So Much Water

Catherwood family farm, ca. 1960. RMA photo 12471.

When Harold Catherwood came to the Columbia River in 1934, he had never seen so much water before. His parents were struggling to maintain the family on their farm in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression, so they purchased land 21 miles south of Revelstoke and took up a homestead there.

Catherwood children on the farm, ca. 1960. RMA photo 12476.

The homestead at Sproat, near the farming community of Sidmouth, became a thriving cattle ranch, and Harold took over the operation when his parents moved away.

In the mid-1960s, during the construction of the Hugh Keenleyside Dam, Harold and a few other farmers from Sidmouth and Nakusp travelled to Castlegar to protest the dam construction. The protest was short-lived, and they returned home, unable to stop the dam that would wipe out their farms and their way of life.

Harold Catherwood Interview – Protesting the Dam (captions available in both French and English). Enjoy this video with an English transcript.

Harold tried to negotiate with the BC Hydro appraiser when it was time to sell his property but to no avail.

There was no negotiation. BC Hydro had already decided on compensation for each farm and knew that the farmers had no choice but to take what they were offered. The money could never compensate for the loss of a home, a business, and a lifestyle.

Harold made a new life in Revelstoke, living at the end of a road that now bears his last name, but he always felt that he had been cheated, and his daughter still shed tears at the childhood memory of the crying of the calves being separated from their mothers when they were sent off to auction.

Harold Catherwood Interview – Burning Buildings (captions available in both French and English). Enjoy this video with an English transcript.