From its humble beginnings in 1973, a Williams Lake company that handcrafts log homes continues to do so 50 years later.
“My stepdad was a trapper here in Williams Lake and we use to stay in a little trappers cabin on weekends,” Bryan Reid, Founder of Pioneer Log Homes said, “At the time fifty years ago we had a lot of temperatures that were about fifty below zero and if it hadn’t been for that cabin we probably would have perished so I thought it was a pretty security, and a wonderful way to live.”
Looking back Reid said when the company started out, it was himself and Samson Jack, the one person in the area that he could find that had experience in building log houses.
“Back then there were plenty of sawmills in town and people had gone to building frame houses. The years of building log houses had passed, and they were kind of looked down upon maybe, but to me, I thought it was a wonderful way to live with nature and the logs were natural around you. My friends in school told me don’t do that, build a frame house, we’ll have it all framed up in a couple of days but I was too stubborn,” Reid said.
He added it was then he built his first log home for himself which took almost 8 months working weekends and nights.
Since 1973, Pioneer has grown and built thousands of homes around the globe, including the largest one in the world at 117,000 square feet in Colorado.
They also set a Guinness World Record for building the fastest motorized log which Reid says wasn’t the intention.
“The idea of building the car was not really to get a Guinness Record it was secondary. The idea was to build it, take to Barrett-Jackson, the most recognized car auction in the world for unique and special cars, and to sell it and donate all the proceeds to veterans. That’s what we did, in Canadian dollars it was almost half a million and we donated every nickel to veterans groups.”
Reid noted they could have worked anywhere in the world, like Arizona, New York, building houses but chose Williams Lake because of the wonderful workforce, great climate, and people.
“I love my choice of career and would never wish for any changes.”