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40-490: Communities served consist of the N'Quatqua ( Anderson Lake ), Lil'wat ( Mount Currie ), Samahquam (Baptiste-Smith), Sekw'el'was (Cayoose Creek), Skatin ( Skookumchuck ), T'it'q'et ( Lillooet ), Tsalalh ( Seton Lake ), Ts'kw'aylaxw ( Pavilion ), Xa'xtsa ( Douglas ), and Xaxli'p (Fountain). In 1986 the Lillooet first nation band council established a security program where officers patrolled reserves and worked with

80-424: A mixed train service began mid-month. The rail head reached the western end of Seton Lake late in the following month. The stations along the west side of the lake have been as follows: ^a . The station existed by 1916 ^b . The station existed by 1915. In August 1944, a northbound passenger train struck a landslide. The engineer and fireman drowned when the locomotive and tender plunged into

120-723: A 25 km (16 mi) powerline road from D'Arcy at the farther end of Anderson Lake known as the High Line and in recent times dubbed the Douglas Trail, in reference to the old Douglas Road route from Harrison Lake to Lillooet. There is no road connection along Seton Lake, but that route is used by the British Columbia Railway (now CN ); the Seton Lake First Nation operates a railbus, the Kaoham Shuttle , between

160-467: A large landslide on the east side. During 1964–2016, the mean annual winter temperature was −1 °C (30 °F) and summer was 21 °C (70 °F). The area falls within the rain-shadow of the Coast Mountains , experiencing a semi-arid low mean annual precipitation of 300 to 400 millimetres (12 to 16 in) and forest primarily of Ponderosa Pine . Over the 210-metre (700 ft) descent of

200-676: Is 140 metres (460 ft) and maximum depth is 215 metres (705 ft). The size and depth help trap glacial silt entering from tributaries which would cloud the water. The lake has not completely frozen in recent centuries but has in the past. The water is a few degrees warmer than Seton Lake. At the north end, the outflow is the Seton River . Anticlockwise, the main tributaries are Sundquist Creek, Six Mile Creek, Connel Creek, Xusum Creek, McGillivray Creek , Mellott Creek, Scutt Creek, D'Arcy Creek, Gates River , Pinney Creek, McDonnell Creek, Wade Creek, and Lost Valley Creek. The rapid Gates River at

240-434: Is home to two Seton Lake First Nation communities at either end of the portage and a non-native recreational community between them. Local services include a post office , fire department , library , and general store , among other small businesses. The community is also the location of Seton Portage Historic Provincial Park , a small provincial park protecting a historically significant stretch of railway. "The Portage"

280-575: Is in a state of decay. Heritage-preservation funding has enabled the band to restore the church at Nkait. Population estimates of the pre-Contact populations of the Lakes Lillooet people widely vary, with some traditions into the thousands on the Lakes alone. No one knows for sure, and the archaeological record here would be impossible to explore, as the land where the evidence would be has been stampeded and dug up and plowed under many times over, even on

320-616: Is on these alluvial benches, but Seton Portage is entirely situated atop the rubble of the great slide, but covered with good soils from the inroads of vegetation over the millennia. Prior to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and the Portage's role as a key component in the Douglas Road - the sheltered and fertile land of the Portage had been home to what are estimated to have been hundreds of quiggly holes ( kekuli , meaning "underneath" in

360-552: The Chinook Jargon ), each of which had been a house with multiple residents. One witness to the pre-Gold Rush Portage told of coming over the mountain pass which leads into the valley from the north, and looking down on the Portage looked like "many stars in the sky". Such a description suggest a very large population, but no one knows for sure, and between smallpox and other foreign diseases, raids from neighbouring tribes in pre-Contact decades (see Nicola's War ) and ensuing famine,

400-720: The Fraser Gold Rush , the Seton valley lapsed into obscurity until the 1890s, when gold exploration scoured the region in the wake of the Cayoosh Gold Rush of the 1880s. Alienation of native land by white settlers at the outset of the 20th century led to the Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe , an assertion of native ownership and sovereignty by the chiefs of the St'at'imc in 1916. In 1914,

440-537: The Pacific Great Eastern Railway was built through Seton Portage and its twin community Shalalth , which is farther east along Seton Lake . The valley became an important food supply for the booming goldfields in the Bridge River from the 1920s to the 1950s because of its lower elevation (255 metres or 837 feet) and hence warmer climate and long growing season (favorable enough for bigleaf maple at

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480-577: The RCMP to prevent and prosecute crime. In 1988 the council built on the security program by forming the peacekeepers for the communities of T'itq'et, Tsalalth, and Lil'wat. By 1992, the Solicitor General of British Columbia and seven Stlʼatlʼimx communities established a tribal policing project. An agreement with the RCMP formalized a partnership and the RCMP's role as the primary policing authority in

520-650: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police . The event was covered by provincial and national television news media and led to province-wide protests in support of native land claims . Shortly afterward, the main railway bridge in Seton Portage was destroyed by an arsonist. Access to "The Portage" is via a 1,100-metre-high (3,500 ft) pass from the Bridge River known as the Mission Mountain Road , or

560-475: The St'at'imc were already reduced in population before the impacts of colonialism and industry reduced them even further. Because of agriculture and placer activity, all signs of pre-Contact St'at'imc settlement on the Portage were obliterated. Two 1890s-vintage churches built by the Oblate Fathers, and some of the adjacent log-cabin rancheries , still stand today though the one at Slosh, St. Christopher's,

600-532: The rancheries . As concerns the Gold Rush -era population, there is no figure for how many men were on the Portage at any one time, only an oft-repeated number of 30,000 as to the number of men that traversed the Lakes Route in the heat of the Gold Rush . The beaches of the Portage were so busy with men coming and going that they were given the names Wapping and Flushing , after the busy London Tube stations of

640-552: The "railway" - known as Dozier's Way - was drawn by horses and mules in one direction, and run on gravity in the other - was not used much after the colonial government built the Cariboo Road through the Fraser River canyon, in 1864, via Ashcroft , which bypassed Seton Portage and Lillooet , and was abandoned shortly thereafter (c. 1870) although its roadgrade survives today as the main local thoroughfare, Portage Road. Following

680-573: The Gates River, the climate changes. Emerging from the valley, the south end of the lake marks the boundary of the Dry Belt. Although a trail existed along the north shore, this section of the Douglas Road was mostly travelled via the lake, initially by canoe. Built on the lake for Chapman & Co, the 22-metre (72 ft) paddle steamer Lady of the Lake was launched in early summer 1860. Assumedly, this

720-694: The Long Portage, aka Pemberton Pass, which separates the Birken and Seton drainages. In 1858, gold was discovered in British Columbia. Steamships started running on both Seton Lake and Anderson Lake , and Seton Portage became a transportation bottleneck, as prospectors would need to portage for two kilometres (1.2 mi) between the lakes. In 1861, Carl Dozier constructed British Columbia's first railway here to transport passengers and freight across Seton Portage (then called Short Portage). Most likely

760-448: The Portage together, is about 500. The area was traversed by two Hudson's Bay Company employees in 1828, a journey which was later followed in 1846 by Scottish explorer Alexander Caulfield Anderson , who had been assigned to chart it and for whom Anderson Lake is named. Certain placenames along the route were conferred by Anderson later on, at the request of colonial Governor James Douglas . Seton Lake , and hence Seton Portage,

800-595: The communities served. Police officers appointed by the board are either experienced officers or graduates of the Justice Institute of British Columbia , Police Academy. In 2013, the Stlʼ;atlʼimx Tribal Police had an authorized strength of 9 police officers. Anderson Lake (British Columbia) Anderson Lake is a deep lake in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia . On

840-528: The early 1900s, which provoked the Declaration of the Lillooet Tribe (May 10, 1911) protesting the land alienations at "the Short Portage". Further settlement came with the building of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway , which was open through the Lakes by 1914 and which required the housing and feeding of hundreds of men, and with that the beginnings of the Bridge River Power Project . During

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880-524: The glacial moraine at the foot of Seton Lake , which had been at the foot of the Seton Glacier and, after it melted, dammed the older, larger lake in until the slide and its destructive wave (see megatsunami ). The inundation then washed part of it away to open Seton Creek and drain the glacial melt to today's lake level, or close to it (since the lake level is 10–12 feet higher because of the power project completed in 1958). Much of neighbouring Shalalth

920-417: The lake, and tributaries deposited sediment. Over tens of thousands of years, the accumulation created separate lakes, and a river formed from Anderson to Seton, which by 1910 was about 18 metres (60 ft) lower (currently 15 metres (50 ft)). Minimal agricultural land exists along the mountainous shores of the lake beyond a limited area at the portage. Here, a noticeable gap in the mountains indicates

960-449: The lake. A car derailed, but crew and passengers escaped injury. The locomotive was never recovered. In November 1954, six cars of a freight train derailed. In December 2000, when 17 cars of a southbound freight train derailed, three plunged to the bottom of the lake. Canadian National Railways have operated the BC Rail line since 2004. Although riding the Kaoham Shuttle beyond

1000-455: The lakes when seeking a new HBC fur brigade route from Fort Alexandria . In 1858, Governor James Douglas commissioned Anderson to establish a route to the goldfields during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush . Encouraged by the governor, he named the first lake after himself. The lake is 21.3 kilometres (13.2 mi) long and averages 1.4 kilometres (0.9 mi) wide. The surface area is 28.6 square kilometres (11.0 sq mi). The mean depth

1040-457: The late 1940s and 1950s, the construction boom caused by the renewal of that project after World War II brought thousands of long-term temporary residents into the valley, with many of these living in temporary trailer camps and prefab houses in the Portage. Following the end of that project, the non-native population has dwindled to 400, cresting to 500 in summer with seasonal residents and visitors. Band population in total, including Shalath and

1080-616: The name of the project, not because it was on that river). The railway line at Seton Portage was blockaded in August 1990 by members of the Seton Lake Indian Band (population: over 500), a branch of the St'at'imc Nation, who were demonstrating in support of the Mohawks during the Oka Crisis . A day or two after a visit by then-Premier William Vander Zalm , the blockade was suppressed by

1120-480: The new year. The public ferry was subsidised 1912–1915. Refloated after sinking in October 1915, the 50-passenger motorboat was moved to Seton Lake in summer 1916 to operate as a pleasure craft. In November 1912, the railway contractor erected a headquarters at the southwestern end of the lake. The northward advance of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE) rail head reached this point in early December 1914, and

1160-427: The northeast corner of its natural range). The locality is known for its fine fruit-growing weather - McIntosh apples grown here are considered some of the best in the world, but there is only one commercial orchard today. During the construction of the Bridge River Power Project , the population of the Portage boomed and hundreds of temporary houses and barracks were brought in to house workers and their families. It

1200-649: The northwest side are the Bendor Range and Cadwallader Range . On the southeast is the Cayoosh Range . By road, the southern end is about 47 km (29 mi) northeast of Pemberton . In 1827, Francis Ermatinger of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), the first European explorer, referred to the Seton and Anderson lakes as the first and second Peseline Lake (various spellings). In 1846, Alexander Caulfield Anderson ventured along

1240-478: The participating communities. In 1999, the BC Police Act was amended to include designated policing agencies. The STPS were re-established under Section 4.1 of the act as a designated policing agency. STPS is the only First Nations Administered Police Service (FNAPS) in British Columbia. Modeled on the structure of an independent municipal police department, the department is governed by a police board selected from

Stlʼatlʼimx Tribal Police Service - Misplaced Pages Continue

1280-545: The paving ends. A 33-kilometre (21 mi) seasonal gravel road over high rocky bluffs, known as the High Line Road, traverses the western side of the lake. Seton Portage Seton Portage ( / ˈ s iː t ən ˈ p ɔːr t ə dʒ / ) is a community on a narrow strip of land between Anderson Lake and Seton Lake in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District , British Columbia. The community

1320-468: The regular Seton Lake route to include the Anderson west shore has been advertised as available by advance appointment in the past, whether the arrangement of such an excursion is still possible is unclear. Boating, fishing, water skiing, windsurfing, canoeing, mountain biking, off roading, and snowmobiling are popular. Boat launches exist at the two ends. At D’Arcy, the southern tip, a campground operates and

1360-507: The same names. Within a few years that traffic had disappeared (see Douglas Road ) and the non-First Nations population of the Portage from then until the arrival of the Oblates in the 1880s was few, if any at all, although travellers still occasionally used the route of which the location was intrinsically a part. The first non-native settlers since the Gold Rush occupied lands at the Portage in

1400-526: The south end (formerly called Anderson Creek) is the primary inflow. The region comprises a mix of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. At the end of the Last Glacial Period (LGP), Seton and Anderson were a single continuous lake, with a level about 100 metres (330 ft) higher than present. At the Seton Portage area, erosion and landslides of weak rocks susceptible to rapid weathering tumbled into

1440-401: Was built to move workers and supplies during the railway construction, but was destroyed in a violent storm. In late June 1912, the 9.1-metre (30 ft) gasoline-powered Dolly Varden made its first trip up the lake. The service connected with the regular Seton Lake boat and the stage from Pemberton. That year, the railway construction contractor was building a tug and scow for launching in

1480-452: Was during this period that festivities surrounding the 1958 Centennial of the Province of British Columbia saw Short Portage renamed Seton Portage . Local parlance already referred to the valley simply as "Seton", a term still in use today that collectively describes Seton Portage, Shalalth and the remaining hydro company townsite at South Shalalth (formerly known as Bridge River after

1520-454: Was formed about 10,000 years ago when the flank of the Cayoosh Range , which is the south flank of the valley, let go and slid into the middle of what had been a single lake. The result is a location similar to Interlaken , Switzerland , with two fjord-style lakes flanking a narrow and very short strip of land between them. Remnants of old lake bottom survive as benchlands lining the north banks of Seton and Anderson Lakes . It may be that

1560-513: Was named for a friend of Anderson's who had perished in the sinking of HMS  Birkenhead . Farther along Anderson's route to the Coast to the southwest, which later was to become the Douglas Road , there is a Mount Birkenhead, the Birkenhead River and Birkenhead Lake, and also the rural community of Birken and a lake of the same name. Birken Lake is the summit lake of Seton Portage's big twin,

1600-562: Was the vessel that qualified for the $ 150 government grant. However, competition for freight and passengers from small sail boats allegedly made the steamer operation unprofitable. Before year end, the steamer schedule connected with the Seton Lake one. In 1862, the Port Anderson – Short Portage steamer fare was $ 1. First Nations provided an informal canoe service. In 1911, the Bluebird

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