I had ridden my motorcycle on the popular Duffy Lake Loop many times and you pass through Lytton as part of the ride. The blending rivers are far below. I also worked there while filming the movie, The Pledge, with Jack Nicholson. Lytton was small but held a certain charm and I was captivated by an abandoned house, right on the main street and thought it looked pretty enough to deserve restoration as a regional information center. And my imagination led me to write this on my website:
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old homestead dreams
Lytton House
Sometimes you can write your own history to a photograph ...
Spring, 1883
Honey, I got the job working on building the railroad now so we can stay right here in Lytton! I will be on maintenance. and I found a great building lot for a house.
I can't wait for you to see this area. The mountains are sometimes purple and blue, and the pines are always green. The wide river gorge is really beautiful.
The lot I picked is right on the main thoroughfare. We can build our own house and I can do a lot of the designing and building myself, you know I am good with carpentry and I don't care how hard the work is. We'll make our house real nice, it'll be the best one in town. And we'll have the kitchen so you can always see the views. It'll be a real kitchen too, not like the cubby hole in New Westminster. We'll have a big fireplace for winter, there's lots of pinewood windfalls around, and I'll make a nice porch on the shady side for summer.
You'll feel free up here, Honey, the sky never ends and the air is even sweet to breathe. And we'll have 3 kids, two boys and a girl, with a big grassy front yard for them to play in. And we'll plant an apple tree so they'll always have rosy cheeks. And a vegetable garden in the back. And there's fish in the rivers too, we can almost eat for nothing.
The River Trail comes through here, and the Wagon Road going to the Cariboo gold. And now they're prospecting up the Thompson River too. So there is a real future here. Now don't laugh, but you might even see a camel! Once the railroad is done there will be more settler people too. Families. Folks like us. You'll be able to sell your delicious pies to the travelers and miners. I know you'll love it here.
Lytton will be a good place for us to settle, Honey. I have promise of a long term job with the railroad company. We can make a good life. I will buy the building lot. I can't wait to get started.
Send me a return letter, no never mind, just get here as soon as you can. We are too young to be apart any longer.
You know I miss you.
God speed.
... I
would
love to see this beautiful old house preserved
by Lytton
as a heritage site,
or perhaps restored as a
tourist information center,
but I fear it will
disappear to developers soon.
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Alas, that is no longer possible. The fire raging
nearby approached the village and took only 20 minutes to turn it to
horrific flames. People had to jump into their cars and escape with what
they had on. About 250 lived there with about 1500 in the First Nations
community also evacuated with only minutes notice. 90% of the town was
burnt down as well as the Chinese History Museum. Artifacts of its record became ash.
Some say they will rebuild and start over again. Perhaps they will. The people of Lytton didn't live there because it was easy, they are hardy people who are not afraid of work and we hope they succeed.
Now I am glad I snapped this picture of what I named Lytton House, as it preserves a quiet memory for me, with thoughts of hope for the future, and perhaps a bit of our Lytton village for you too.
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