It’s one of King County’s newest protected forests, but in its day, Lady Dyar’s Little Lake Ranch was a Wedding Wonderland like no other. Over 30+ years, this secluded site in the foothills east of Enumclaw hosted thousands of weddings, co-witnessed by the swans, peacocks, and frogs that called “Little Lake” home.
In the early years, the property was owned by the William and Theresia Moeller family, who emigrated from Austria in 1887. Theresia’s mother, Mrs. Schafer, bought the 160-acre homestead claim for $100, 120 acres of which were given to the Moellers. The property was located in the North quarter of Section 20, Township 20 North, Range 7 East.
By 1905, the Moellers completed construction of several impressive farm buildings and a 1,344-sf home. As William’s health began to fail, the Moellers sold the property in 1917, after their boys enlisted for World War I. All of their sons, Emil, William, Joseph, Arthur, and Louis, eventually worked for the nearby White River Lumber Company, though Art and Louis Moeller later bought a farm they named Good Hope Dairy, located near the present-day Safeway.
The 1926 Metsker maps show the property owned by I.J. and Harvey McCoy. By 1936, the 120 acres were held by the Federal Land Bank. Fifteen years later, Ralph Maynard Dyar, a former rancher and banker, and his first wife purchased the property and built a new 752-sf rambler. Dyar was born in Michigan in 1874 and was 77 years old when he and Mrs. Dyar retired and moved to Enumclaw in 1951. Soon after its acquisition, Ralph M. Dyar posted a notice in the Enumclaw Courier-Herald, “No Hunting or Fishing at Little Lake Ranch,” adding the property was formerly named Gilbert’s Game Farm.
It isn’t clear when Ralph Dyar’s first wife died, but in July 1959, he married Vera Josephine Mary Bankes of Victoria, British Columbia. Judge Duane Radliff officiated the ceremony held at his Little Lake home. It was witnessed by Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Moore. Ralph Dyar was 85, with a daughter from his first marriage, Mrs. George King of Lewiston, plus two grandsons. Vera Proudfoot was 36. She was previously married to James Proudfoot in 1950.
Ralph died three years later on December 23, 1962, and is buried in the local Evergreen Memorial Cemetery. After Mr. Dyar’s death, the vivacious Vera found things too quiet around the ranch and began advertising her site for weddings. The first nuptials mentioned in a newspaper clipping occurred in 1968.
Lady Dyar, as she came to be known, regularly invited reporters to her weddings. An early story appeared in the June 21, 1972, issue of the Oshawa Times, when Lady Dyar admitted that she wasn’t really a Lady – it was just a nickname that originated during her days in British Columbia when she played the part of a Lady in a school play.
Business boomed, and four years later, another article about Lady Dyar’s “Wedding Wonderland” was featured in the July 29, 1976, Enumclaw Courier-Herald. By then, over 500 weddings had been held.
In 1975, Vera married Gale Leroy Zerba, who had previously worked as a groundskeeper for the Dyars. The pond had been turned into a 9-acre lake with an island in the middle. The couple installed attractive features like a waterfall, the remnants of which are still visible on the northeast shore of the lake. Little Lake’s picturesque setting was advertised as a venue where couples could get married by lake’s edge, under a gazebo, in a canoe, inside the barn, on horseback, or in a horse-drawn buggy, while wearing turn-of-the-century garb, blue jeans, or nothing at all. Such was its free-spirit reputation.
Lady Dyar told a reporter, “I like the excitement, the loveliness of the bride.” And further confessed, “I get caught up in the emotions of the parents and brides and often feel teardrops in my eyes.” But Vera made clear there was one thing she couldn’t guarantee: “Success of the marriage – that’s outside my department.
In the 1990s, Little Lake regularly hosted weddings and sourced its catering needs from the nearby Baumgartner Delicatessen, whose bread came from the famed Rainier Natural Foods Bakery on the Auburn-Enumclaw Highway. A 1991 Seattle Times article perhaps overestimated that Lady Dyar’s Wedding Ranch had hosted the hitching of 6,000 couples.
As Vera Dyar aged, her wedding business slowed down. In 1999, she sold 5 acres of her estate to Dale and Laurie Eaton, who built a nearby home in 2002. By 2017, a deal was made with the Muckleshoot Tribe, King County Parks, Forterra Northwest, and Vera Dyar Zerba to preserve the remaining 155 acres as a permanent forested park, called Little Lake Forest. Lady Dyar was represented by the Farr Law Group of Enumclaw. The sales price was $1.57 million. Vera “Lady Dyar” Zerba passed away on February 2, 2020, at age 96.
In 2026, King County Parks completed construction of a parking lot with a dozen paved spaces, ample room for horse trailers, plus a portable toilet. The Little Lake Forest trailhead is located at 29900 S.E. 435th Place and reached by driving east on Battersby Avenue past the modern King County garbage and recycle transfer station and the fully reclaimed former Enumclaw municipal dump.
This column is indebted to Miss Skookum and her Northwest Past blog for the photo of an unidentified bride taken by Doug Tiedeman. It was used on a postcard, the back of which read, “Weddings at Little Lake Ranch, Lady Dyar, TA5-3879. Have your outdoor wedding held in a jewel-like setting amidst tall firs, strutting peacocks, and magnificent floral baskets. All this and more beside a shimmering 14-acre lake. Every Bride’s dream. Indoor weddings and catering are also available. Very reasonable rates.” Genealogical information was provided by Donna Brathovde, a Ravensdale research specialist. JoAnne Matsumura, an Issaquah historian, contributed.
Publishing this article in the month of June was no coincidence. The tradition of the June nuptials dates to the early Roman Empire. June is named for Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, home, and childbirth. Romans believed that couples who married in June were under Juno’s direct protection, bringing prosperity, fertility, and long-lasting happiness to the marital union.
