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Gray area: Who was Gray Creek’s namesake?

Gray Creek may have been named for surveyor John Hamilton Gray or prospector/rancher Alden Samuel Gray.
97988westernstarReddingandGraycabinjustinstalledatGrayCreekHall-Sept2008-photobyJanetSchwieger2
The ca. 1894 historic Redding-Gray cabin was renamed Little Log when it was used as a rental cabin at the Gray Creek auto camp. This photo shows the cabin in its current location next to the Gray Creek Hall

Seventy-ninth in an alphabetical series on West Kootenay/Boundary place names

Last week we began looking at how Gray Creek, on the East Shore of Kootenay Lake, got its name. It was on the map by 1893, although it was also known as Grays, Gray’s Creek, Grey’s Creek, and Ironton. Conventional wisdom has it that it was named after John Hamilton Gray (1853-1941), a land surveyor who worked in the area in the 1890s. However, nothing links him to that specific spot.

There’s another more probable namesake: prospector and rancher Alden (or Aulden) Samuel Gray (1849-1942), a native of New Annan, Nova Scotia. In the 1880s, he and brother George operated a lime works at Lakeview, Idaho, near the south end of Lake Pend Oreille, where a sternwheeler stop came to be known as Gray’s Landing. Later they ran the steamer Spokane on the Kootenay River.

According to Terry Turner and Susan Hulland in Impressions of the Past, Alden and wife Mary staked claims at Gray Creek and Crawford Bay in April 1893. Alden also pre-empted 160 acres on the west side of Kootenay Lake on June 25, 1894, where another landing took his name, first mentioned in the Victoria Colonist of October 28, 1896. The latter described mining claims at the head of Kokanee Creek as “12 miles from Gray’s landing, which is 12 miles east of Nelson.”

Several more Crown grants were issued to the Grays between 1897 and 1901, although their Kokanee pre-emption was cancelled in 1898.

The Nelson Tribune of August 29, 1900 reported: “Al Gray of Gray’s Landing was in the city yesterday securing signatures to a petition urging the government to extend the Molly Gibson wagon road.”

John Patrick Redding, Gray Creek’s first settler, had a prospecting partner named Gray, who may well have been Al. Redding and Gray discovered the Five Metals mine and according to Kathleen Lymbery’s unpublished history of Gray Creek written in 1958, cut cord wood for the Pilot Bay smelter. They also built a cabin of cedar logs at the upper end of their flume on Croasdaile Creek, which Kathleen’s husband moved to their store’s auto camp in 1933. It stood there until 2008, when it was moved next to the Gray Creek Hall.

Redding filed a pre-emption “north of the mouth of Grays Creek” in 1900, by which time he had his own namesake creek nearby. He, his wife, and son were listed as residents of “Gray’s Creek” on the 1901 census.

What became of Al Gray? He sold his ranch in May 1906 for $3,500. The Ledge reported on July 19 that year that he would “leave Nelson on August 7 upon a grand tour of Nova Scotia. Upon his return in November he intends to visit Alaska for the purpose of testing its climate in the winter time.”

The same newspaper stated on April 28, 1910: “Al Gray is planting fruit trees upon his pre-emption near Meanskinisht, 40 miles from Hazelton. He was one of the pioneer ranchers of Kootenay lake and says that fruit will grow up the Skeena river equally as well as it will around Nelson.”

The paper added on September 12, 1912 that Gray was busy tunneling a copper claim adjoining his ranch. He was dealt a setback that fall when his house burned. However, he spent more than 30 years in the district before he died in Hazelton at 94.

— Thanks to Frances Roback and Tom and Sharon Lymbery

Previous installments in this series

Introduction

Ainsworth

Alamo

Anaconda

Annable, Apex, and Arrow Park

Annable, revisited

Appledale

Applegrove, Appleby, and Appledale revisited

Argenta and Arrowhead

Aylwin

Bakers, Birds, and Bosun Landing

Balfour

Bannock City, Basin City, and Bear Lake City

Beasley

Beaton

Bealby Point

Bealby Point (aka Florence Park) revisited

Belford and Blewett

Beaverdell and Billings

Birchbank and Birchdale

Blueberry and Bonnington

Boswell, Bosworth, Boulder Mill, and Broadwater

Brandon

Brilliant

Brooklyn, Brouse, and Burnt Flat

Burton

Camborne, Cariboo City, and Carrolls Landing

Carmi, Cedar Point, Circle City, and Clark’s Camp

Carson, Carstens, and Cascade City

Casino and Champion Creek

Castlegar, Part 1

Castlegar, Part 2

Castlegar, Part 3

Christina Lake

Christina City and Christian Valley

Clubb Landing and Coltern

Cody and Champion Creek revisited

Champion Creek revisited, again

Columbia

Columbia City, Columbia Gardens, and Columbia Park

Comaplix

Cooper Creek and Corra Linn

Crawford Bay and Comaplix revisited

Crescent Valley and Craigtown

Davenport

Dawson, Deadwood, and Deanshaven

Deer Park

East Arrow Park and Edgewood

Eholt

English Cove and English Point

Enterprise

Erie

Evans Creek and Evansport

Falls City

Farron

Fauquier

Ferguson

Ferguson, revisited

Fife

Forslund, Fosthall, and Fairview

Fort Shepherd vs. Fort Sheppard, Part 1

Fort Shepherd vs. Fort Sheppard, Part 2

Fort Sheppard, revisited

Fraser’s Landing and Franklin

Fredericton

Fruitvale and Fraine

Galena Bay

Genelle

Gerrard

Gilpin and Glade

Gladstone and Gerrard, revisited

Glendevon and Graham Landing

Gloster City

Goldfields and Gold Hill

Grand Forks, Part 1

Grand Forks, Part 2

Granite Siding and Granite City

Gray Creek, Part 1