Gray Rocks Inn opened in 1906 on the banks of Lake Ouimet, built by the Wheeler family. It was one of the very first resort hotels in the Laurentians — and one of the places that proved a small mountain village could attract visitors from Montreal year-round, not just in ski season.

For over a century, the inn helped put Mont-Tremblant on the map. It was among the earliest resorts in Eastern Canada to offer a full ski school, and its combination of lakeside summer living and winter sports made it a template for Laurentian tourism. Generations of Montreal families grew up spending their holidays here.

The inn also had an unexpected brush with rock history. In 1981, English rock band The Police filmed the music video for their hit “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” at Gray Rocks — a surreal moment of new wave in the Laurentian snow.

Gray Rocks closed during the recession of 2009 after more than a century of continuous operation. On the evening of November 25, 2014, a suspicious fire destroyed roughly 70 percent of the main building. The loss was deeply felt in the community.

The original inn is gone, but the Gray Rocks name remains woven into the village’s identity. It’s a reminder that Mont-Tremblant’s story as a destination didn’t start with the modern resort — it started here, on the shore of a quiet lake, over a hundred years ago.

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/groups/153730211629627/posts/1150888101913828/