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I found this on the Mennonite Historical Society's website it mentions if you read down about bass being caught in Sturgeon Slough back in the 1930's.
Fisheries did an analysis of the largemouth population by Pitt Lake they were invited to talk about the issue on Bill Good's radio show last year and they stated that the bass population has been there 50 plus years.
The Way We Were: Pitt Meadows and Rannies Ranch
by Helen Rose Pauls
In 1930, the Jacob and Anna Peters family reached Agassiz on the train from the prairies, hoping to settle here, but were unable to cross the Fraser River by ferry because it was frozen over. Chancey Eckert, who was the main facilitator of the Yarrow settlement, encouraged them to continue on the train to Pitt Meadows, where a few Mennonite families already lived. They decided to go westward and bought ten acres in the present townsite of Pitt Meadows where Abraham and Margeret Wiens as well as the John Martens family already lived.
The men and older boys of these families found work in the Hammond Sawmill, and in the local peat bog and factory. Some of the young women found positions in Vancouver as domestics and began to send much needed money home. Their acreages soon became hayfields and kitchen gardens.
At first, church services were held in the Peters' basement where a few families from Haney joined the Pitt Meadows group. Together with Christian families of other denominations, they erected a little church, which served as a school building as well, behind the general store.
In the mid thirties, the Mennonite Board of Colonization made arrangements for settlers to purchase pieces of a huge acreage on what is now Pitt Polder, from a millionaire named Mr. Rannie. This land was reclaimed lake bottom, protected by *****. The board, under the leadership of a Mr. Sawatsky, who also purchased land there, encouraged depression weary Mennonite farmers from the prairies to make down payments on these acreages. At least forty families with money were expected to settle there, but instead, ten without money arrived. The settlement, called Rannies Ranch, soon became known as Rainy Ranch.
The Rannie Ranch settlers attempted to develop an infrastructure, and a tiny store served them. Church services were held in various homes, and the Pitt Meadows Mennonites decided to join their group for services. A small school was established in a converted chicken barn. Abe Pankratz remembers the teacher, Mr. McRae and how he longed to taste his teacher's "store-bought white bread" sandwiches. He also remembers playing on log booms with the other boys and fishing for bass and bullheads in the Sturgeon Slough, a man-made canal nearby.
While they tried to establish a viable community, they also worked very hard to build up small dairy farms. Marie Peters Balzer remembers that her family purchased forty acres at Rannies Ranch as well, but they remained in their house near the Pitt Meadows townsite, traveling to the larger farm to look after the hay fields.
Apparently, many Japanese families farmed in the Pitt Meadows area as well, and Marie remembers that more than half the children in the Pitt Meadows school and about 80% of the children in the Hammond School were Japanese. Sometimes the Baptist pastor would give Marie and her sister a ride in his motorcycle sidecar to evening service at the Baptist Church, where many Japanese families attended. During the war, when the Japanese were disenfranchised and sent east to internment camps, some Mennonites rented their lands from the government. Marie recalls that her father bought a tractor from a Japanese farmer, and although he was supposed to pay the authorities, he managed to deal with the farmer directly.
When all of the Japanese farmers disappeared during the war, it was a sad time for the whole region, as many of the Mennonites had become good friends with them. Marie's father rented some of their land for strawberries and raspberries during this time, thinking that he was taking care of it until they returned. Little did he know the full story of their fate.
Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that the Rannies Ranch settlement could not continue. The land was too low, and the settlers did not have the resources to maintain roads or drainage systems. The soil was found to be extremely poor and swampy. "They couldn't make a go of it," says Marie, "and so they dispersed to other settlements, many to Mission or Vancouver. The whole community was dissolved." These hard working pioneers lost not only their land, which reverted back to Mr. Rannie, but also their last dollars which had been used for down payments. They moved to other communities, and found work wherever they could, often in sawmills or peat bogs, so that they could earn some ready cash to survive.
In the sixties, farmers from Holland drained the area for dairy farms and renamed it Pitt Polder. Recently, a prestigious golf course has been developed on Rannie Road called Swanieset Bay Resort and Country Club.
When I asked a former resident whether she had photos about anything depicting Rannies Ranch, she replied, "Photos? No, I don't think anyone had photographs. We were all too poor for pictures."
It sounds as if many more stories could be told about Pitt Meadows and Rannies Ranch, and we would enjoy hearing and sharing them. If anyone was a part of this settlement, or has stories about any other aspect of our history as Mennonites in B.C., please contact the archives or send a message to
[email protected]. ¤