The People & History
of the Grave Creek Watershed
Grave Creek is part of the homeland for the Ktunaxa Native Americans, called the Kootenai by Europeans. The Kootenai were mountain people and great hunters of bighorn sheep, whitetail deer and mountain goats. They also loved and depended on buffalo for meat, hides, fur and other uses which meant crossing the Rocky Mountains on well known trails to reach their buffalo hunting grounds of the eastern plains. One of the most important trails was the "Buffalo Cow Trail" or the Grave Creek Trail.
In the first half of the 19th century, fur trappers also joined the Kootenai along the trail. Most trappers worked for the Northwest Fur Company and later the Hudson Bay Company. Prospectors soon followed fur trappers. There were legends of a gold stampede on Grave Creek in the 1860s, but it was not a big strike. Attention turned to hard rock mining, in particular copper, with the Independence Mine becoming one of the most worked claims because of its accessibility and lower elevation. Grave Creek even had its own town, Marston, at the turn of the century. Cy Marston homesteaded and opened a general store, post office, saloon, and boarding rooms inside his extended log home in the 1890s.
In 1897 the Grave Creek watershed was included in the newly established Flathead Forest Reserve, later to become the Kootenai National Forest. Lumberjacks worked the forest, with logs being sold to the Eureka Lumber Company. Today little logging occurs on Forest Service land in the Grave Creek watershed. It is now a recreational paradise for campers, back-packers, snowmobilers, fisherman, hunters, and nature lovers travelling the well-marked trails and roads.
From the NRHP Plaque