Moving Clear Lake Lodge no small feat

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This article was published 07/07/2012 (5040 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ONANOLE — Imagine having to change a tire on a flatbed trailer carrying the 250,000-pound Clear Lake Lodge.

Kevin Anderson didn’t just have to change a flat tire — he had to change the entire rear axle that had snapped under the weight.

But the principle is the same. You always carry a spare axle. Then you jack it up the way you would a car.

You’re on your way again in half an hour, said Anderson, part of the family business Anderson Building Movers of Portage la Prairie, which has been moving large objects for more than 50 years.

The brown-and-white Clear Lake Lodge was always the first thing you’d see when driving into Riding Mountain National Park tourist town, Wasagaming — the operative word being was.

Not anymore.

The 16-room lodge now rests on a knoll just south of Onanole, along Highway 10 on the west side.

“They say if your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s not big enough,” said Cindy Shaurette, about her plans to convert the 16-room lodge into a bed and breakfast. That’s 16 rooms, each with its own bathroom. The two-storey lodge is 2,800 square feet per floor.

The building didn’t cost Shaurette and her husband Earl anything. The original Clear Lake Lodge owners, Wally and Debbie Geiler of Brandon, fancied putting individual cabins on the Wasagaming lot, and so planned to demolish the lodge, circa 1950s, if no one wanted it.

It was the move that was expensive. It cost $65,000.

That includes Anderson’s return later this month to hoist the building onto the narrow ledge of new basement foundation that was built for the lodge. The basement will add another 2,800 square feet, a banquet area with a bar, for a total of 8,400 square feet.

Cindy and Earl Shaurette moved here from Alberta in 2006. Earl is an oil drilling consultant in northern British Columbia. Whether he is based in Onanole or somewhere in Alberta, he still has to fly to work, Cindy said. So they made the move to Manitoba’s Parkland. Cindy, nee Schmidtke, is originally from Morden.

They bought a 36-acre lot outside Onanole and were planning to make it a campground. Then they scrapped that idea and hoped to subdivide it and sell the lots. Then they heard about the Clear Lake Lodge. Cindy also runs Shuttle Bug, a shuttle service in the park that includes a 21-seat bus and two passenger vans, and a linen rental service called Classic Linen.

The lodge has no insulation, as it was built for summer use only. The Shaurettes have to insulate the whole building, and replace the windows and siding. Even so, the moving and renovations should cost less than a new 1,500-square-foot house, Cindy maintained. All the original furniture and bedding and drapery, and even the piano, come with the building.

The couple will live in the lodge. Cindy couldn’t venture a guess as to when it will open but hopes they can move in this winter. It will cater to adults.

It’s the biggest move here since Sheldon and Eugenia Willey used a reciprocating saw and cut in half a cruise ship in Kelowna, transported it here and welded it back together again to make the Martese, the popular Clear Lake cruise ship.

As Clear Lake Lodge was being lifted from its mooring and hauled away, people lined the street and cheered — cheered the feat, not the lodge’s leaving.

But several things went wrong besides the broken axle. Because the truck didn’t have enough power in reverse, a loader was used to help pull it off the original lot. When the loader suddenly jack-knifed, the trailer, which had some momentum by that time, almost backed over it.

It took about six hours to travel the 10 kilometres to its new location, taking down road signs and overhead park signs, and raising and disconnecting hydro wires. Then, while the lodge was being hauled up a hill to the Shaurette site, it became stuck in the earth alongside the road, which is more like a cut in the hillside.

A front end loader had to level the earth out. Then a larger loader was used to help push the stopped trailer up the hill — in addition to the loader that was pulling it. In an amateur video (now posted online), the truck’s front wheels can be seen rearing up off the ground at a 30-degree angle, like a bucking bronco. It eventually made it up the hill.

» Winnipeg Free Press