(This article is about Houston but many people from Burns Lake to Hazelton will recognize the names of the characters)

In 1910, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway laid out plans for a new townsite between the settlements of North Bulkley, eight miles to the east of Houston, and Barret, seven miles to the west. This new place was eventually named Houston.

Before the rail line was completed from Prince Rupert to Prince George in 1914, the only thing connecting Houston to anywhere was the narrow, winding Telegraph Trail of 1889. Tales spread of promising mining exploration and farmlands near Houston and soon a steady stream of people first walked, then rode the rails to pre-empt land.

Accommodation was scarce for these newcomers, and the brother-and-sister team of Frank and Mamie Brown were the first to build a makeshift hotel. A large tent was pitched which the Browns named the Hotel Houston. With the construction of the GTP railway came the decision in 1913 to build a two-storey log hotel. (Note: The Marks on the Forest Floor published in 1971 says the hotel was built in 1913, and the more recent Marks Of A Century published in 1999 says 1911)

From the history books, it sounds like some of the materials used for the hotel came from dismantling a road house which existed on the north side of where the railway tracks are today. It was taken down log-by-log and rebuilt on the northern corner of Butler Avenue and Highway 16 .