So this is an interesting story. We had a winery fan send us a story, and they haven’t actually been to the winery yet. They were visiting BC all the way from Italy and saw our winery as they drove along the Trans-Canada highway. They felt so compelled to share their story and connection to the property that they sent us an email.

Here is the story that was sent to us by the nephew of a person who once worked at the property:

We’ve actually just returned last week to our home in the Isles of Scilly, England from a three week holiday to BC.  We did drive passed your winery!

I thought you may be interested to hear of our family’s connection, and I believe you have an archive so you may find the attachments of interest!

My Uncle Jim (Leonard James Sandford) emigrated to BC in 1947 as a seventeen-year-old!  He’d dreamt of being a ‘cowboy’ and saved long and hard to achieve his dream!

After making his way across Canada after arriving by sea at New York he worked at the Monte Creek Ranch.  The attached photographs were from his time there. Jim then went further across BC during the next four years, sadly his life ended tragically in 1951. I was born in 1950 and named Brian James Sandford after Jim and grew up hearing tales of his ‘cowboy’ life!  My family were in farming in Somerset, but Jim wanted his dreams, he was and is much missed!

We made the long drive from Vancouver to visit his grave in Williams Lake…the first family members to do so after sixty six years.  My late father was Jim’s brother Tom, his two sisters Kathleen and Phyllis are still alive (in Somerset, England) and in fine spirits despite their age, they have fond memories of Jim’s letters full of his exploits in BC.  Jim was also a prolific photographer and the family have all of his albums from his time in BC.

Here are the images Brian sent our way:

Our team will forever remember this #MonteMoment as a surprising email that showed up in our inbox. Thank you for sharing your story with us Brian!