The foothills are still virgin wilderness, well-nigh inaccessible. Deer and bear are plentiful, and cougar not infrequently invade the barnyards of isolated farms. In the 1940s, a well-known old timer, Cougar Bill who lived on Kiona Creek, kept a pack of hounds to track down cougar, an occupation which was both recreation and profit for him, the bounty and the pelts yielded a modest income. When possible he takes his quarry alive. The captive animals are kept in a crude pit, where they are tended carefully. The largest captive to date was a beautiful specimen about nine feet in length. Bill took special care of this animal, hoping to cross-breed it with one of his dogs; but the experiment was terminated when the local game warden declared the animal a public danger and ordered it shot. To this day Cougar Bill laments the lack of biological curiosity among game wardens.

The creek was named by pioneer J. T. Chilcoat in 1854 for Columbia Kionee, a Native American who lived nearby.