Bustling Blue Creek

Bustling Blue Creek

Around 1897 the town of Blue Creek was founded around the Elkhorn Sawmill. Pioneer E.A. Humphrey and his sons owned the sawmill. It was moved two miles from its previous location, by the Old Graham School, down to Blue Creek. The new location had the advantage of being along a main road, having a railroad stop and access to a holding pond on the Colville River. Minnie Seal, an early pioneer stated "Blue Creek derived its name from the stream which flowed through the settlement. The creek had a distinctive bed of blue sand." (Alpha Naff, The Last Bell) Others say it was named after pioneer John Blue.

Soon a little town popped up around the mill. C.W. Stanely operated a general merchandise store in the middle of town. The oldest Humphrey son married the Stanley’s daughter, Frances, thereby uniting the pioneer families. The Post Office was located in the store and Mr. Timmel was the first Postmaster. In 1904 Mr. Stanely built another store and it later was turned into the Blue Creek Grange Hall. When timber stumpage became scarce in 1927-28 the mill moved and most of the residents moved on as well. The cookhouse closed, the millworkers moved on and the community became a quiet agricultural community once more. The school district dissolved in 1970 and Blue Creek lives on in many memories.

Blue Creek Mischief

Walt Goodman recalled many mischievous times when he was living near Blue Creek. Once Walt and his friend Napoleaon Bonaparte Tetro (Bony) attempted to satisfy their sweet tooths.

"…The three of us became involved in a plot to obtain some of the goodies which we loved but were so scarce at our house, candy bars. Next door to Tetro’s home there was a small pool room. Al though we knew of the good things therein, we were never allowed inside. Occasionally, after an evening spent there, Dad would bring each of us kids one of those super-delicious bars. In looking back, it seems to me that these candies were very similar to the éclair cookies of today, only much larger and a hundred times as good.

I suppose Bony had ‘cased the joint’ for some time, having lived next door for years. Anyway, it was decided that if we were to dig a hole from the back (out of sight) we could tunnel right into this forbidden utopia and emerge with armloads of goodies. We did dig a hole. We got under the back wall and immediately got a flood of sawdust. The more we dug, the more sawdust emerged. We had dug into the icehouse and there were loads of sawdust inside to keep the ice. We had failed in our very first attempt to ‘get something for nothing.’"