One night while they were sleeping, they heard some noises,
coming from the one window in the cabin.
Suddenly they realized it was a black bear,
and it's paw was already inside the window,
Now in the dark they both scrambled for the rifle,
that lucky enough they had with them.
While they struggled with the rifle,
the box of shells had to be found,
and in the process of taking a shell out of the box,
all the shells fell on the floor of the cabin.
So now here they are on their hands and knees,
scraping up shells to load the gun.
Meanwhile the bear is half inside now,
and clawing his way into the cabin.
The claw marks were visible inside the window frame,
until renovations were done in the late 70’s.
Finally able to load a shell,
the bear was stopped with one shot.
Being the honest and proper thing to do,
they reported the bear
to the conservation officer in Stewart,
thinking they would at least
get to keep it after all that.
Nope, it was confiscated and they got
nothing but laundry to do,
for their night of excitement!

The infamous window, note the metal screen,
bolted to the outside the window after the incident.
Ron Strumecki and Chuck Lequereux hard at work doing dishes in this photo.

 
A 6’ cedar fence was built around the site,
to try and keep the bears at bay,
so trips outside could be safely done at night,
in the closed compound area.
The fence rotted away in early 90’s, and now is gone.

Photos courtesy Brian Wolfe, Ladysmith BC