Brothers Rusty and Roger Patenaude on the origins of the 53 Mile Ranch
Interview by Maurice Guibord at Rusty’s ranch at Horsefly, B.C., August 8, 2019. To view EN or FR subtitles, click on the gear wheel at bottom right of screen while the video is playing.
Transcription
ROGER – “The general store is what brought us to the 53 because my Grandpa Bryson went to work for the women that ran the store, the Crosina family, Lil Crosina. The person who started it was Louis James Crosina who came into the country in the late 1800s from Italy as a 14-year-old boy.”
RUSTY – “He became a blacksmith and opened a stopping house on the way to the gold fields. That’s how the ‘53 got started. In those teams they had teams that would be pulling wagons, whether it was supplies or whatever. Where the ‘53 is, it’s kind of an uphill struggle to get there. They’d always have to unhook and get another mare and bring them up and double-hitch, and away they would go. A lot of times, they’d overnight there. He made a living by blacksmithing the horses that needed reshod or whatever. That’s how it kind of started.”