08/07/2026
The Story of Cocklethorpe
Before the village became known as Crawford Bay, it was called Cocklethorpe.
The name first appeared on maps in the early 1890s and was inspired by Joseph William Cockle, the first recorded settler to establish a land claim here. In 1889, Cockle filed a 320-acre pre-emption that became the foundation of the small community that followed.
The name itself has English roots. The suffix "thorpe" is an old word meaning a small village or hamlet, making Cocklethorpe literally mean "Cockle's village."
Interestingly, while the settlement carried the name Cocklethorpe, the body of water beside it was already known as Crawford Bay, named after prospector James "White Man Jim" Crawford. For several years, maps showed both names side by side—Cocklethorpe for the settlement and Crawford Bay for the bay itself.
As travel and commerce on Kootenay Lake increased, the settlement gradually adopted the more familiar name Crawford Bay. By the early 1900s, the name Cocklethorpe had quietly disappeared from official maps and records, becoming a forgotten chapter in the community's history.
Today, Cocklethorpe Trading Co. proudly revives that original name as a tribute to the pioneers who helped establish this community more than 130 years ago.
