In 1938 Stan Stanyar & Vi Lochnan discovered and fell in love with Lac Letourneau & the area. They bought their first hundred acres and built Manawan Lodge, a magnificent log structure with eight bedrooms. As well as falling in love with the area, they fell in love with each other, they married in 1939 and their honeymoon was spent at the lake.
They had a dream to operate Manawan lodge as a country resort , and share their love of the land with guests. The dream died with the outbreak of W.W.II.
When Stan returned from overseas, Manawan was used as the family cottage only.
It was not only the summer home, but was the weekend and holiday home to the family.
It was a wonderful almost magical time and place to the three children; Susan, Jane, and John.
Friends were always welcome and more often than not there were extra places at the breakfast
table. Vi and Stan continued to buy land and eventually accumulated over seven hundred acres,
with land on three lakes. The Lake (as the family calls it) has always been home to us and the
gathering point where we would all get together over the years.
Stanley Stanyar was also a 1932, ALL-TIME CANADIAN OLYMPIC MEDAL WINNER, Bronze in rowing eights.
Fifty -five years later Vi & Stan's dream is alive again through John and Lucy with the opening of Stanyar House Bed & Breakfast. John & Lucy built their house on the exact spot that Manawan Lodge stood and in between the same two large pine trees.
You can e-mail me at