Columbia House, made considerable enlargements to the hotel in 1897 but months later sold the business to John Bullman. That year, the Kootenay Valley Lands Co, the recipient of the land grant, which included Canal Flats and parcels stretching to the Canada–United States border, began releasing the holdings for sale. Bullman, who also operated a ranch on Thunder Hill and a freight business, found the Kootenay Valley Lands Co (the hotel landlord) obstructive. The final mention of the hotel was 1900, when Douglas Grainger was the proprietor. During an episode of insanity in 1901, the Hon. Francis John Lascelles, twelfth child of Henry Lascelles, 4th Earl of Harewood, murdered the Chinese cook at his Thunder Hill ranch. Acquitted at trial, Lascelles was returned to the custody of his family in England. By 1906, all that remained of the Grohman townsite was an abandoned hotel. The next year, Enie Small repaired his Canal Flat summer resort hotel for operation. The next mention is a further rehabilitation for opening in November 1909. In 1910, F.W. Reeves was the manager, and Lord Hindlip purchased property to build a summer house and develop the Thunder Hill Ranch. In 1913, E.H. Small erected a two-storey, 35-room hotel at a new site to accommodate railway construction crews. The next year, the premises were granted a liquor licence, and Fred A. Small built a general store. In 1915, William J. McFarlane bought the hotel, which was destroyed by fire the following year. About this time, Dennis Greenwood bought the general store, which by 1922 also sold gasoline. In 1925, A.H. MacKinley purchased the business. Renamed Canal Flat Roadhouse, meals were served and a liquor licence was pending. A series of owners followed. In 1929, a new school opened, and a provincial police post was established, indicating that the arrival of the large Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) mill had brought a permanence to the community. In 1930, an offender charged with trapping without a licence fatally shot the game warden in front of the general store. A jury found him not guilty on account of momentary insanity. That year, a fire destroyed two stores, a pool room, and rooming house. In 1931, over 200 men successfully fought a forest fire that threatened the CP sawmill, station, and section house. Destroyed were the CP warehouse, police residence and few small shacks. A month later, a fire at Wheeler Motor