This date also marks the completion of the last leg of the first transcontinental rail line of the Canadian Pacific Railway from Montreal to Vancouver.

In response to booming demand for beef in rapidly growing Vancouver, the Interior stock industry went into high gear in the wake of the railway's opening, spurring on something of a golden age in BC ranching.

In 1907 the Nicola branch line of the CPR was built into the Nicola Valley to serve the booming stock operation at Douglas Lake, which was already one of the country's largest and for many years second only to the sprawling Gang Ranch on the west side of the Fraser, which has since shrunk in scale, leaving the Douglas Lake as the largest.

By the turbulent times during the Depression era caused costs of ranching to rise by early 1900 standards.

Spencer and Ross sold Douglas Lake Ranch to Charles (Chunky) Woodward and John West in 1959.

Present Day Douglas Lake Cattle Ranch The ranch includes leased grazing land as well as directly leased or titled lands and extends to the edge of metropolitan Kamloops and towards Shuswap Lake, spanning most of the high country of the northeastern Thompson Plateau.

[6] In addition, Douglas Lake Ranch has a staff of cowboys that are responsible for the movement and well-being of up to 20,000 head of cattle.

Douglas Lake Ranch also produces a variety of forage crops from grass, alfalfa to barley, oats and corn.

It has been claimed that early on, the ranch's land holdings were expanded by pressing large amounts of cattle into the pastures of smaller neighbours.

Douglas Lake Cattle Company has also aggressively restricted access to both private and public lands.

By buying up thin strips of land along major arteries they are able to control wide tracts of public range.

A group of outdoorsmen were threatened with criminal charges over a dispute over access to lakes on the cattle ranch.

Supreme Court Justice Joel Groves and the outdoor enthusiasts won over backcountry access in 2018.

Supreme Court sided with the largest private landowner in the province, the Douglas Lake Cattle Company.