W.E. Stevens was a young man born in Eureka, California, to one of the
first western European families to settle in Humboldt County.  His family
came to Spokane, when "Steve" was still in school; one of his jobs was to
herd the neighbors cows home after school.  He joined the US Army and
served in France during WWI, building bridges.  When he and his brother
Clewley returned from the war, Steve came to work as a timber scaler, in
the forests around Priest Lake.  He met and married Carrie O'Brien, a young
woman who sang and played the piano for the silent movies in Bonners Ferry,
where her family settled after moving from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Carrie's
father, Pa O'Brien, came over from Ireland during the "famine" and her
mother Hannah Hansen, came on another boat, at the same time, from Norway.
They met once their boats came ashore in North America, married, and raised
six children.

Steve was fortunate to be able to purchase approximately 70 acres from the
railroad, abutting Granite Creek.  He and Carrie built their first small
dwelling here, and Carrie gave birth to their only child, Kathleen, in
Newport, in 1931.  After Stanley Stevens, Steve's father, passed, Steve's
mother, Beulah, moved to Granite Creek and lived the rest of her life in
the "Grandma Cabin," which still stands.  Beulah was a tiny woman, who
carried a pistol in her purse, and walked with the assistance of a cane.
When her son would admonish her to be careful on her outdoor adventures,
Beulah assured her son she was safe from all manner of wildlife, because of
the tiny, pearl-handled pistol which she carried.

Over the years, Steve and Carrie welcomed loggers to their small bar,
serving whiskey and beer, and sandwiches which Carrie prepared in her
kitchen.  They built or transported a number of small cabins onto their
land, in the thirties and forties, and welcomed fishermen to their rustic
lodging.  They also begin construction of the earliest boat slips in the
marina at this time.  Kathleen met her husband, Dean Stevens, while both
were attending the University of Idaho.  They met, as they were seated
alphabetically in one of the classes they shared.  Dean was in the US Air
Force ROTC, and Dean and Kathy were sent to Birmingham, Alabama, and
Edwards Air Force Base, in the Mohave Desert, where Dean was a medical
supply officer, during the Korean War.  Dean had intended to continue to
operate his family farm in the Palouse, the Stevens Brothers' farm, with
his brother, Keith, who was a gifted student at WSU's School of Veterinary
Medicine.  When Keith was killed in a grain elevator accident, Dean changed
his course.  He earned a teaching credential, to accompany his degree in Ag
Sciences from the U of I, and took his first teaching job in Plummer, Idaho.

At this time, Steve and Carrie were feeling the weight of operating the
marina on their own.  They contacted Dean and Kathy, who had two small
children by this time, and asked if they would like to move closer, to
assist with the "heavy lifting" at Granite Creek.  At this time, the
Stevens family was still winching pleasure boats onto timbers at the end of
each summer, and working with a neighboring mechanic to winterize motors.
Dean and Kathy and their kids, Matt and Melissa, left Worley, and moved to
Priest River in 1963.

Kathy taught 3rd grade in Priest River until her very untimely death from
breast cancer, in 1977.  Dean taught science at Priest River High School.
In the summer, Dean, Kathy, and their kids would go to the lake to help
Steve and Carrie at the marina.  Steve and Carried both lived to be 80.
This was not a small feat, given that they lived in the wilderness with an
icebox and limited utilities.  Dean remarried after Kathy's death; he and
his second wife Carla managed the marina until Melissa and Matt finished
college, and took on the primary responsibilities for maintenance,
rebuilding, repair, and nurturing the relationships with those who come to
share in the peaceful setting that is Granite Creek Marina.