On December 5, 1975, the Board of Directors of Buccaneer Bay Holdings Company resolved to create two new building sites to be known as Site lA and lB. Both were 58 feet wide and situated between Site 1 (the Calvert Simson Site) and Site 2 (then owned by David McTaggart). These new sites were the first created by the Holding company and  resulted from the desire of Bob and John Simson to have individual cabins.

 

Together they owned Site 69 at the north end of the company property, including the log dump and small island as a result of their father creating a trust for them. While Bob Senior wished  to build on that site, he unfortunately died before realizing that dream.

 

Bob unsuccessfully attempted to purchase two other sites with cabins. This resulted in several shareholders leading a movement to persuade Uncle Joe and the Holding Company to create two more sites next to site 1. The shareholders were thankful to the Simson family for the initial opportunity to be at Buccaneer Bay and agreed.

 

Wendy and I, with Sarah (1972) and Craig (1974), spent several summers in the cabin which now belongs to the Cowie's. This was a one room cabin build originally as a sleeping shack for Calvert Simson without kitchen or water. A Coleman stove and rain­ water were the order of the day.  In the summer of 1976, we rented the McLaughlin cabin, which had been the store in the Union Steamship days. Clearing of Site lA took place and plans were made to build in 1977.  Foundation work was done in April by Billy McDonnell, a resident hippie who had considerable carpentry skills. The materials were delivered in April 1977 to The Jolly Roger. There it was loaded onto Tag Nygard's equipment float and brought to the island. Because of the tides we only had 1 'hrs to complete the job.

 

The cabin was built to close up stage in three weeks, a remarkable feat, only accomplished by the contribution of many friends both from Buccaneer and elsewhere. My father-in-law, was the director of the job, Billy the major hand , and I just the monkey. The only trying experience concerned Craig (5 years) who was fond of the  generator and got his shirt caught in the fly-wheel. An inconvenient matter was that of the plans, which were tacked on a tree, and were obliterated in a rain storm. No Plans, No Problem! Inadvertently, I neglected to purchase the 12 x 12 posts for the support of the loft.  The answer to that was to borrow Jack McLennan's jeep, go to the farm and cut the posts holding up the collapsed barn.  This worked and they are there today.

 

Three months after building the cabin to its rudimentary state, I was in Sechelt buying supplies, I returned to find a stop work order on the front door.  A similar order had been placed on the newly created cabins of Bernard-Cornwall, McClaren, and Henderson. The building inspector in Sechelt, who was being harassed by a member of the regional district board, pointed to Buccaneer Bay and asked what illegal construc­ tion was going  on over there.  He had no choice but to come to the Bay and because we had no building  permits, place the stop work orders.  This eventually resulted in the land use agreement between the Holding Company, the Sechelt regional district, and the Islands Trust. The most interesting thing about this was when I asked the building inspector about what I  could do now, his response was I could protect by investment and you don't want me to  define what that means.  I completed the basic cabin.  Here we are in 1998 and it is still not finished and some of the original work needs to be replaced.

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