Cougar Annie’s historic garden up for sale

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For seven decades, Ada Annie Rae-Arthur, a.k.a. Cougar Annie, tended her homestead in the Clayoquot Sound wilderness, cultivating exotic plants for her mail-order nursery business, running a general store and post office from her home and earning a reputation as one of B.C.’s most colourful pioneers, writes Brennan Clarke in the Globe and Mail.

This week, a quarter century after her death, the non-profit society that owns Cougar Annie’s historic retreat revealed that the property is being sold to pay off a sizable debt incurred by a money-losing education centre on the site.

“The educational non-profit business model that we tried proved to be very difficult, especially after the recession,” said Daniel Arbour, board chair of the Tofino-based Boat Basin Foundation. “For two years, we’ve been trying to find an internal solution and we haven’t been able to do so.”

The Temperate Rainforest Field Study Centre on Cougar Annie’s property, envisioned as an eco-retreat for university students and private groups, has lost about $1.9-million since it opened in 2007, he said (NOTE - THE CENTRE HASN'T LOST 1.9m, THAT IS THE DEBT  (MORTGAGE) ON THE PLACE).

Accessible only by float plane or boat, the 48-hectare property, including six cabins, a main hall, modern kitchen facilities and Cougar Annie’s fully restored two-hectare garden, is listed with Landquest Realty for $2.2-million.

The foundation launched the education centre in partnership with Ecotrust Canada, a non-profit that promotes conservation-based development, and the Hesquiaht First Nation, whose traditional territory includes Cougar Annie’s.

However, Hesquiaht Chief Joseph Tom said this week the band is opposed to the sale and may take legal steps to block any proposed purchase.

“At some point, the Hesquiaht people have to ask, how is it you can sell our property without consulting us or accommodating us in any way?” he said. “There’s no treaty in Hesquiaht. Cougar Annie’s was given away without our permission, now Ecotrust wants $2.2-million, and what did we get in the beginning? Absolutely nothing.”

Ms. Rae-Arthur and her first husband, Willie Rae-Arthur, received a Crown land grant for the property soon after arriving in Boat Basin, about 55 kilometres northwest of Tofino, in 1915.

Nicknamed for her proficiency at shooting and trapping cougars, Cougar Annie had four husbands and gave birth to 11 children during her lifetime.

Upon her death in 1985 at age 97, the estate was sold to her close friend Peter Buckland, a retired Vancouver stockbroker who spent close to 15 years restoring Cougar Annie’s gardens.

Mr. Buckland, who started the Boat Basin Foundation a decade ago, could not be reached for comment.

The Hesquiaht, who have been in treaty negotiations for more than a decade, are frustrated by the province’s refusal to include Cougar Annie’s property in any future settlement, Mr. Tom said.

“We’ve made every attempt through the system to retain it for the Hesquiaht people and we’ve never got a response,” he said.

Mr. Arbour said the foundation is aware that the band is “exploring purchase options for the property, including treaty-related measures” and “encourages the Hesquiaht’s efforts in this regard.”

Hesquiaht councillor Carol Anne Hilton said band members respect Cougar Annie’s legacy but pointed out that First Nations history in the area runs much deeper.

“It’s a culturally significant place, a very magical place, but the history of Cougar Annie is only the last 100 years,” she said. “We’ve been here for thousands of years.”


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