The X-L is a 200 acre family-run ranch near the tiny rural community of Jaffray in the south-eastern corner of British Columbia. It has 165 head of Simmental and Red Angus cattle, 120 acres in hay, and another 30 acres in pasture. Vital to its success is 7000 acres of crown rangeland which is adjacent to the home ranch. The story of the ranch is much more than the story of the land and the livestock or the simple chronology of events that makes up its particular history. It is even more than the story of the family who created and still operates it. The progress of the X-L is a reflection of the much larger saga of late 19th century North American settlement patterns, ethnic and social values, and technological changes throughout the 1900s. Perhaps the only thing that has remained constant over time is the independent spirit of family members as they choose to remain on this land and to persevere in the lifestyle associated with ranching.

The X-L was established in 1944 by Elmer and Mary Matson, but the story begins a generation earlier with Elmer's parents. Gabriel and Hilda Mattson, Scandinavian immigrants to the United States in the late 1800s, were the first of the family to settle in Jaffray. Gabriel was born in 1859 in Korsnas, Finland. The Finland Gabriel left behind was a sparsely settled land of lakes and forest and the men and women who lived there were reputed to be hardy, honest, independent and strong. Rural isolation nurtured Finnish individuality, taciturnity, and lifestyle. Men lived by hunting, fishing and trapping and families resided in one-room log houses made of interlocking timbers. The construction technique of "dove-tailed" corners , imported to North America, became the recognizable mark of a home built by a Scandinavian settler. Many settlers were experienced loggers and farmers who grew oats, barley, rye, hay and root crops of turnips, beets and potatoes on Finland farms. Bears, wolves and elk inhabited the forests. Skating, hockey, ice fishing and skiing--which the Finns are reputed to have invented--were common recreations. Finland was, in short, not unlike Jaffray, British Columbia, and Finnish settlers adapted to Canadian life quite easily.

The
Story
of
the
X-L
Ranch

Jaffray BC

By Katherine McCauley
Kootenay Livestock
Association 1999