gardiner, the front elevation of which is reproduced below, entitled "Proposed Hotel to be Erected at Chapmans, Fraser Canyon Highway, B.C. for The Cariboo Hotels Ltd." But the rest of the building is very different, including the main gable and the odd south-side wall – in the watercolour above, the strong vertical shadow below the peak of the gable indicates the difference in size between the front half and the rear half of the building – the front half is a few feet longer. Also note the differences between the porch structure as built, in the photos below, and the proposed hipped-roof one on the architect's elevation. Adding further confusion is the 1924 photo, which may be another building entirely on a slightly different site, since demolished. Possibly the entire W.F. Gardiner plan was built in the late 1920s, but the south side was destroyed by fire soon after construction.

In the lodge's heyday, its first two decades of operation, it apparently was run by the Barrett family in a very elegant style. Correspondent Doris Tuohey, who first travelled up the Fraser Canyon in 1929 and spent a lot of time in the 1930s and 1940s gold-panning and vacationing in the area, recalled white linen cloths on the tables and filet mignon on the menu. The proprietress had straight-cut hair, an Irish brogue and smoked a pipe; her husband was a "well-educated Englishman." Prajadhipok, the King of Siam, stayed or stopped there with his entourage during his tour of BC in September 1931.  Later owners, including Dorine Hooper who had a well-deserved reputation for her cinnamon buns, struggled to keep the lodge going until she closed it finally around 1995.

The roadhouse was moved in 1952 six feet from the road right-of-way by a highways department crew and placed onto a concrete foundation.

[Correspondence from Peter Rowlands: Your delightful website was 'discovered' while researching a book about Pete Friesen, proprietor of Modern Building Movers, who moved Alexandra Lodge c. 1952 for the provincial highways department. Having got his start moving houses during the 1948 Fraser Valley Flood, Pete was contracted to relocate buildings to allow for improvements along the Fraser Canyon Road. He went on to become the acknowledged world leader in the field of structural moving - inventing the technology and supervising the relocation of Cape Hatteras Light, Newark NJ International Air Terminal, Gem and Shubert Theaters, Fairmount Hotel, railway stations, fire halls and 5000 various other buildings.]

From Donna Butler, 2020: Years back we were driving back home from interior and stopped in to the lodge as it said OPEN. We met the lovely gal who had made stew and fresh  bread. I told  her of the king of siam  etc. The king of Siam came over on the Empress of Canada where my uncle was the purser  my aunt was the hairdresser. My uncle  Harold treated the King so well, he was presented with a  cigarette case and a pair of cuff links. As you know the Empress of Canada sunk during the war.  Later In life my grandmother Beatrice Bletsoe who was a practical  nurse went to Alexandria lodge  to  nurse someone there.  As a result our family would visit around 1932 or 4 and stay overnight  in one of the rustic cabins  I remember as a child as it was a big deal and long trip. I have a pic of us up there then but locked in locker. The cigarette case and cuff links are still in the family estate. They would not know the historical value if any. As far as I am concerned the Lodge was a part of  my life and took an interest  HOPE this fills In a couple of blanks. 

From Mary Cull, Melbourne, 2015: I am connected genealogically with Henry Bertram Clegg and recently have been researching his life. He was born in Yorkshire, emigrated to Canada in 1921, served in WW1 and married a Canadian, Kathleen Lily Chadwick. Their probate records note their place of abode Alexander Lodge. Along the way I have found your website. I am interested in the reference by David Pollock about Henry being wounded in the war. But I am equally interested to know if by any chance there are photographs of Henry and his pipe-smoking wife. I can only assume that if you had some you would have added them.

From MK: below are photos of the Cleggs which I used in the book Vanishing British Columbia.

Henry Bertram Clegg (from Yale and District Museum)

Kathleen Lily Chadwick Clegg (Yale and District Museum and Archives photo)

From Monica Olesky, 2014: I was answering some questions on Family Trees for one of my grandaughters.  She was asking about childhood experiences and as I went back through the years, I recalled living at Alexandra Lodge in the fall/early winter of 1947.  My mother, Joan (nee Langley) Barrett had ‘inherited’ the settling of the estate from Lily Clegg – a relative – at the time of Lily’s death. From what I understand, Lily had the Lodge on a 99 year lease – again, I have not found any documentation, but I remember seeing records after my mom died (1994). I may be able to locate something.

We lived in Trail, B.C. at the time; my sister, Judy, was 5, and I turned 3 in October.(I was delivered to my Grandmother Bessie Langley and my aunt Barbara Langley in Merritt for a sleepover for a few days). My dad, Ed Barrett, was working for Cominco (later becoming the industrial psychologist for Cominco)He was only able to visit us for short weekends.
 
As you can imagine – MY memories include: my sister and I hiding in the empty icecream bins in the front store section of the lodge, and popping out and saying “boo” to anyone who came through the front door;  sitting in front of the wood/oil stove in the kitchen and holding crayons until they melted in glorious colours down the front of the stove and oven door;
and watching the excitement after my sister slipped and fell into the half frozen fish pond out the back.
 
We didn’t get many people stopping, but those that did got a home cooked meal from my mom – mostly soups and stews.  More guests = add more water and potatoes my mom would mutter, finishing with a pie of course.  sometimes a customer would go and chop wood for the stove and fireplace for us (free meal).  Mom was a nurse by profession and certainly did not have much business savvy (her admission), but she managed, along with the accountant, to get things in order for the sale.
 
An RCMP officer would stop by on his way through in either direction.  He had a magnificent police dog.  On one occasion, while he was enjoying soup and sandwich, my sister and I thought it would be sweet to feed his dog.  We took him out through the kitchen, cracked a dozen or so eggs into a bowl and mixed it with snow and a touch of sugar.  Needless to say, the dog was on leash at the table from then on.
 
Car accidents happened, too, especially when the first frost and snows arrived.  Patients were hustled to the Lodge to await an ambulance.  Mom had her hands full administering first aid, comfort, meals, tea, linen washloads and trying to make sure my sister and I weren’t “getting in the way”.
 
I don’t know when my mom ever slept.  She baked early in the morning and cleaned until well after midnight.  She rarely complained or got angry with us.
 
When the papers were all in order and it was time for us to return to Trail, I remember waiting for the bus, in the crunchy, squeaky snow, a clear, crisp night with millions of stars and the howling of coyotes not far away.  I don’t think my mom even turned to look back (she was probably already asleep).
 
Years later 1981-ish, I drove with one of my daughters up the Fraser Canyon and stopped in at the Lodge.  I knocked and 2 fellows were in the front room.  After explaining my experiences, they allowed us in to have a wee tour.  My daughter was speechless! (she was 11) and when we got back into the car and headed off, she said, YOU were part of “in the olden days”.  Well, I guess so.
 

From Laurier Lebel in Québec, 2011: Je vous achemine une vieille carte postale que j'ai découverte dans les affaires de ma grande tante qui a voyagé dans l'ouest canadien il y a fort longtemps. 

Note from Robin Collins, Ottawa, 2010: I thought you'd like this scan of the A. Lodge. An old family photograph with Cada ("Ked") Billings standing in front.
Undated.

Note from David Pollock: The pipe smoking proprietress was Lily Clegg [Kathleen Lillian Clegg, 1893-1947] and she was the driving force behind the lodge in the 20s and 30s. Her husband [[Henry Bertram Clegg 1888-1942] had been injured in WW I and never fully recovered. The electric light at the lodge was a water driven unit installed by my Uncle Dave Laverock and his partner Jimmy Swan ( JB). Dave was astounded to see Mrs Clegg stirring soup with a cigarette ash over an inch long on the end of her cigarette . It is not known if she eventually dropped it in the soup, but she put on a good meal.

One very cold winter, she and Mr Clegg went to Vancouver. Whoever was left as caretaker was warned not to shut off the water to the generating plant as it would freeze. They did and it did. The penstalk was a four inch steel pipe, threaded together with couplings every ten feet. Mrs Clegg had the person responsible uncouple the steel pipe length by length and drag it into the little service garage where the generator was located and with a huge fire roaring in a barrel stove thawed it out length by length. It was then reassembled and the plant was restarted. I saw this generating plant when it was still operating in 1962. I am sure the unit (Pelton wheel and generator) is now in storage at the Saanich Artifacts museum. If not, the unit they have is a twin. JB Swan's brass tag is riveted to it.

Siska Lodge also had their own water powered lighting plant. Much larger than Alexandra's. It ran up to the time the lodge burned down in 64 or 65. I also saw it in operation as well as a number of others beginning at Bridal Falls Chalet and up as far as BigHorn or Shaw Springs. It has been many years (1962) since I first travelled the Fraser Canyon with my uncle but he remembered it well from the 1930s. We purchased the equipment from the Bridal Falls Chalet in 1963 and the wheel is still running on our farm outside Victoria on the site of the original Hudson Bay Mills (1848-56 ). My father's mother's family were the Finnertys who arrived in Victoria in 1862 and whose farm now forms part of the University of Victoria's campus. My grandfather M B Pollock made a number of trips into the Yukon over the Chilkoot pass between 1894 and 1898.

July 2004: ad in Langley Times: "8 1/2 acres, 7 bedroom, 12 mi. N of Yale, 1 mile Fraser River front. $350,000. Historic Alexandra Lodge. 604 869-2975."

Note from Tyler Shepherd, 2004: "Hi! I saw your site on the Alexandra Lodge in the Fraser Canyon, and I do have a lot of information regarding the current state of the property. I may be able to send you a bunch of more current photos of the place, as I am going up there with a group of friends at the end of the month, and we will no doubt have some pictures. As for the ownership, my father, David Shepherd, has obtained the lodge from Dorine Hooper, and has a lot of plans to clean it up, renovate, and get it much more active. He currently lives in the lodge, and has redone the water system, plumbing, much of the interior, and the electrical work. If you would like, I could let him know, and then give you his phone number, so you might direct inquiries you receive his way. I look forward to hearing from you soon, as we share an interest in this lodge, it seems."

Note from Ada Stefanek, 2005: As a child back in the mid to late 50's, my parents and I would drive up the canyon (in the old Model T) to visit a former owner (possibly) of the Lodge. I remember going across the Alexandria Bridge and chugging up the hill to the Lodge. However, on reading the write up on the internet, I didn't come across the name "George Hood" anywhere as being a former owner. George used to work with my father in Vancouver on the street cars and according to my mom, bought the lodge and ran it for a while. Mom looked through her old photos and has a picture of George and my dad in front of the lodge taken in the late 50's. Ever heard of him ? Perhaps his tenure was to small to be noted.

Note from John Gulayets, 2005: I was on the internet and was looking up Spuzzum B.C and came across the lodge. My uncle George and Aunt Vera HOOD ran the lodge from around 52/53 till about 74  Uncle George died in 1972 and Aunt Vera died about 4 - 5 years later. I used to stay at the lodge every summer when I was a kid and used to pump gas for the cars and do little odd jobs. Cut the lawn. The water system was pretty cool and would break down occassionally and my dad would drive up and help fix it. Lots off good memories from there. Aunt Vera made good burgers and she was a phenomenal cook.

Anderson Brigade Trail

The remains of the Anderson Brigade Trail of 1848, used briefly by the Hudson's Bay Company, ascend the ridge behind the Alexandra Lodge.The trail began at Fort Yale, crossed the river at the narrows at Spuzzum and continued to Merritt. It was the first attempt post-contact to establish a route through the Canyon. Above the Alexandra Lodge site, the trail climbed a steep hill to Lake House and on to Fort Kamloops. Anderson's trail also connected to an Indian pack trail from Boston Bar to Merritt. The route was superseded after the 1849 season by the Hope to Tulameen brigade trail. Documented as a route to Fort Kamloops from 1847 to 1849, and later in 1858 and 1882 as a route to Boston Bar. The site of Lake House has not been found. An 1858 gold mining trail returns to the Canyon via 17 Mile Creek. (Lillooet-Fraser Heritage Resource Study. volume I, Heritage Conservation Branch, Province of BC, Ministry of Provincial Secretary and Government Services, 1980)

Much of the forest along the trail has been logged over the years, but the first seven kilometres, starting near Alexandra Lodge, is more or less untouched. The Summer, 1999 issue of the Heritage Society of BC newsletter reported on the efforts of Charlie Hou, a Burnaby secondary school history teacher, who had been taking his Grade 10 students on an overnight hike along the trail for several years, to have the trail designated by the provincial Archaeology Branch. Mr. Hou proposed provincial park status for the trail, but his efforts were not acted upon before the change of provincial government in 2001 (and the current provincial government, which is cutting all department budgets, is unlikely to act). However, the trail is reported under a "map reserve" status according to a Memorandum of Understanding between the Archaeology Branch and the Ministry of Forests; this could mean the preservation of a strip 100 metres wide on either side of the trail.

Heritage trails get $2 million boost [article sent along by Rick Goodacre, Heritage Society of BC]
Hope Standard
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Page 1
Communities from Hope to Barkerville and beyond will get a chance to restore and promote some of their most famous heritage trails thanks to a $2 million grant from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.
The grant to the New Pathways to Gold Society (NPTGS) will enable communities and other partners to help rediscover and restore the network of trails along the corridor's historic routes like the Cariboo Wagon Road and the Douglas Portage.
"New Pathways thanks the government for giving corridor communities the opportunity to develop more tourism opportunities in the Fraser River corridor by the conservation, development and promotion of these historical gold rush and First Nations trails and other heritage features," said NPTGS co-chair Byron Spinks of Lytton.
"It's a direct result of a historic tour of the Fraser Canyon on September 8, 2009 by the Premier and Ministers Barry Penner, Blair Lekstrom, Bill Bennett and Kevin Krueger. It shows government was listening to the hopes and aspirations of the First Nations and non-First Nations communities."
The Heritage Trails Project reflects the NPTGS' goal of increasing economic activity along these historic routes. The area encompasses the Hope to Barkerville corridor, the Harrison Lake-Lillooet Lake-Seton Lake-Lillooet route and the Hudson's Bay Fur Brigade-First Nations trails east of Alexandra Lodge.
The grant, received in early April, will allow NPTGS and partner communities and organizations to work on four major heritage routes. While final details have yet to be finalized, the preliminary plan is to provide:
Approximately $300,000 to improve the trails around and the access to the Alexandra Bridge Provincial Heritage site in the Fraser Canyon.
• About $1 million for a snow mobile trail from 100 Mile House to Barkerville to be built by the Southern Interior Beetle Action Committee
• Some $300,000 for the Brigade Trail-First Nations route from the Anderson River to the Coldwater River. Part of this trail starting at Alexandra Lodge has been the focus of preliminary work by local First Nations
• Another $300,000 for the Douglas Portage-Spirit Trail from the top of Lake Harrison through the Lillooet River to the Pemberton Valley. The 1858 road commissioned by Governor James Douglas winds through a beautiful, rugged and sacred landscape. The In-CHUCK-ch First Nation have done preliminary work on this route
• The balance of the funds will go to mapping, cataloguing and restoring the Cariboo Wagon Road from Hope to Barkerville. The road will provide a vital "heritage spine" around which complimentary trail and heritage projects will revolve.
‘The Cariboo Wagon Road section of the initiative is critical," said NPTGS co-chair Chris O'Connor. "It will tie the Fraser Canyon and the Cariboo together just like it did during the gold rush and benefit dozens of communities throughout the corridor."
The Heritage Trails initiative is a result of the government's proactive heritage tourism strategy as well as NPTGS' on-going dialogue with government, local community leaders, heritage groups, businesses and academics. NPTGS is committed to working with communities to determine the best way of spending the funds.
"Receiving this money from the province is just the first step in the process," said O'Connor. "We'll be working with communities to establish a technical committee to work out all the details."
NPTGS hopes to leverage the provincial grant to gain additional infrastructure money from organizations such as the Northern Development Initiative Trust for the Cariboo Wagon Road portion of the initiative (NPTGS and the NDIT have worked in partnership for two years to help deliver heritage and heritage tourism projects such as The Motherlode musical review and the Canyon War documentary to corridor communities).
The Society is also committed to working with business and corporate sponsors to leverage further funds for the initiative.
NPTGS is working with Heritage Branch and other partners to fine tune cost estimates. NPTGS will also work closely with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts regarding the maintenance and development of trails on Crown land.
The New Pathways to Gold Society is an incorporated, non-profit society working with First Nations and non-First Nation's communities on B.C.'s Gold Rush trails with a focus on heritage tourism-based economic development.

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Please also read the material on the Spuzzum Cafe, the Spuzzum Hotel and the Alexandra Bridge if you're interested in this area.