Cariboo Ranch Owner Dimps Horn | Locals in Nature’s Heartland

This is the Caribou. This is my home. And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It feels so good to have those connections with local farmers. I've done some fun things. I never do this. I am Dimms Horn. I'm owner-operator of Watch Lake Lodge. And I've lived here for 75 of the 78 years of my lifetime. Right now we're situated in the Caribou. An hour and 15 minutes from Williams Lake and just east of 70 Milehouse. I love this place. First of all, physically, it's beautiful. It's an open, and the Caribou Plateau is such an open and free place to be. I don't ever feel contained or unsafe. Watch Lake to me is home. I don't ever want to be anywhere else. We've got everything we need. It keeps me active. It keeps my mind thinking. I'm always thinking of improving things too. Not necessarily to make it grow. I don't want anything to do with it being big or anything like that. I just want it to be like it is and to keep it like it is and to be successful and keep going for whoever knows how long. When Mom and Dad bought the place in 1950, there was seven original cabins, log, all hand-built by the Mobs family. And this was the last cabin that was built in 1938. And it was built by Mr. and Mrs. Mobs and their four kids. And they started out being the resort being more of a fishing and hunting camp than it is like we have it today. It's basically trail riding today and vacations and families. They bought horses and started the trail riding. It was just small at the beginning until it grew to what it is today. We always had cattle, but it was just a few if I remember. When we were a kid, there was maybe 15 or 20 head of cows. So you had your own beef because everything then wasn't just run to the store and buy what you needed, right? We hunted and that kind of thing, so we raised our beef. And I would never have the beef I have today without the resort because you don't make a living on 100 head of beef, right? So I always have said that the resort has allowed me to have my habit and pay for my habit. I bet you I've ridden around this world twice in all of my years and chasing little kids around and big people and encouraging them to get better. And I love that. To me, Dimps is the most capable, organized, regimented person that I know today. When I sit on that front porch and watch her saddle those horses and put all those people on, there's nobody like her. She's just very capable of doing that. I take my hat off to her for this many years, too. I love people, yeah, and I'll do all I can to help them get to where they want to be. Takes a lot of energy, but it's worth every penny. There have been challenging times here in the last few years, especially with the Elephant Hill Fire of 2017. And that year we were evacuated on July the 7th, I think it was, when the evacuation orders came in and our camp was full. The horses were all shod. All those spring wages are paid and that kind of thing. We were out from July the 7th to September the 14th or something, 72 days. There was no money coming in. But in a way, at that time, that wasn't the worry, I guess, because maybe it didn't matter whether there was no money coming in. There might not be a place when it was all said and done, right? My guests did do a fundraiser for me in the Cloverdale Rodeo Hall in September, after it was all over. It covered all of the insurances, all of the electrical bills. So it was a saving grace. My personal saying is, there's not very many bad days. There's a few bad days. There might be a lot of hard days, but there's lots and lots of good days. I love my staff. And they're very supportive of me. I mean, I couldn't do it without them. Don't get me wrong. I mean, this is a place that needs them. So, no, I love my staff. They're very good. They support me in every way they can. And maybe some ways they make it easy for me to do this. Maybe I am a spoil. I don't know. Because I'm not sure, even what's going to happen to this place when I am 78 years old, and I think I'm a pretty good 78 years old, and I think I'm still doing okay. That might be questionable to some other people. I don't know. But I think I'm good. I still love what I'm doing. I'm still able, physically and mentally able to do it. So, I'm hoping I have a few more years here. But, and you know, I guess because I've been here all my life, I sort of, I never have a want to go anywhere else. It's home. It's just home to me. And this is a stopping place in time. You know, everybody stops in here. The door's always open. There's always somebody here. So, to me, that is the caribou. It's just the people and the land and what it's provided for me. Like, how could I be so lucky to live here?