Each one of us travels our own road from cradle to grave. For some the trip is long. For others, sadly, little more than a brief sojourn. Archibald Kenneth Leitch rests in a family plot in the Old General Cemetery, his trip lasted 62 years. For others close at hand the trip was tragically short. Such is the legacy of the Leitch family.

Little remains in Cranbrook as a reminder of Archibald Leitch. A short city street that once bore his name, a number of historic buildings crafted from Leitch mill lumber, and a gravestone shared with his wife, Louisa. There was a time, however, when the Leitch name was known and respected throughout the East Kootenay.

Born in La Prairie, Quebec, of a large and industrious family, Archie Leitch spent little time in school. Self-employed by age 15 in a lumber camp in the Ottawa valley he relentlessly worked his way up through the ranks of the lumber business. In 1888 he moved to Oak Lake, Manitoba (where the Leitch house is a provincial heritage site), to assist his three brothers in the running of the family flour mill. Soon realizing that he preferred the milling of lumber to that of grain he joined the CPR through the Crows Nest Pass, travelling to the West Kootenay and then, via stage and riverboat, to Fort Steele.

He first set eyes on Joseph's Prairie in May of 1897. The maps of the day indicated "open, park-like prairies, well wooded." Archie saw the land, the trees, the water, the future. A 1904 newspaper article describes him as "the first man to realize and organize a condition to cope with the possibilities which his faculty for seeing ahead enabled him to perceive would arise, and which did arise." It is descriptive mouthful to be sure, but in retrospect (and rereading) right on the mark. To Archie it was simple: it takes lumber to build a town.

At the time the town of Cranbrook was nothing more than surveying stakes driven into the prairie but Archie nonetheless struck a five-year timber lease with local landowner James Baker. In partnership with his brothers, Archie, at significant expense, contracted 26 teams of horses and drivers and brought the necessary engine, boilers, saws, carriage and other items for his lumber mill over the treacherous road from Golden.

He set up the first permanent mill operated in Cranbrook and began cutting and piling lumber. (There is evidence to suggest that the mill sat near the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Cranbrook Street). Other lumbermen ran portable mills but none at the rate of 15,000 feet of lumber per day. Travelers joked and marveled at the wood piles that began forming on the empty prairie but Archie knew what he was about and when the CPR came through it was his lumber that built the freight offices, storerooms, depot, and water tower. When the town of Cranbrook sprang up Archie and his mill were ready. When the CPR requested half a million ties Archie complied.

In 1898 the firm was incorporated under the name of the Cranbrook Lumber Co. Ltd. and his wife Louisa and children came west to join him in his new house on New Lake Road.

On Feb. 11, 1899, the entire St. Joseph's Creek mill caught fire - Cranbrook's first such event - and went up in a blaze of smoke. As the flames raged the men hauled out the red hot engine and boilers and immediately set to making repairs. The mill appeared to rebuild almost as fast as it was burning and by Feb.19 it was up and running again at a soon-to-be increased capacity of 40,000 feet per day.

Other permanent mills sprang up. Leask and Slater began in 1898 in the area of what is now Slaterville (near Leitch Street somewhat ironically) and Robinson and McKenzie started a mill near what later became known as McKenzie Pond. In 1902 Cranbrook Lumber amalgamated with the local Park-Mitchell and McNabb lumber mills to form the East Kootenay Lumber Co., of which Archie was president. By 1907 the firm employed 300 men, a far greater number than any of the other mills. The same year saw the formation of the Mountain Lumber and Manufacturing Association which included mills from Palliser, Moyie, Jaffray, Golden and Fernie. Archie was chairman. Lumber was big business and Archibald Leitch stood firmly atop the golden sawdust pile.

1902 was a good year for the Leitch family. In 1902 the Old General Cemetery family plot was empty. Within a year it would contain seven graves.

Next Week: The Leitch Family - Triumph and Tragedy