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Canford, lying in the peace of the Lower Nicola Valley, fifteen kilometers west of Merritt is unique among British Columbia's many ghost settlements. Here the Nicola Valley abruptly narrows and the river hurries to join the Thompson at Spence's Bridge. The spirit of this pastoral land instantly captured the hearts, imagination and dreams of two men who ventured there. Ninety years separated these two singular encounters.
In the fall of 1991, Doug Carnegie, a young North Vancouver man with an eye for 'something different' and 'something that would be an interesting out of town weekend home and project' (1) motor-cycled west on Highway 8 from Merritt. For twenty years following retirement Jim Johnston had inhabited 110 acres of ranch and farmland in the fold of the final semi-circle lazy sweep made by the north-west flowing Nicola River. Carnegie arrived just as Johnston hammered a 'For Sale By Owner' sign at the junction of the Highway and Sunshine Valley Road. Ugly traces of a longdeceased Canford sawmill operation notwithstanding, Carnegie's attachment to the site was determined within six months, and he became the owner of the entire Canford, British Columbia settlement. The unknown history and ghosts of the former settlement mingled with his enthusiasm and imagination, and he resolved to create or re-create some 'thing' at this very special place.
"From Spence's Bridge, on the Canadian Pacific Railway, one can cycle over one of the best roads in the Province, and taking a south-easterly course along the valley of the Nicola, through one of the most fertile portions of British Columbia. The meadows are an emerald green and teem with cattle and horses of the sleekest kind." (2) This commentary was penned in October 1900 by the first Vancouver gentleman beguiled by the same site that was later to catch Carnegie's fancy. It is doubtful that Mr. Theophilus Richard Hardiman Esq., managing editor of the Vancouver-based British Columbia Mining Exchange and Investor's Guide and Mining Tit-Bits
actually cycled the dusty wagon track that edged the Nicola River. However, this was the exaggerated style and effort Mr. Hardiman regularly employed in his reporting. The cycling image also affords a pleasant link with Carnegie's approach, 90 years later, to the site Hardiman was to name Canford.
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