[3] Basye was named after a local family that lived in the area and whose cemetery remains off one of the holes on the golf course.

Bryce Resort occupies 400 acres and was first opened in 1909, owned by William Brice who opened Bryce’s Hillside Cottages and Mineral Baths as a way to catch the overflow of guests from nearby historic Orkney Springs Hotel.

The early resort was rustic with hillside cottages and a dining hall, with most of the food grown on the premises.

[6] William Brice's son Pete and his wife Julie (who both adopted the Bryce spelling for their last name) began running the resort in 1947.

In the 1960s they transformed the resort adding a ski slope and other amenities, selling 2,776 lots for a woodland mountain retreat aimed for the Washington, DC vacation home market.

Lake Laura is formed by a dam impoundment of the headwaters of Big Stony Creek, creating a rectangular-shaped pool with a maximum depth of thirty feet.

Lake Laura had a history of nuisance algal blooms and over-abundant aquatic vegetation caused by nutrient-rich sediment.