It was once the location of a top-secret military project; today it’s a charming family-run resort that is still one of Jasper’s best-kept secrets.
Tucked away from the throngs of tourists in town, Patricia Lake Bungalows is the ideal location for anyone looking for some peace and quiet—including the military.
During the Second World War, Patricia Lake was chosen as the location for a top-secret project code-named “Habakukk.” The project was the vision of England’s wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who wanted to build a ship of ice that would allow planes to land, refuel and continue on their missions to protect merchant ships.
“The Habakukk was a World War II project that was developed between the U.S., Canada and the British military,” explained Dwayne D’Heer, who owns the resort with his wife Sue. This season marks the D’Heer family’s 50th year of ownership of the resort.
“A gentleman named Geoffrey Pyke had come up with an interesting way of combining sawdust, salt water and refrigeration to artificially create a floating iceberg that they could shape anyway they wanted to for military purposes.”
The proposed dimensions for the vessel were 2,000 feet long by 300 feet wide and 200 feet deep. To power the boat and prevent it from melting, the ship would have needed 20 electric motors and more than 120 tonnes of diesel oil per day.
According to at least one document, the ship was designed to hold 200 Spitfires and 100 Mosquito bombers as well as more than 1,000 crewman.
While it might sound like an impossible feat of engineering, the military eventually created a prototype at Patricia Lake.
“It was very top-secret,” said Dwayne. “This whole area up here was pretty much closed while it was being built and even some of the people that we’ve met that worked on it, that have come back to this area many, many years later, a lot of them didn’t really understand what was being worked on.”
According to Dwayne, many of people who worked on the project came from Hutterite and Mennonite communities that refused to take up active duty during the Second World War.
To house the work crews, several log cabins were built, including two cabins which are still in use today—albeit with renovations and upgrades.
Despite successfully building a fully operational prototype, by 1943 it was decided the project was no longer needed, so the Habbakuk was stripped of its reusable parts before it was sunk it to the bottom of Patricia Lake.
Today, the resort runs Jasper Dive Adventures, taking divers up to 90 feet below the surface to check out the sunken wreckage. Nathan D’Heer, the family’s eldest child, started the company four years ago.
“He opened it up as a little side business to allow people access to the Habbakuk,” said Dwayne, who is also a dive instructor.
“It’s just about entry-level tech diving, because you’re diving at altitude and you’re diving in extremely cold water. The water at 90 feet never changes temperature. It’s four degrees Celsius 365 days a year,” explained Dwayne, adding the entire family dives.
After the Habbakuk was sunk, the area around the lake became an auto camp for travellers and campers. In the mid-1950s, the Houg family purchased the leasehold from Parks Canada and built the majority of the cottages that are still in use today.
Fast-forward to June 1966: Maria D’Heer, Dwayne’s grandmother, was visiting a friend in Jasper when she heard Patricia Lake Bungalows was going up for sale.
After visiting the cabins, Maria decided to take a chance and purchased the business with her son Steve and his wife Lucille.
During the spring and fall, the family tended its farm near Edmonton, then returned to Jasper in the summer to run the resort. After three years the family decided to sell their farm to focus on the resort.
For Steve and Lucille, and their three children—including Dwayne—Patricia Lake quickly became a beloved summer home.
In December of 1988, Dwayne and his wife Sue decided to leave their farm and moved to Jasper to take over the family business and start a new life.
Since then the resort has undergone several renovations, including a major expansion, which added 10 higher end units to the five-acre resort. Today the hotel has a capacity of approximately 156 guests and operates from May 1 to mid-October.
“We have guests that have come for 50 years and we still have them coming,” said Sue, adding one guest has been visiting the resort for 56 years, longer than the family has owned the business.
Without a bar and restaurant, you might think guests would stay away, but that’s exactly why they come year-after-year, explained Sue.
“We get a lot of people that want to get away from everything,” she said, adding the resort’s weak Wifi connection allows people to disconnect.
“It’s amazing how many people just want peace and quiet and that’s what we sell.”
In addition to the tranquil atmosphere, the family also takes pride in treating their guests as if they’re part of the family.
During Thanksgiving, for example, the resort offers guests the option to rent the same cabin year-after-year, creating a lifetime bond between the D’Heer family and their guests.
“It’s such a fun weekend,” said Sue, explaining there’s a long list of people who want to rent a cabin every year.
Over the years, both of Dwayne and Sue’s children, Nathan and Amanda, have been involved in the operation of the resort.
According to Sue, Nathan will likely take over as the manager of the resort in the not so distant future.
However, Dwayne said he enjoys puttering too much to ever stop helping out.
“We’ll never be completely hands off.”
Paul Clarke
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