Jack and Madeline Stanyer arrived in Burns Lake from Ontario with four neighbouring families in 1918. They spent the first winter at McKenna's roadhouse, at the time the Spanish flu was raging.
Jack obtained the first contract to cut railway ties at Francois Lake in 19'22. He also had the steam stern-wheeler The Enterprise, and the homemade side-wheeler The Pioneer. These were used to haul the railway ties down the lake.
Jack and Madeline spent some 25 years in the Francois Lake area all together and when they visited a few years ago, their house was still standing, although it had been abandoned.