Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994 TAG: 9403080010
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: F8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By PAT GERBER LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: ASHCROFT, BRITISH COLUMBIA LENGTH: Medium
After the children have been tucked snug into bed, and as the wind moans through a stand of weeping willows, some of the guests gather in the lounge to wind down from a long day of riding, swimming and tennis.
Rowe is a no-nonsense man in his mid-60s who isn't comfortable talking about things that can't be explained. But there have been too many sightings for him to ignore and so, pressured by a couple of guests, he starts by telling us the history of the place.
The ranch dates to the 1860s, to Canada's gold rush. An old supply route to gold mines 400 miles north passes about a quarter-mile from the ranch's main complex. Today it looks like a scar on the sagebrush hillside. But ghosts of pioneers have been known to haunt this trail.
Two of these ghosts were supposedly seen one evening in 1978. As two young women hired on as cooks headed out for an early evening walk, they passed a barbed-wire fence that ran by the old pioneer route.
Suddenly, one of the women turned to the other. ``Who are those men?''
``What men?'' her companion asked.
``Why, those two,'' she said, pointing. She described them to her friend, who couldn't see them: Both were dressed in boots, oil-cloth overcoats that scraped the ground and wide-brimmed hats pulled low on their heads.
She joked about how they looked dressed for a costume party. Then she gasped. The apparitions walked right through the barbed-wire fence, then disappeared.
The woman was last seen boarding the next train to Vancouver.
Rowe tells another story. Several years ago, a rather sober-minded business associate of his was among 18 guests invited to run cattle to northern grazing land.
``We'd been rounding up cattle when a big downpour rolled in,'' Rowe said. The group broke up and headed for cover. When the downpour showed no signs of abating, they decided to make a dash for the safety of the Sundance barn several miles away.
By the time they reached the barn, the businessman was missing. A short time later, he came riding in, a most puzzled expression on his face.
Rowe asked what had kept him.
``This Indian girl,'' he said, then described her as dressed in buckskin holding a string of trout. She had asked the way to the main trail, then if he'd like to have dinner.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree, spooking the man's horse. He ran after it into the woods, and when he returned, the woman was gone.
Rowe then explained to his guest that no Indians had lived anywhere near there for years. But almost everyone in the region had heard the legend of the Indian woman, who supposedly had lived in the last century and whose husband drowned while fishing. Locals say that if you agree to dine with her, you won't come back.
Rowe declines to say he thinks the stories are true, but he does go this far: ``I've been close enough to people to believe that they believe what they saw.''
by CNB