Burns bought the property, the house was a two-hour ride away from Calgary, and he used it as a weekend retreat. Today, the house is occupied by the Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant in Fish Creek Provincial Park. After his death, his nephew and business successor Michael John Burns came to live in Bow Valley Ranche House. Under his supervision, the ranching operation continued to prosper and he also preserved the established tradition of true western hospitality remembered by many Calgarians. In failing health, Michael John Burns moved to Calgary in 1950, and his son Richard J. Burns came to live at the ranch with his wife and three sons. Under his management, many more improvements were made, including the construction of a tennis court, a swimming pool, and a one-story addition. Richard J. Burns lived at the site until 1970. In 1973, the Alberta Provincial Government purchased the Bow Valley Ranche from the Burns Foundation as part of the development of Fish Creek Provincial Park. Later years By the Great War, Burns had become one of Canada's most successful businessmen and had butcher shops and abattoirs all across Western Canada. He had over 100 retail meat shops in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. He also established 65 creameries and cheese factories, 11 wholesale provision houses and 18 wholesale fruit houses. He extended his empire overseas and set up agencies in London, Liverpool and Yokohama. In 1928, Burns Foods generated sales of about $40 million ($ million in ). In 1928, he sold his interests in Burns Foods for $15 million ($ million in ) to Dominion Securities and the company was renamed Burns & Co. Ltd. In the sale, Burns retained control over his true passion, his vast cattle ranches. At the height of his empire, his assets included nearly of ranch land, roughly the size of Luxembourg. One of his most prized possessions was the Bar U Ranch, south of Calgary, which was among the largest in the country and one of the first and most enduring large corporate ranches of the West. Under George Lane, it had achieved an international repute as a centre of breeding excellence for cattle and purebred Percheron horses. Burns acquired the property from Lane's estate after his close friend died in 1925. Some of the other ranches in his possession were Willow Creek, Glengarry (44), Bradfield, Two Dot, Rio Alto, Linehum,