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Dorothy’s Stormy Lake Part V

The biggest event in the 1950s was the arrival of electric power to Walkers Landing.  Dorothy documented the building of the tower for the transmission lines across Kootenay Lake as well as their own efforts to become an electrified household. The isolation of the East shore of  Kootenay Lake disappears as the Bluebell mine brings an influx of new people and life took on new dimensions. Some needed help building homes so Bobby put his carpenter skills to use. School location and transportation became local issues. There was a strike at the mine.  New groups were formed including PTA, Girl Guides, and a Hobby club. People kept arriving at Walkers Landing for both short and longs stays. There were immigrants from war torn Europe searching for a new life and a group of Californians looking for wilderness living. The Sons of Freedom stepped up their acts of terrorism. Dorothy had a life threatening illness which forced a move away from the shore of her stormy lake.  This is the final book in the series.

Background of the Dorothy's Stormy Lake Series
Born in England in the late 1890s, Dorothy Douglas immigrated to the United States in her early teens, graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of California at Berkeley. She then studied art in Belgium, taught school in the Philippine Islands, and traveled throughout the world. After receiving her master's degree, Dorothy spent the next several years as a social worker in the 
San Francisco area. It was there she met Bobby Graham Brown who had immigrated to Canada from England in the 1920s. Dorothy married Bobby in San Francisco in 1930 after a long courtship and moved to Kootenay Lake in British Columbia where Bobby had purchased property. Dorothy's city life had ill-prepared her for the rigors of rural life in a sparsely populated has-been mining region where they depended on a small creek for electricity and water. Their only means of transport was a small boat on a very large and stormy lake. Dorothy's deep love for her husband, her positive attitude, and her eagerness to learn made up for her lack of domestic experience. She welcomed the challenges of their new life with enthusiasm and quick wit. In detailed letters, Dorothy told of learning to cook, mend and attend to the dozens of daily chores necessary in order to survive. She described the unique and sometimes eccentric people who lived around the lake, and she revealed the occasional loneliness she accepted as part of life in an isolated area. Dorothy saved a copy of each letter she wrote and these copies comprise her colorful, insightful and personal record of life in the backwoods.

Joan Wooliver Joan Wooliver, Dorothy's older daughter was born in British Columbia in 1930.  During her early years she was home-schooled but her parents wanted her to have a more formal education so sent her to high school and university in Washington State.  Upon completion of her education, she moved to Alaska where she met George Wooliver.  They were married in 1956 and built a home in a largely undeveloped area outside of Anchorage, Alaska.  With a wood stove, hauling water in five-gallon cans from town and three children in diapers, Joan relied on the frontier spirit she had absorbed while growing up. In 1964 Joan and George added running water and central heating.  They still live in the home they carved out of the woods.  Now retired from her home-based craft business, Joan currently spends  time volunteering throughout the community and playing with her grandchildren.

Brenda G. Dau Brenda Dau, the younger of Dorothy’s two daughters, was born in 1940 at the start of this journal.  She attended school in Ainsworth and Crawford Bay, then went on to earn a college degree from the University of Idaho where she met her husband Gary Dau. The couple kept Brenda’s ties with Kootenay Lake by purchasing a lake lot at Gray creek where they and their two boys enjoyed many vacations.  Now third generation Fritz Dau has built a new cabin at Gray Creek and is enjoying sailing along with other recreational activities. The fourth generation is also finding out the fun of visiting their grandmother Brenda and Uncle Fritz at their great grandmother’s stormy lake