Delta Co-operative

View Story By: THEME | SECTOR | TIMELINE

The Delta Co-op of Argenta:

Memory, Quakerism, and Co-operative Studies

in British Columbia during the 1950s

In its essence, Co-operation is not an economic system or device, but a Movement, by means of mutual self-help, seeking to improve the quality of mankind.  It has the capacity, it is true, to provide a better living, and the improve the environment of the people, but to the end that opportunities may thereby be provided for the living of better lives.  Man surely has as much right as a plant to an environment best suited to the cultivation of the qualities inherent in him. [sic][1]

At the north end of Kootenay Lake in the south-east corner of British Columbia lies Argenta, a small rural community in the Lardeau Valley where a group of American Quakers established the Delta Co-operative Association in 1954.  Named after the delta of the Duncan River on which the main farm was developed, Delta Co-op was a cross between a worker co-op and an intentional community.

In the summer of 1952, three Quaker families had immigrated from the United States to live, work, and raise their families in Argenta.  Within two years four other families arrived to work with the Quakers.  They joined the existing community, building homes, establishing farms, and constructing a Friends (Quaker) Meetinghouse.  These families worshipped together, cared for each other, and were involved in each other’s daily lives.  There was a growing concern, however, among some people in the Friends Meetings that if they were serious about loving and caring for each other, they had to have an economic base.[2] 

This group wanted to organise a way of structuring their work, lives, and local economy in a just and equitable manner that was based on meeting daily needs and that benefited the common good.  All of the adults had previous experience with co-operatives.  Some had lived in co-operative communities, been part of food co-operatives, and knew of agricultural co-operation.  Familiarity with the co-operative movement meant they knew the many ways co-ops could meet economic and social needs.  This combined with the moral notion that words without deeds are dead (meaning that saying you love and care about someone while operating in an oppressive and impoverishing economic system is problematic), was the inspiration for the formation of Delta Co-op.

The question of how to make a living in a place where transportation was by water and markets were largely inaccessible had always been an issue.  Argenta was first settled at the turn of the century when a flood of prospectors searching for rich lodes of ore invaded the area.  Like many boom and bust towns in British Columbia, Argenta was fueled by speculation and big dreams. Buildings sprang up, among them a two-story hotel with a long bar built beside the lake; cabins to house “women for the convenience of the men” were constructed on the hillside.  After a few years the prospectors left for more lucrative fields.

In 1912, the first of several homesteading families arrived to eke out a living by farming and logging on the bench land above the lake.  They had been lured to the area by real estate agents who were promoting the Kootenays as a fruit growing region.  However, it would be the Okanagan rather than Argenta that became the “fruit garden of the world.”  This recurring up-and-down cycle would typify Argenta’s economy for the next eighty years.

By 1954, seven families had immigrated to Argenta.  John and Helen Stevenson and George and Mary Pollard with their children were the first two Quaker families to arrive.  They scouted the area to find a place where several families could settle as families yet could work together in financial enterprises.  They found Argenta and purchased 300 acres at ten dollars an acre.

Each of the seven families immigrated for different reasons, but all were responding to broader themes in Western society of the 1950s: Cold War tensions, McCarthyism, segregation in the American South, and the corporate takeover of family farms.  It was as though “…the United States was a carpet being gradually pulled backward faster than we were moving forward.”[3]  John and Helen Stevenson had both been schoolteachers in California but refused to take California’s loyalty oaths, which required all state employees to swear that they were not, and had never been, associated with communists.  The Stevensons had lived in a close community in Tracy, California with Bob and Ruth Boyd, John and Anne Rush and several other families. In Tracy, the Boyds, Stevensons and Rushs had been involved in helping establish an integrated residential neighbourhood that included whites, Japanese, African-Americans, and Mexicans.[4] The family of Bob and Ruth Boyd, the third Quaker family to arrive in Argenta, had been farmers in Tracy for about fifteen years, and watched small farms become swallowed up by large corporations.  They wanted to do small-scale farming in an area where a group of families were in control.  Thus, the injustices of 1950s America formed the backdrop against which Delta Co-op emerged.

The discussions that led to the formation of Delta Co-op began in the fall of 1954.  The long Lardeau Valley nights were spent discussing ideas and sorting out the co-op's rules and bylaws. Figuring out ways to make money was key, but not at any cost.  The group wanted to develop businesses that were appropriate to the Argenta community, and that complied with family relationships and their relationship with God.  But behind the rules and bylaws of a co-operative association were the principles, philosophies and spiritual dimensions that formed the backbone of Delta Co-op.

The members tried to create an environment where the freedom of the individual was maintained, and the interdependence of the families in the group was encouraged.  They wanted to have “that polarity of individual freedom and group security.”[5]  The seven families would maintain some autonomy but also come together as a larger group to function as a co-operative.  Maintaining individual freedom was important; members wanted to create an environment where individuals would experience personal growth and be creative, yet be able to stand alone.  They considered the family as the basic social unit, and wanted the functioning of Delta Co-op to reflect this.  They knew they needed each other as friends, as a group who undertook corporate worship as well as business, and in the search for God as a corporate body.[6]

Group interdependence would be reflected in Delta Co-op through sharing saleries to some degree, working on projects together, and ensuring that each of the families had enough money to survive.  In 1960, a writer and photographer from Macleans magazine came to Argenta to do a story on the community with a focus on the recently arrived Quakers.  The Delta members explained to the reporter that they “farm, build, and log together … with their actions shaped by a group process and by an underpinning faith in each other.”[7]  The members stressed that “Delta [was] more than a business organisation in that it [sought] to draw on the idealism and religious resources of its members.  The goal [was] to integrate the life of the spirit and the economic life so that they become functional parts of the whole life.”[8]

Underlying the core principles of family autonomy and group interdependence were the larger questions concerned with building a way of life.  Delta Co-op members pondered whether they could contribute solutions to the world’s larger problems and demonstrate a meaningful way of life.  Education was central.  They wanted education to have some role in the co-op, but how exactly this would take place was unclear at the co-op’s inception.  Ultimately, the members believed that their co-op must “become a leaven or die,” following the biblical parable.  The economic order being promoted in the United States did not comply with biblical teaching.  They asked themselves the following questions:   “How do we find economic freedom in our society which is not limited to the privileged few?  How do we provide continuity of relationships in a society where materialism is king?  How do we remove the seeds of war from ourselves and point to peace built on brotherhood [sic] and reverence? Where is the bread in which we may become the leaven?”[9]

This philosophy and co-operative thought formed the foundation upon which the structure and organisation of Delta Co-op was built.  The co-op made decisions by the kind of consensus used by Quakers (Friends Method).  Most members were opposed to a common purse but did favour some degree of salary sharing. Therefore, members who were paid gave 3/5 to the co-op and 2/5 went to their families.  Men’s work was considered equal to that of women’s, which meant that women who worked outside the home contributed 3/5 to the co-op.  Each adult received thirty dollars a month with five dollars extra given for each child.  Families then lived on about seventy-five dollars a month which, even in those days, was not much money.  It was mainly the men who worked for pay, but regardless of the project, no wage hierarchy existed.  All the men worked for the same wage whether they dug ditches or drew plans.[10]

Taken from the Delta Co-op papers, the general structural framework in which the co-op functioned is shown below:

·        Corporate business is conducted according to Friends Method of business—family style. 

·        All corporate income funds are distributed by group decision.

·        Available capital equipment is used according to group decision.

·        Available capital funds are used according to group decision.

·        Work and project management is organised on the basis of delegated authority.

·        Everyone’s labour is recognized and generally apportioned by group decision.

·        Members in addition to our present group of seven families are asked to accept the position of participant observer for some time before taking important part in group decision. 

·        We seek to provide for constructive change in our corporate business relationship, or in our membership.[11]

The co-op’s structure and organisation, shaped by underpinning philosophies and values, formed the basis upon which economic activities would be carried out.

Earning money on the north end of Kootenay Lake was never easy.  Either by boat or car, Argenta was still many hours from the next major centre, making access to markets difficult.  Transporting goods down the lake was time-consuming, labourious, and sometimes hazardous, and Argenta’s famous mosquito season added to the complexities.   The establishment of an economic base was a primary concern for the members of Delta Co-op.  Following their values and philosophies, the members wanted to create an economic base grounded in fulfilling basic needs.

In the early autumn meetings of 1954, the members considered several projects that would include all of the members of the group.  Ideas such as food processing, a beef slaughterhouse, textile production, a sawmill, poultry business, and fruit growing were investigated.  In the process, members took up many contracts offered by logging and farming companies, as well as teaching jobs and government projects.  Helen Stevenson taught in the Argenta School, a one-room schoolhouse from grades one through ten.  Most of the men worked together on the outside projects.  They built roads, wharves and houses.  They logged and developed land for farming.[12]

Often members of Delta Co-op worked with other community residents on projects that attested to the informal co-operative structure underlying Argenta.  One of the major private projects that took place in Argenta was the construction of a power plant in 1957 by Hugh Elliot.  Elliot was a co-op member and an engineer.  Independently wealthy, Elliot provided the capital required to construct the power plant.  Delta Co-op members and others received their electricity via “Elliot Power,” as it became known.  A few years ago, Elliot sold the power company for a $1 and it became the Argenta Water Power Co-op.  Today, several Argenta residents are still served by “Elliot Power.”[13]

However, after a few years of negotiating contracts and trying to establish an economic base, Delta members realised that of the twenty-three adults who lived in Argenta, seventeen had previous experience in a classroom.  Obviously, they thought, their main project should be education.

The Friends meeting formed a School Committee to explore the feasibility of building a high school in Argenta.  After two years of consideration, plans evolved for a school under the care of the Friends Meeting.  The school would parallel the continuing work of Delta Co-op.  As an alternative school, it would offer university preparative courses for students in Grades 11 and 12.  Students would live with families and would be integrated into the activities of that family and the Argenta community.

Teenagers from around BC, elsewhere in Canada, the States, and overseas came to the Argenta Friends School (AFS) and some still remain in the community.  Perhaps one of the most important educational situations that AFS offered was to experimentally learn to make decisions using consensus on issues which were important to them.  Students participated with the adults in determining curricula, school policies, finances, outings, and much more.  In sharing these responsibilities they learned to work with the consequences of their actions.  Over the next few years, AFS became the primary focus for some Delta members.

In the mid-60s, the energy of original Delta members gradually dispersed as Delta still had not found a sustaining economic base.  Members were still committed to the dream, but felt financially pinched as cars wore out and children grew up.  In a final two-hour meeting, the assets of Delta were divided and members parted as friends.  Before long other Argenta residents took advantage of the umbrella nature of Delta’s structure and set up a small business, making outdoor gear, including sleeping bags (not a bad idea but a shade too early, as the success for this co-operative venture would be given to the folks that started Mountain Equipment Co-op in 1971).  Delta  Co-op itself continued for a short while with different people and a different product, while the Quakers immersed themselves in the Friends School until the Meeting closed it in 1983.  Because the original Delta members believed in the co-op structure, they continued paying the incorporation fees to BC’s registrar for several years, hoping that some other group might benefit from their efforts. 

Delta Co-op was a family-centred co-operative that functioned according to Quaker methods and styles of business.  When considering co-operative communities, the question of gender can hardly be ignored.  The Delta Co-op Quakers were rooted in spiritual values and called for equality between women and men, but how did their ideals play out in everyday life?

Men and women had different roles in the co-op, but each adult received the same amount of money, thirty dollars a month, and women were involved at co-op meetings and had an equal voice in worship.  However, the men were the ones, by and large, who worked for pay on outside contracts such as road building, ditch digging, and logging.  After all, it was the mid-fifties and women did not usually work in such areas. 

Men working outside the home meant that for most of the day men did not see their families.  A rule was inserted into the Delta Co-op constitution that stated that men would refuse any job that would require them to be away from their family more than one overnight, reinforcing the family centredness that Delta Co-op was based upon.  Although it happened to be the men who took outside work, the family was still considered the priority. 

In John and Helen Stevenson’s case, the situation was reversed.  Helen was the one who worked outside the home and John was a stay-at-home dad.  As John says:  “I was the first house-husband the Lardeau Valley ever saw.”[14]  Helen taught at the local public elementary school before the Friends School started.  The co-op needed the money and Helen was a teacher.  Most people accepted the Stevenson’s unprecedented role-reversal, but it was definitely a challenge to accepted assumptions of masculinity and femininity.  Interestingly, criticism would often be directed at Helen:  “So every little while, somebody would say to me, ‘You know, it’s really important that you not deprive John of his masculinity [and] it is up to you to make sure that he does not get deprived of his masculinity.’”[15]  That it was deemed the responsibility of a woman to ensure that a man retains his masculinity is one the peculiarities of how mainstream notions of masculinity and femininity are defined. 

Men working outside the home also affected relationships between the women of the group and between the men of the group.  The men of Delta Co-op usually worked on projects together, which meant that they were in more regular contact with each other.  They could discuss any co-op issues or problems with a particular neighbour.  Similar to the golf-course meetings of today, the Delta men could wade through lots of business and community issues at the workplace during lunch or on the job.  Decisions would be made at what were loosely termed, ‘men’s meetings.’[16]  The formal structured meetings that included all co-op members were a component of Delta Co-op, but much of the planning, discussing of ideas, and dealing with potential problems were dealt with in the every-day realm. 

The situation was very different for women of the co-op.  Except for Helen Stevenson, the Delta Co-op women worked at home, managing the household and looking after children.  Women would not see the other Delta Co-op women very often, nor would they see the other men of the co-op.  Helen Stevenson had noticed this trend in other co-operative communities in which she had been involved in California.  Women were usually left isolated and did not have the informal network that the men of the co-operative community had.  As Helen notes:  “Because most of us had been involved in some co-operative community before this, we had experience.  We weren’t going into it all starry-eyed, and we made sure the women got together about once a month, or that they had phone conversations … You know if you’re not a part of the process, it doesn’t work … You don’t feel involved [and] if you want people to work together and co-operate together, they’ve got to feel a part of the process.”[17] 

Helen stressed the importance of everyone’s involvement in a co-operative community.  Even though their internal philosophies may have called for equality between men and women, the realities of the world made it necessary for Delta members to take extra steps to ensure men and women were involved in the co-operative process.  As Helen says, “You are a part of the broader culture unless you are isolated and have no traffic with anybody else.”[18]

The members of Delta Co-op were very much involved with the larger Argenta community.  For many summers, Delta Co-op and other Argenta residents hosted Music/Arts week, a week-long festival that would draw people from all over North America.  Nestled in the Purcell mountain range on Kootenay Lake, Argenta was set in a beautiful location, which made it a popular destination.  People would camp and live with resident families.  Musicians and artists from California, the eastern United States and eastern Canada would come and offer to give courses.  The entire Argenta community was involved in preparing for Music/Arts week. 

Throughout the year, large community parties were also hosted in Argenta.  Parties would usually begin around 7 pm with children’s events.  People from the neigbouring communities would attend; Argenta parties would draw people from Kaslo, Nelson, and even as far away as Trail.[19]  Maintaining a vibrant community spirit was important to the members of Delta Co-op and to the Argenta community at large.

One of the reasons the Quakers settled in Argenta was because it was a healthy community.  While it was economically poor, a strong community spirit existed among the families who had lived there for nearly half a century.  John and Helen Stevenson are quick to stress that Argenta was never the “Quaker Community” it has often been labelled in the past:  “Argenta was not, is not, a Quaker Community.  It is a community, a freestanding community and it was infested with a few Quakers who turned up and tried to settle in and be part of the group.”[20]  What the Quakers found was a community that was already infused with a co-operative spirit and way of doing things.  Similar to many small communities in British Columbia, co-operation was the way to ensure survival.  As the Stevenson’s point out: “Without any formal structure, Argenta, all the time we were living there, was a type of co-operative.”[21]

Delta Co-operative existed for about ten years in its original form.  The group had realised its dream by establishing an economic pattern that concurred with their values and included responsible family members.  Fortunately, at the point that Delta was desperately searching for a sustaining economic base and old dream surfaced.  Some of the Quakers from California had envisioned starting a high school with vertical production: teaching, feeding, housing and offering TLC (tender loving care) to other people’s teenagers.  The Argenta Friends Meeting adopted the dream.  They wanted to fill basic needs.  And feeding students, housing them, caring about them and educating them filled the Quakers' needs. 

Delta Co-op was formed as a way for its members to obtain work in one of British Columbia’s many isolated communities during the 1950s.  Forming a workers co-op and co-operative community allowed the group to land building contracts, as well as farming and logging jobs.  Pooling earnings ensured each family’s survival.  Delta Co-op also reflected the seven families' spiritual beliefs.  They wanted to create a meaningful way of life.  The injustices that they had witnessed in America in the 1950s--the racial intolerance, loyalty oaths, segregation, corporate economic control--had been impressed upon them.  They did not fall into despair, as their faith and belief that change was possible fuelled their optimism.  Perhaps the accountant’s ledger would render Delta Co-op a failure, a half-baked approach to business by some starry-eyed naval gazers.  However, the seven families that formed Delta Co-op were able to survive for fifteen years and then some, after the Friends School became established.  Delta Co-op was much more than a business, it was an approach to life that took issue with the present economic order and social problems of the day and met economic and social needs based on ideas of democracy and justice.