Babine Norlakes Lodge
The following lodge history is provided by Anita Clegg of Babine Norlakes.
Babine Norlakes Lodge began as Norlakes Lodge (Babine) Ltd. in 1949. It was to be the first in a series of northern lodges to be put together in a consortium of northern destinations. On a trip to one of those northern lodges on Bear Lake the first owner, Mac Anderson, drowned. Two other partners, Jim Price and Ejnar Madsen, set about to finish the lodge on Babine Lake with the help of Charlie Madam and Norman West, two Fort Babine residents. Fort Babine villagers received their first chain saw and first outboard engine through the lodge.
During the next few years six additional cabins were built along the lengthy shoreline of the 120 acres of deeded property that contain the lodge site. The site itself has been mapped by the archeological branch of B.C. and has many pit sites. Another interesting tie to the village is the significant contribution made by one of the early Norlakes guests Harriet Coe. She financially enabled the village to access the west shore of the river at the outlet of the lake with its first bridge structure.
The Madsen Family owned and operated the lodge from 1955 to 1985. They hosted many interesting folks from a variety of destinations. Among those were the Clegg’s from San Francisco (1950) and Chick and Marilyn Stewart (1955) from Vancouver. They came for clean air, clean water, abundant fish, un-crowded angling, and the jewel of the province for trout fishing. They were to return.
As well as the trout lodge on the lake, the Madsens and Wickwires pioneered fishing the upper Babine River for Steelhead before the advent of the jet drive. Guests were housed on the lake and boated the 12 miles to the fish counting fence. They hiked the trail below the weir as far as they could, fishing up and back and returned each night to the lake lodge. In about 1965 the jet drive made it possible to access the lower portion of the Babine River and Ejnar built the camp we now operate, three miles downstream of the fish counting fence.
After Ejnar’s un-timely death in the early 80’s the Clegg’s bought the entire business from Joy Madsen and her children.
During the first few years that the Clegg’s owned the business, the satellite cabin at a spot in the river called Beaver flats, was rebuilt after the Wickwire family voluntarily gave up their own commercial lease at that site. Aside from the re-building of that cabin and an addition to the dining room at the steelhead camp, guests have seen few physical changes to both locations.
Moving from the long standing history of the business to the nuts and bolts of who we are now – We are a family owned and operated business just as the Madsens were before us.
Pierce holds the angling guide license for the business and I hold an assistant angling guide license and we employ an additional four angling guides for our total operation. Our longest standing employee has been with us for 11 years. We employ a cook and housekeeper for both operations. We are both very hands on in our operation working side by side with our staff. Pierce is a full time guide and I am responsible for the hospitality. Both of us have guided, cooked, cleaned and kept house at any given time for our guests if our staff were unable to perform their duties for whatever reason. We also employ two expeditors one for each season and casual office staff.
We are passionate about what we are doing, we love where we live and work and feel lucky to love our “jobs.” We are on the Babine in every season and consider ourselves river guardians. We visit there in winter, and live there in the spring, summer and fall. We have four children, we are here to stay. I was born and raised here, love to work and raise my family here. My parents were dairy farming pioneers here since 1919.
Pierce was mesmerized by the “Babine” because of the beauty, fish, and pristine environment. He has worked to preserve and protect those qualities. Since 1986, Babine Norlakes has been catch and release – regardless of regulation. His political involvement started immediately with “Friends of the Babine” and the bridge fight to stop a proposed logging bridge across the Babine River just below the camp. He has not stopped.
We serve guests from all over the world, including our own community. In both our spring and summer location, and the fall camp, we serve Canadian residents who are as wowed by the river as the guests from Sweden, France, Japan, and the USA.
We enjoy a high repeat clientele rate. The best form of advertising we have is word of mouth and our guests come from all walks of life. At any given week at either location you might find a powerful money manager, nuclear physicist, fork lift driver, mill worker, postal employee or angling guide on vacation and everything in between.
We offer comfortable, rustic accommodations with basic plumbing in the cabins – a sink with a drain – outhouses, a central shower. Why do people pay to live and fish like this? Because the Babine is in a class all it’s own.
Guest comments are typically like: “it’s exceptional,” “the best of the best,” “it’s unique,” it is true, there’s only ONE Babine. Their words are not hollow. They give what they can monetarily to help us maintain provincially significant angling values with groups like the Babine River Foundation, they write letters to government about their observations of the river and the fishery. Putting aside the Clegg’s and Babine Norlakes Lodge, they love the river.