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28-597: They are not one range but a collection of ranges, often very distinct from each other. There are three major named subranges: To the west of the western end of the Chilcotin Ranges, and considered by some to be part of the group, are: South of which are the Waddington Range and the Homathko Icefield . In recent years major provincial parks and protected areas have been created in the central-eastern part of

56-464: A protected area by the British Columbia provincial government in 2001, and then established as a Provincial Park by then-Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection Joyce Murray in 2004, with the new park's boundaries including 70% of the protected area and permitting limited resource extraction in the remaining area on the protected area's periphery. The protected area designation resulted from

84-412: A complex of peaks than a single icefield, in contrast to the other huge icefield-massifs of the southern Coast Mountains , which are not so peak-studded and tend to have more contiguous icemasses. The difficulty of access to the core of the massif delayed actual sighting, measurement and climbing of Mount Waddington until 1936; it had only been espied from Vancouver Island by climbers in the 1930s and

112-510: A long-term candidate for protection. The neighbouring Dickson , Shulaps and Bendor Ranges are all unprotected and have been or are being heavily logged, except for special preserves in alpine areas of the Shulaps and in its neighbour to the east, the Camelsfoot Range . Many on the environmentalist side hope that the creation of Tsʼilʔos and Big Creek Provincial Park will help shore up

140-758: Is the Pantheon Range , while to its south is the Whitemantle Range . Northeast across Mosley Creek, the main west fork of the Homathko River , is the Niut Range , while east across the Homathko River is the Homathko Icefield and its attendant ranges. Northwest across the Klinaklini River is the Ha-Iltzuk Icefield , which is the largest of the coastal icecaps of the southern Coast Mountains, larger than

168-604: The Bridge River Country , made it stand out for protection amid a region already wild and extremely beautiful before logging and hydroelectric development transformed the valley to the south. Many environmentalists hope that the creation of Tsʼilʔos and Big Creek Provincial Parks will help shore up the protection of the South Chilcotin Provincial Park which remained vulnerable to government review. Hunting guide Ted (Chilco) Choate of Gaspard Lake, on

196-594: The Chilcotin Country to the north. It adjoined Big Creek Provincial Park and Tsʼilʔos Provincial Park , which bordered it on the north and northwest, respectively. Part of the larger subrange of the Pacific Ranges known as the Chilcotin Ranges , the area was partially protected in the 1990s after 60 years of debate and controversy. Historically this region was the hunting territory of Chief Hunter Jack of

224-475: The Chilcotin Country , and also east across the Camelsfoot Range to the Fraser River near Big Bar . The area was the object of a protracted quarrel between preservationists and resource development which first began in the 1930s when prospectors and guide-outfitters dedicated to its natural beauty proposed it for preservation status. Charlie Cunningham, whose career as a wildlife filmmaker began in this area,

252-481: The Chilcotin Ranges , into the Bridge River Country where the park is located. Bert Brink, one of British Columbia's most renowned naturalists, advocated for the conservation of this area for over sixty years and lived to see it become a park before he died in 2007. The protected area was located on the inland lee of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains , on the north flank of the Bridge River Country and

280-406: The Coast Mountains in southwestern British Columbia , Canada . It is only about 4,000 km (1,500 sq mi) in area, relatively small in area within the expanse of the range, but it is the highest area of the Pacific Ranges and of the Coast Mountains , being crowned by its namesake Mount Waddington 4,019 m (13,186 ft). The Waddington Range is also extremely rugged and more

308-590: The Lakes Lillooet , whose big-game hunting business shared the region with hunters of the Tsilhqot'in people. The shared use of the area north of the Bridge River and Gun Creek was part of the settlement of an early 19th-century peace which had ended a long and bloody war between Hunter Jack's people and the Tsilhqot'in . Trails from the Bridge River Country led over the region to Taseko Lake and Chilko Lake in

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336-399: The Lakes Lillooet , whose big-game hunting business shared the region with hunters of the Tsilhqot'in people. The shared use of the area north of the Bridge River and Gun Creek was part of the settlement of an early-19th-century peace which had ended a long and bloody war between Hunter Jack's people and the Tsilhqot'in . Trails from the Bridge River Country led over the many ranges of

364-453: The Thompson - Okanagan . This has generated protests on both sides of the environment vs. resource quarrel, but also instigated a stakeholder committee known as an Integrated Resource Management Process Unit which has had varying degrees of success at resolving disputes and planning land-use in the region. Waddington Range The Waddington Range is a subrange of the Pacific Ranges of

392-500: The 1930s. A provincial park was established in the 1990s but was downgraded in 2007 to the Spruce Lake Protected Area . The political status of the area is uncertain and the area preserved is greatly reduced from the original proposals to protect it, which began in the 1930s during the heyday of the Bridge River goldfield towns just to the south. Historically this region was the hunting territory of Chief Hunter Jack of

420-556: The Blue Creek Mine. Other large mine prospects in the area include copper diggings covering the slopes of Red Mountain , the highest in the Camelsfoot Range just north of the Blue Creek Mine. The area's unique and distinct landscape and ecology, so different even from the rest of the Chilcotin Ranges or the rest of the Bridge River Country , is what made it stand out amid a region already wild and extremely beautiful and why it's

448-558: The Chilcotin Ranges. These are the Big Creek Provincial Park , the Tsʼilʔos Provincial Park (where the '?' is a glottal stop) and Big Creek Provincial Park , and the Spruce Lake Protected Area and Churn Creek Protected Area . This region is commonly (but incorrectly) known as the "South Chilcotin" and is the object of a protracted quarrel between preservationist movements and resource extraction proposals since

476-583: The Grand Canyon of the Homathko River , occurred the first gruesome event in the guerilla war known to history as the Chilcotin War of 1864. This resulted from the attempt by Alfred Waddington to build a road from Bute Inlet to Barkerville . Port Waddington , a land-survey left over from those days, remains on the map on the south bank of the Homathko where it empties into Bute Inlet . Waddington's Road

504-543: The Lillooet Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP), which attempted to address local community, environmental, recreation and resource interests. Even though it is not in the Chilcotin District proper, the area has been called the "South Chilcotins" since about 1980, when a group of conservationists started to promote the area for protection as a park. The South Chilcotin name is derived from its geographic position in

532-487: The South Chilcotin Mountains Park, a "Class A" park of 56,796 hectares, from Spruce Lake Protected Area. The remaining approximately 14,550 hectares were set aside for tourism and mining , but commercial logging is still prohibited. The bill also confirmed the implementation of the 2004 decision for mining/tourism zones in the Lillooet Land and Resource Management Plan area. The area was designated as

560-716: The Waddington Range's complex of glaciers and peaks or the Homathko Icefield . Spruce Lake Protected Area The Spruce Lake Protected Area , formerly known variously as the Southern Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park , Southern Chilcotins , and also as South Chilcotin Provincial Park , is a 71,347-hectare Protected Area in the British Columbia provincial parks system , approximately 200 km north of Vancouver . The area had been

588-437: The area are few, although the area is rich in copper and there are rumours of pitchblende (which contains uranium), but in over 100 years of exploration no profitable deposits of anything have been found and no major mines established. In recent years, however, clearcut logging has penetrated the flanks of the area and pushed the boundaries of the park from south and east, feeding mills at Lillooet, British Columbia and beyond in

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616-523: The interests who then owned the Bralorne - Pioneer Mine mines nearby. Physically daunting efforts to reach the alpine-elevation mine site over the Shulaps Range in order to preserve rights to the claim in the allotted time period almost destroyed the large pack-train, but the papers got filed. Those claims were shuffled aside during World War II but remained on the map and are currently under exploitation as

644-644: The protection of the Spruce Lake Protected Area . Hunting guide Ted (Chilco) Choate of Gaspard Lake, on the Chilcotin Plateau just northeast of the Spruce Lake Protected Area has joined in the call to combine all these three parks, plus the Churn Creek Protected Area to their northeast, plus some of the surrounding country and the deep, much higher heart of the Pacific Ranges into a National Park . Industry and government remain committed to shared use and sustainable planning. Mining interests in

672-439: The region to Taseko Lake and Chilko Lake in the Chilcotin Country , and also east across the Camelsfoot Range to the Fraser River near Big Bar . Though no mines have ever been found in the proposed protected area, other than a few marginal ones in the vicinity of Eldorado Mountain, the south flank of Big Dog Mountain at the northwest end of the Shulaps Range was the site of a major gold excitement in 1941, connected with

700-424: The subject of an ongoing preservationist controversy since the 1930s. In 2007, its status as a provincial park was downgraded to protected area. Recreational activities in the park included hiking, cycling, swimming, fishing and hunting, and there were walk-in wilderness camping sites. Wildlife in the protected area include grizzly bear , California bighorn sheep and wolverine . In June 2010, Bill 15 created

728-563: Was a driving force in the original movement for preservation. The Charlie Cunningham Wilderness proposal was revised in the 1970s as the Spruce Lake-Eldorado park proposal, and also as the Spruce Lake Management Planning Unit, but as land-use plans impinged on the proposed park area these names were abandoned. The area's unique and distinct landscape and ecology, different from the rest of the Chilcotin Ranges or

756-472: Was at first referred to as Mystery Mountain - because its existence until then had been unknown. Apparently even in First Nations lore its existence was spoken of only vaguely, as a possibility, and it seems unlikely the core of the massif was penetrated by any First Nations adventurer given the tremendous difficulty posed even for mountaineers equipped with modern outdoor gear. At its eastern edge, deep in

784-481: Was never completed because of the war, but was examined in later years as one of the main possible routings for the mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway . Choice of the route would see the terminus of the railway at Victoria but despite strong favour from that city and the province the railway chose Burrard Inlet , which as a result became today's Vancouver . Immediately north of the Waddington Range

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