Grimshaw Lake is located in Inyo County, California near the small community of Tecopa in the Mojave desert. The lake is named after Edwin Lewis Grimshaw, who created the lake by building a dam on a hot-spring-fed stream. Edwin married Minnie (Bacon) McQueary, who had previously been married to Frank A McQueary, with whom she had several children. Ed and Minnie were apparently married in Los Angeles in 1936, and by 1944 the couple had moved to Tecopa, where Ed leased a trading post and bar. Ed was an avid duck hunter and created the lake to attract ducks to the area for hunting. Ed and Minnie lived out their lives in Tecopa and are buried in the cemetery of that community. They apparently had no children.
Edwin Grimshaw’s ancestry has been traced back to Jonathan and Eliza (Topham) Grimshaw, who immigrated to the U.S. as Mormons from Lancashire to Salt Lake City (see companion webpage). However, Jonathan lost his faith in Mormonism and left Utah to return to England, but only made it as far as Missouri. He and Eliza lived out their lives in Jefferson City and are buried there. Edwin was the grandson of Jonathan and Eliza Grimshaw. His parents were Jonathan Topham and Nannie (Major) Grimshaw. Ed Grimshaw’s ancestry has been traced nine generations back to the early line of Edward and Dorothy (Raner) Grimshaw in Yorkshire (see companion webpage).
Thanks go to George Murphy for providing much of the information on this webpage, including identification of Edwin Grimshaw as the person who created the lake and for whom it is named.
Ed Grimshaw Information, Including Creation of Grimshaw Lake (or Marsh)
A pamphlet entitled “Remembering the Early Shoshone and Tecopa Area1” includes a a brief description of Ed Grimshaw and the origins of Grimshaw Lake; the description is excerpted below (p. 243).
On page 231 of the same pamphlet, a group photo showing Ed Grimshaw and his stepson, Frank McQueary, is presented. A portion of the picture showing Ed and Frank (#7 & #6) is shown below with part of the photo caption.
Photos of Ed and Minnie (Bacon) McQueary Grimshaw and Tecopa Trading Post
The photo of Ed and Minnie shown below is from Ancestry.com courtesy of George Murphy.
The following photo of the Tecopa Trading Post is from the same source.
The photo below, also from the same source, is the second Tecopa Trading Post, which was built in late 1949 or early 1950 by Ed Grimshaw after the first one burned down.
Visit to Grimshaw Lake and Tecopa Cemetery in November 2021
A visit was made to the Grimshaw Lake area by the website author to view and reccord places of significance to Edwin and Winnie Grimshaw.
Grimshaw Lake
Two Google Earth images are presented below. The upper image shows Grimshaw Lake in the northwest corner, the Tepoca community location, and Tecopa Cemetery in the southeast corner. The lower image shows the exact location of Grimshaw Lake west of the curve in Tecopa Hot Springs Road. The prominent linear feature on the west side of the lake is an old railroad grade. The elliptical feature southeast of the lake is described below.
Two views of Grimshaw Lake (sometimes called a marsh) were photographed during the visit. The upper picture is taken to the southwest. The lower photo is the bed of the lake, which was dried up at the time of the visit. The remnants of the railroad grade can be seen to the left of the lake.
Close-up views of the elliptical feature noted above in the Google Earth images are presented below. The upper picture shows a barren hill with the railroad grade on the left side. Grimshaw Lake can be seen in the background between the two power poles. The lower photo is taken in the opposite direction. It shows the distinctive layering of sedimentary rock. The adjacent railroad grade can also be clearly seen at the foot of the hill.
This hill has a fascinating origin. During the Ice Ages (the Pleistocene Epoch), the climate of the Mojave Desert was much cooler and wetter. A large lake filled the valley between mountain ranges around the Tecopa valley. This feature, named Lake Tecopa, occupied up to 90 square miles and existed for many thousands of years. During this time, sediment was carried into the lake from the surrounding mountains and was deposited in layers on the lake bottom. The Pleistocene Epoch ended some 12,000 years ago, and Lake Tecopa mostly went out of existence, leaving the lake bottom deposits exposed. Erosion since then has removed most of these deposits, leaving a few prominent hills of layered sediment like the one adjacent to Grimshaw Lake.
Tecopa Cemetery
As shown in the Google Earth images above, the cemetery is southeast of Grimshaw Lake. A photo of the sign at the cemetery is shown below.
Edwin and Minnie Grimshaw are buried along the south margin of the cemetery. A view of the adjacent graves is shown below, followed by photos of their individual headstones.
Topographic Map of Grimshaw Lake
The maps below show the location of Grimshaw Lake in relation to the Tecopa Mountains and the community of Tecopa as well as Tecopa Hot Springs. The lake name is erroneously shown as “Grimsham Lake”. The lake was formed by damming a small stream where it flows across the “Old RR Grade”. The maps show a hot spring near the head of the stream, at the south end of the Tecopa Mountains.
Edwin Grimshaw’s Ancestry
Edwin was descended from Jonathan and Eliza (Topham) Grimshaw; an abbreviated descendant chart showing Ed as their grandson is shown in the chart below. The second chart shows the connection back to the Edward and Dorothy (Raner) Grimshaw line in Yorkshire. Edwin is a 9th generation descendant of Edward and Dorothy Grimshaw.
William Grimshaw & Theodosia unknown
|—Jonathan Grimshaw (20 Jul 1783 – 6 Nov 1844) & Sarah Pickersgill (2 Mar 1781 – )
|—|—John Grimshaw (9 Dec 1808 – 14 Feb 1849)
|—|—David Grimshaw (11 Apr 1811 – )
|—|—Theodosia Grimshaw (3 Jan 1814 – )
|—|—Sarah Grimshaw (31 Dec 1815 – )
|—|—Jonathan Grimshaw (24 Jan 1818 – 31 Aug 1897) & Eliza Maria Topham (2 May 1818 – 6 Feb 1876)
|—|—|—Elizabeth Grimshaw (23 Apr 1842 – ) & George Ludwig Faulhaber (6 Apr 1838 – )
|—|—|—Emma Grimshaw (24 Aug 1843 – ) & John Peter Fromme Jr. (22 Oct 1840 – 11 Mar 1877)
|—|—|—Jane Eliza Grimshaw (31 Jan 1845 – Circa 10 Sep 1845)
|—|—|—Eliza Lovesey Grimshaw (31 Jan 1845 – )
|—|—|—Maria Grimshaw (25 Jan 1847 – ) & Benton Hart (or Howard) Ingram (24 Nov 1838 -)
|—|—|—Caroline Grimshaw (4 Jan 1848 – )
|—|—|—Arthur Pickersgill Grimshaw (20 Jan 1849 – 25 Apr 1914) & Julia E Carter (14 Nov 1850 – 17 Jan 1926). Married 20 Sep 1870, Logan Co., Ohio
|—|—|—Fanny Cummings Grimshaw (21 Sep 1850 – )
|—|—|—Jonathan Topham Grimshaw (28 Nov 1852 – ) & Nannie G Major (14 Sep 1856 – )
|—|—|—|—Thomas Topham Grimshaw (12 Apr 1879 – )
|—|—|—|—Lelia Fannie Grimshaw (15 Nov 1880 – )
|—|—|—|—Guy Vivion Grimshaw (16 Mar 1889 – )
|—|—|—|—Edwin Lewis Grimshaw (18 May 1892/93 – 24 Apr 1969) & Minnie (Bacon) McQueary (1884-1964). Married 1936.
|—|—|—Sarah Lovesey Annette Grimshaw (22 Nov 1855 – 15 Jul 1904) & Herman J Rodman
|—|—Josiah Grimshaw (10 Dec 1819 – 13 Aug 1870)
|—|—Elizabeth Grimshaw (12 Dec 1822 – )
Edwin is descended the Yorkshire line of Grimshaws, with Edward and Dorothy (Raner) Grimshaw as progenitors. This line is presented in brief form below and is described in considerable detail in a companion webpage.
Edward Grimshaw (About 1559 – 22 Jun 1635) & Dorotye Raner
“On the road into Tecopa Hot Springs, you pass the beautiful Grimshaw Lake Natural Area.”
“Fantastic mud hills that rise up into fun shapes extend as far as the eye can see.”
“Located at an elevation of 1,325 feet, this area is somewhat cooler than Bad Water in Death Valley National Park, which is at 282 below Sea Level is one of the hottest places on earth. The Grimshaw Mud Flats look very similar to the Bad Water area.”
“Because of all the marsh grasses, the springs at Grimshaw Lake are even prettier than the puddle at Bad Water.”
“A sign warns of how fragile this kind of ecosystem is.”
“My daughter carefully made her way down to the stream though. We just had to know if the water was a hot spring or cold water. This water was refreshingly cool.”
“Desert oasis, like this one here, are critical to the survival of all the desert’s wildlife. The name “Tecopa” means Wild Cat in the Paiute language. Paiutes are the native people of the eastern part of California and they still reside in Death Valley National Park on a reservation next to the Furnace Creek Ranch.”
“While we did not see any big wild cat prints here at this stream, we have seen many at nearbyAsh Meadows Wildlife Reserve: another fantastic place to explore in the vicinity of Death Valley National Park and the Las Vegas region.”
“The wetlands that cover this area are critical to birds’ migration through the dry Southwest. These wetlands were also instrumental in allowing people to migrate West. Tecopa Hot Springs sits on the Old Spanish Trial. Thousands of years before that, it was a major trading route for the Native populations. Until the early 1930s, a large Native population, named the Yaga, lived here.”
References
1Lengner, K.E., and G. Ross, 2004, Remembering the Early Shoshone and Tecopa area (Southeastern Death Valley region): Shoshone, CA?, 90 pp.
Webpage History
Webpage posted April 2002. Banner replaced April 2011. Updated March 2012 with information on Ed Grimshaw, who built the dam that created the lake, based primarily on information provided by George Murphy. Updated December 2025 with results of a site visit in November 2021.
