Hall’s Landing

Many of the stories of the valley south of Revelstoke are of people carving homesteads out of the wilderness, and creating farms in unlikely places. This is the story of Hall’s Landing – a farm that grew to be a large cattle ranch about 40 km south of Revelstoke.

A black-and-white photograph of four men and two dogs standing outside of a log home. The photo caption is on the lower left of the photograph.

The Hall family’s first log home before it was moved, ca. 1895. Willie, John, Dave, and Noah Hall. RMA photo 12238.

David and John Hall came to the area in the fall of 1890 and established a homestead, later joined by brothers Noah and William. When David died in 1942 at the age of 74, his obituary stated:

The farms around Sidmouth, which now embraces Hall’s Landing, have often been referred to by leading provincial agriculturalists as the finest in this part of the country.

The children of David and Noah Hall continued to ranch in the region. More families moved into the valley, and the expanded community was named Sidmouth. In 1942, it had a population of 110.

A colour photograph of a man and dog sitting on a wooden trailer attached to two black horse. A women is behind the trailer. The red barn and other farm buildings can be seen in the background.

Stanley Hall with his team ‘Bess; and ‘Girly’ on the Hall farm, 1956. RMA photo 12300. Photographer: Bessie Hankinson.

All of the families in Hall’s Landing and Sidmouth had to leave their land, and the communities were wiped out.

Over a period of several months in 1967 and 1968, the Hall families moved out of their lifelong homes. Family treasures were sold for a pittance to antique dealers, including the old family grandfather clock, unique goat skin chaps, saddles, and harnesses. Hall Bros. had a herd dispersal of their Hereford cattle breeding stock at the Kamloops Stock Yards.

Brian Gawiuk Interview – Discussing the Hall Family (captions available in both French and English). Enjoy this video with an English transcript.

A colourful photo of a man in a bulldozer moving big trees stumps. Another man stands in front of the bulldozer.

Piling dried stumps to the barn from clearing land. Jack Hall on ‘cat’, Stanley Hall beside, 1961. RMA photo 12319. Photographer: Bessie Hankinson.

The Halls still had grazing cattle on their meadows in 1968, but they had to be completely vacated by that October.

BC Hydro burned Stanley Hall’s corrals, despite an agreement to keep them intact until the cattle had been gathered. As the water started to rise, all of the cattle had not been found. A plane was hired to fly over and locate the last few, found stranded on an island.

A colourful landscape photo of cows scattered in a green field with mountains in the background.

Hall family cattle grazing the cleared land, looking to the SE towards Galena Bay in the far distance. Cleared to highwater level already, spring 1967. RMA photo 12384. Photographer: Barbara Hall.

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