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Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 3, Issue 1, October 1974

Back to Rai Valley

Back to Rai Valley

Bryant Brothers started milling about 1906 near the first Rai Valley School (then Flat Creek School) and Bryant Brothers, both the older and the younger generation, have operated mills until recent years. They logged the bush areas near the mill and also from an area of Crown land well back from the road. (In recent years S. J. Couper has built a mill on his property close to where Bryant's mill was, milling logs from far and wide including some from their Tinline property). About 1911 Bryant Brothers erected a mill on my father's property, situated on the east side of the Rai River about a mile south of the township and milled an area of Crown land to the east of this section. (About 1917 Jack Nolan drew this area in a ballot, and it now belongs to C. T. Leov). This mill was burned down soon after it was put up. D. Higgins and Dean Eyes were baching in a whare about twenty chains away when the engine driver raised the alarm about midnight. They leaped out of bed and dressed in such a hurry that later one man found that he had put his jersey on upside down in mistake for his pants.

C. T. Leov's sons and G. Young's sons erected a small mill on Nolan's section a few years ago and cut a small amount of timber, mostly tawa. Also on Section 2 Block V (the land which my father owned) Baigent & Sons of Nelson erected a small mill a short distance east of Bryant's mill and cut out an area of Crown land behind the section owned by Nolan.