CYPRESS HILLS, Sask. — When W.D. and Alice Reesor built their ranch home in 1916, they couldn’t have foreseen how many people would come to know and love it.
Eighty-five years after it was built, the Historic Reesor Ranch is home to the family’s fourth and fifth generations and a vacation spot for others.
Feel like rounding up some cattle? Hiking? Birdwatching? Scott and Theresa Reesor offer that and more at the working ranch they also operate as a bed-and-breakfast.
“I consider myself a rancher,” Scott said. “The ranch work has to come first.”
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But their adventure packages, the Old Cow Barn that hosts all types of functions, and a private log cabin are becoming popular and taking more of their time. That doesn’t seem to bother them.
“Both Theresa and I are people-oriented,” Scott said. “We like sharing our lives and learning about their way of life.”
Last year they hosted about 300 guests. They have had well-known people like Preston Manning and former NHL hockey player Jim Peplinski stay with them. Visitors come from Europe and Australia.
Their three children — Jason, Joan and Leanne — take it all in stride.
Theresa home-schools the children and they are quite used to strangers at the breakfast table.
“It’s just so great keeping them at home,” Theresa said. “It’s a wonderful way to raise your family.”
Scott and Theresa took over the bed-and-breakfast from Scott’s mother, who started it in 1991.
He is one of seven siblings raised in what he calls “the big house.”
It was built to accommodate two families, W.D. and Alice, and one of their sons, Frank, and his wife Hazel, and contains two kitchens, two living rooms and two stairways. It was also one of the first in the area to have electricity and running water. The house reflects the eastern Canadian style the early Reesors knew.
“W.D. was raised in an affluent home,” Theresa said.
The history of the family and the area is felt as soon as one walks through the door. The Reesors have taken particular care with family heirlooms and artifacts.
Each of the guest bedrooms is named for family members and contains original furnishings, marriage certificates and old photographs. On one living room wall hangs a framed invitation to an Ottawa ball. It was sent to Scott’s great-great-grandfather, David Reesor, who was a Canadian senator.
“The history and heritage seems to strike a chord in people,” said Scott. “The history of this leg of the family has been preserved here so well. The Depression-era generation saved and stored everything. To us, it was a treasure.”
Scott has captured the flavor of the Cypress Hills and ranch life in his cowboy poetry, which he recites for guests. The history extends outdoors to teepee rings and buffalo wallows on native grass.
The ranch originally included 10 sections and 500 cow-calf pairs. Over time it has been divided among family members and Scott now runs about 150 head of cattle.
Ranch visitors can participate in calving, branding, fencing and a cattle drive into the Cypress Hills Park.
“We’re trying to move more toward the adventures,” Theresa said.
“We want people to stay more than one night and enjoy what we have here. So many people who come here are tense the first night and seem to relax more the longer they stay.”
While the guests are relaxing, it seems like a whole lot of work for the Reesors. In addition to cooking, cleaning, planning and the regular ranch work, the family bottles and sells water from Reesor Springs. They also used to operate a sawmill on their property.
Scott said the different enterprises all ensure the financial viability of the ranch. Everything is done with the environment in mind.
“Most people leave here with a greater appreciation for the birds and flowers,” he said.
This year, they are exploring helicopter tours of the Cypress Hills. They have a new website, and added a guestroom when Jason moved to Medicine Hat, Alta., to apprentice as a welder.
“They have to go find their own space and place in life,” Scott said of the children.
“I left for 15 years and I never imagined I would be the one living in the big house.”
