Dear Ms. Milligan,

I have no idea what got me thinking about Seynour Arm this morning but I
decided to check it out on the internet, and found yout website. You
asked for stories, so mine follows.

 The Collings Mansion, and John Charles Collings,  have never been far
from my thoughts. I discovered that the VAG had curated a show of
Collings' work a number of years ago, and was able to obtain a catalogue.

I have always wondered what happened to the ownership of the place - the
man we met was John Rivett, and he lived in Calgary at the time. I hope
the province finally agreed to support its maintenance.

Anyway, here's my tale, name changed to protect the guilty!

Yours truly,
Hope Smith
Calgary

 In1980, I was dating Angus, a charming fellow who had his own plane. A
lucky thing, as he lived in Vancouver and I lived in Calgary. At some
point in the summer he suggested we fly to Seymour Arm for a weekend, as
it had  a hotel and an airstrip nearby. We could fly in. How cool! In
those days, getting hold of the hotel was a challenge - it was a radio
phone and was only active for a couple of hours a day. I was lucky
enough to get through and to get a reservation.

So Angus flew to Calgary, picked me up in his 4-seater Cessna, and off
we flew into the wild cloudy yonder, over the Rockies using onlyVFR! As
I held my breath in trepidation, Angus reassured me with his brash
self-confidence. Thankfully the clouds parted and we landed uneventfully
on a strip of gravel on the shore of Seymour Arm a few  hours later.
Wow! What a way to travel. We pulled our bags out of the plane, and
hiked off along the shore a few hundred yards to the Seymour Arm Hotel.
The manager took us up to our room - a very simple space with an
old-fashioned bedstead and no lock on the door! "You don't need one
here," she claimed. A city girl, I was astonished, but I was also
utterly charmed.

We headed out to explore and came upon the next wonderful surprise of
the trip - the Collings Mansion. We ignored the no trespassing signs; my
curiosity about the history of places and Angus' chutzpah pushed us to
explore that amazing property.
What was a fancy city mansion doing in the middle of nowhere? Who had
built the fabulous gardens and rose trellis? As we wandered closer to
the house, a gentleman appeared by the doorway. There we were, caught!
But he was friendly, and we easily convinced him of our genuine
fascination, peppering him with questions. 

"Would you like to see the house?" he asked. Thrilled, we followed him
inside, and had a guided tour, learning about John Charles Collings, his
art, the building of the house, and the history of Seymour Arm. We
learned that our new friend, a distant relative, was having a hard time
getting any support in his efforts to preserve the home as an historic site.

Eventually we tore ourselves away from the beautiful watercolours and
custom-made billiards table and made our way back to the hotel for
dinner. That's when we had our third pleasant surprise. Not only was the
meal absolutely delicious, highlighted by fresh Okanagan corn, but we
discovered that hotel guests could have second helpings for free - even
a third cob of corn if they wanted! Of course we took advantage of the
offer.

After dinner, we stuck our heads in the pub, where lots of cottagers had
come to spend their Saturday evening, and then strolled on the beach,
gazing at the stars in the unbelieveably clear dark sky.

Little did I know, as we flew back to Calgary the next day, that that
weekend would stay in memory as vividly as any trip to other, more
distant and more luxurious parts of the world. It was, with all its
amazing parts, a perfect adventure.