Shortly after his election to public office in 1863, Dr Isaac Tobey joined a group of prospectors hoping to confirm rumours of gold in the upper Kootenay and headwaters of the Columbia River. Dr Tobey, at least, was among a group that panned what became known as Toby’s Creek.
Other names: ?Akakus1
“I have just traded $100s worth of the gold round here by the Finley’s, who took out $500 since we came up (August or September early). There are not any whites up here yet, but parties have already commenced preparing ferries on the rivers to the Kootenais in expectation of a rush next season. The gold is coarse and looks well.”7
Neave’s proposed town on the shores of what would become Lake Lillian was never more than an idea. Nonetheless he maintained ownership of that land, and had it surveyed a couple of years later to start a ranch.6 Neave Creek likely ran through the property.
The local newspaper noted that, “if there is a more graceful, happy or cheerful couple [than Sam and Helen Brewer] on the crust of this old earth they have not been heard from,” and that, “there is sunshine when they are around.”16
Now some seventy-three years old, Slade continued to work … “tossing boulders out of icy, knee-deep water” and preferring to “wrestle with fifty pound boulders” compared to some of the easier tasks of working a [mining] claim.16
Jack Taynton was described as “a bit of a renegade.” His brother, Bill, was “soft spoken, loved flowers and displayed gentlemanly manners.” Both brothers, and their sons, ended up living or retiring alongside Windermere Lake in an area that became known as Tayntonville or Taynton Bay.
The area of Law Creek (and now Mount Law) is interesting in that it is named after a man who, by all accounts, had left the Kootenays by 1892 never to return. It is also unique as the name “Law Creek” is the best evidence I’ve been able to find for Charles Frederick Law ever having done prospecting work in that area.
In The Windermere 