1904 - 1964

Accounts of the origin of the Smith-Baker cabin are numerous and fragmented, but on certain points coincide. Here are some of the pieces that make up the puzzle of the beginning of our cabin's history.  Maybe the reader can fill in some of the holes...

 

1. Most likely built after WWII, ours was the last cabin to be built prior to the sale of the property by Joe Simson to Buccaneer Bay Holdings Ltd. ("BBH")

2. Our cabin was constructed using material salvaged from the farm.... or

3. It was the old farmhouse and was towed lock, stock and barrel from the farm to its present site (one piece of evidence suggesting the cabin is the original farmhouse, is the fact that the entire cabin is wired for electricity.)

4. Whether it was built on, reassembled at, or hauled intact to its present site its initial purpose was to act as a home for the caretakers of Joe Simson's property.

5. Wilfred and Grace Wilshire were the first occupants of the cabin at this site and acted as caretakers for Joe Simson.  Exact years of their occupancy are not known.

6. A Vancouver lawyer by the name of Bird (Owen Bird & Co.) rented the cabin for several years as a vacation home.

 

1964 - 1998

At the point the property was purchased by BBH, the cabin was likely owned by Joe Simson. A purchaser was required for the site when the sale of property was carried out. George McTaggart, owner of several other cabins at the same time, brought in a purchaser by the name of Woody Duff, a resident of San Francisco, CA. Duff was an absentee owner, who only occasionally visited B.C.. On one occasion, he sailed from Vancouver to Buccaneer Bay in an authentic Chinese Junk, one of several that he had imported into Canada. One of the passengers on this trip was a young Pauline Baker, George McTaggart's niece.

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Who may have occupied the cabin during the summer months of Duff's ownership is unclear, though it is possible that the Bird family continued to rent the cabin during that time. However, in the early 70's, Dave McTaggart (youngest of George McTaggart's two sons) occupied the cabin on a year-round basis.  David had become involved in the Green Peace movement by chartering out his boat, the "Vega", with himself as skipper, to protest nuclear testing in the South Pacific. After a violent encounter with the French Navy, Dave withdrew to Buccaneer Bay to lick his wounds and write his account of Green Peace's efforts to stem the tide of nuclear proliferation in the coral atolls of the South Seas.  The book was aptly entitled  'Outrage'.

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At this point in our narrative, there is some doubt as to how property transactions were sequenced. We believe that Woody Duff still owned the cabin in 1973 while David McTaggart occupied it. Woody Duff made public his intention to sell the cabin. George McTaggart informed his niece, Barbara Smith (nee Baker) that a cabin was available for sale. There were two parties who were interested in purchasing the cabin: 1. Bob Simson, an existing BBH member and 2. Barb Smith (nee Baker) and Fraser Baker, niece and nephew of George McTaggart. As Woody Duff had the right to choose which member of BBH he would sell his cabin to, he chose McTaggart who immediately passed on the option to buy to Barb Smith and Fraser Baker.

 

From 1974, when the cabin was purchased by the Smith-Baker partnership, until Barb's death in 1994, the cabin was occupied all summer by the two families. Since 1994, both families (including Lynne Westwood who married Brian Smith (in 1996) have continued to use the cabin on a regular basis.  The families who are a part of the Baker-Smith cabin and who enjoy the camaraderie of Buccaneer Bay, as of the summer of 1998 are:

 

Fraser and Michelle Baker

• Vikki Baker

• Stephanie (nee Baker) and Greg Running

• Allison (nee Baker) and Bill Majewski

• Michael Baker

 

Brian and Lynne (nee Westwood)  Smith

• Kyle and Leslie (nee Cramp) Smith

• Craig and Julia (nee Clark) Smith

• Karen Smith

• Fraser Smith

 

Pauline Baker

• Zoe Baker-Clark

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