F or many Cape Bretoners, there’s no place like home. It is a sentiment shared by Kody Fraser, Co-Founder and Co-Owner of Valley View Chalets, whose strong family roots and history continue to grow mountainside above the Margaree Valley. Born and raised in Mabou, where his mother’s family settled after emigrating from Scotland, he also has strong ties to Margaree, his father’s hometown. Looking back six generations in the Fraser family, in the mid-1800s, Malcolm Fraser decided to clear land and build a farm on a mountainside high above the Margaree Valley. In the 1910s, with Malcolm in his eighties, the farmhouse was cut in two and brought to the base of the mountain, where it stands today. Even after the homestead was moved, the mountain farm continued to operate. Over the past century and a half, the field cleared by Malcolm has supported turnip and potato crops, pasture, and at its peak, three large barns - housing as many as 100 horses for the transportation of goods and people across the Cape Breton Highlands, before the Cabot Trail was built.
The family’s land and presence in the local business community continued for generations to follow. Growing up, Kody worked for his parents’ forestry company, and after graduating high school, he expanded his business knowledge at St. Francis Xavier University. “I was always in the woods with my dad, or office with my mom, and had an interest in both the administrative and operational side of our family operation, so in university, I decided to study business, with a major in enterprise development and a minor in political science,” he says. Kody continues to work in the family’s forestry and excavation business, but when he and his parents saw the chance to try something new, they could not pass it up. His cousin was selling a piece of land that had once been part of the family’s original property, and after deciding to buy it, Kody and his parents weren’t sure exactly what to do with it. Then, they noticed a real opportunity: snowmobilers in the Highlands were always talking about how
“
We wanted to offer a premium experience that could still be affordable for younger families or snowmobilers ”
80 SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • VOL 25 ISSUE 1
BUSINESS • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE 81
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator