THE McIvers:
A MAPLE RIDGE PIONEER FAMILY
Lorna Seppala is the great granddaughter of Maple Ridge pioneer John McIver, the guy who founded what is now known as The Maple Ridge Golf Course. She has written an abridged illustrative version of the history of her ancestry as it relates to that property. Recently she did a presentation at the now 101 year old 40+ acre community golf course.
Her family story is passionate and personal, but also educational, intriguing and informative. Her lineage is rich with memories, honour, pride and generosity.
The land started out as a family farm and homestead for many generations of McIvers, one of Maple Ridge’s earliest settler families. Eventually John McIver Junior no longer wanted to be a farmer. He sought other options and settled with a recommendation to convert the land to a large golf course. The McIvers felt the community would benefit a great deal with close access to a wonderful, easy, inexpensive outdoor recreational activity close to home. It was a gamble, but turned into an incredible community success story.
Over time family members dispersed and developed their own lives elsewhere. Mrs. McIver, the matriarch, remained in the McIver house with her blind son for as long as possible. Eventually the inevitable happened and the time came to sell the land. Many impressive offers were made but, in the end, her love of the community resulted in making a very low offer to the municipality — stipulating the land remain as a community golf course, and a community legacy, with low fees to Maple Ridge residents. Her income from the sale would be enough to support her and her son, modestly, in the family home adjacent to the property in the community she wholeheartedly loved.
Following the presentation, I met Lorna’s brother Robert. He is one of the great grandsons of John McIver. He told me of memories he has carried with him all of his life. As a young boy, he and his siblings often travelled by slow bus from Vancouver to Maple Ridge to stay with his grandmother for a few days now and then. He remembers tobogganing on the golf course land in the winter months. He remembers lying in bed and hearing the lonely whistle of the evening train riding by on the south end of the golf course. He remembers the smoke and settled soot from the BeeHive burners at the mill not far away. He remembers there were boxes and boxes of paper documents regarding the family, their history, photos and business records, and the specific details and expectations of the transferring of ownership of the land.
While he spoke, I could only feel his ancestors tossing and turning in their graves, worrying about the possibility of the family’s generous gift to the community, and the original intentions of the significantly under market value sale, being swept under a rug for what some are seeing as an urgent community alternative recreational necessity. Yes, this family legacy and community jewel has become the subject of controversy; its future is in a state of suspension.
It seems the City of Maple Ridge is considering a major redevelopment proposal that would eliminate the golf course and emancipate or desecrate the hopes and dreams of the McIver family. The issue is understandably controversial and will be before the voters soon; however it goes, one can only hope that trust, respect, honour and integrity prevail.
