Bowron Lake Provincial Park
History
Bowron Lake Park was originally protected as a Game Reserve in 1925. In 1961, it was established as a Class A Park. It was named for John Bowron, the first Gold Commissioner of nearby Barkerville. There are several trappers’ cabins along the circuit, dating from the 1920s. Although no intensive gold mining occurred in what is now Bowron Lake Park, the surrounding area has a rich history from the Cariboo Gold Rush of the 1860s.
Cultural Heritage
Bowron Lake
Park has a strong history of First Nations and European use and
settlement. Much of this use has been intertwined with the presence
of plentiful wildlife and rich fisheries in the park. The physical
evidence of the park’s heritage is distributed throughout. Some
evidence, like the old trappers’ cabins, is in plain sight while
some evidence lies buried. In other cases, the history of the area
exists only in the memories and stories of First Nation elders or
handed down to second and third generation landowners and local
historians.
While the word “wilderness” is often used to describe Bowron Lake Park,
its mountains, lakes and rivers have been used for food, shelter
and sustenance, economic development and recreation long before
society decided to protect it as a provincial park. The marks and
evidence of its former residents and users can be found in the old
cabins, trails, axe blazes, crumbling chimneys, rotting mileposts,
the occasional projectile point and the long since removed rail
portages.
First Nations Use
Many early European
visitors to the area wrote about the First Nations people they encountered.
They talked about the trapping, hunting, fishing and gathering activities
of these people and speculated about which “people” they
were. Early accounts suggest they were the “Takulli” or
Carrier people, but others mentioned Shuswap or even Iroquois. Many
of these accounts refer to a village situated at Bear (Bowron) Lake
complete with between nine to eleven kekuli (pit) houses and approximately
100 people. As in many First Nations communities, the smallpox epidemics
of the 1860s struck hard in this community. The village site itself
apparently sloughed into Bowron Lake in 1964. Some reports attribute
this sloughing to undermining and mud slides, while others blame
the event on the seismic shock from the 1964 earthquake in Anchorage,
Alaska. Other First Nations sites have been noted, including clam
middens, buried campfires, projectile points and cache pits, but
little formal archaeological or traditional use work has occurred.
Many of the
place names in Bowron Lake Park have their origins in the Carrier
language, including Mt. Ishpa (meaning “my father”), Kaza
Mountain (meaning “arrow”), the Itzul Range (meaning “forest”)
and the Tediko Range (meaning “girls”). Lanezi Lake is
also derived from Carrier language and means “long”. Lanezi
was known as Long Lake for years.
The Gold Rush
The Cariboo
Gold Rush of the 1860s brought many of the first non-natives into
the Cariboo Mountains. Miners and prospectors working along the
Fraser River tributaries eventually founded the mining town at Quesnel
Forks. Continuing upstream past Cariboo Lake, they came upon what
they called Swamp River. This may have been the area in Cariboo
River Park. As the miners and prospectors continued on, they
would have found Cariboo Falls, and then Unna Lake, Babcock Lake
and others in the chain. They likely would have continued up the
Matthew River, exploring the valley and perhaps spending time at
Ghost Lake in Cariboo Mountains Park.
Miners prospecting from Williams Creek and Antler Creek would have
eventually found Bowron Lake (then known as “Bear Lake”),
since the Antler River joins the Bowron River right below Bowron
Lake.
Exploration
of the Bowron and Cariboo Mountains country continued throughout
the 1860s and onward. Canadian Pacific Railroad engineers looked
for links through the mountain passes and John Bowron, the Gold
Commissioner, sent parties exploring into the hills to look for
new gold-bearing ground and routes. One of the routes from the Cariboo
to Tete Jaune Cache in the Robson Valley was located along the Goat
River Pass. Mileposts were put in and the trail was cleared enough
for dog sleds in the winter. The Grand Trunk Railroad, which was
built in 1914, put an end to the effectiveness of the Goat River
route. Another route through the mountains, called the “Dominion
Route” was located between Lanezi Lake and Castle Creek.
Settlement
From the earliest
days of non-native settlement in the Cariboo Mountains, Bowron Lake
played a central role. Early entrepreneurs in Barkerville caught
kokanee in the lake and sold them to the hungry miners. (Rumour
has it an ounce of gold bought a pound of the tasty salmon!) After
the gold rush was over, trapping and guiding began to play a larger
role in the economy of the area. After the First World War, returning
soldiers were given land grants, and a number of families began
farming along the Bowron River. Several lodges were built around
the lake, and guides with names like Kibbee and Wendle were bringing
in tourists for big game hunting.
Establishment of the Park
By the early
1920s there was a concern that wildlife populations were under increasing
stress in the Bowron Lake area. Thomas McCabe, John Babcock and
Joe Wendle proposed a no-hunting conservation area around the inside
of the chain of lakes as a wildlife sanctuary where animals could
reproduce without disturbance, using Yellowstone and Glacier National
parks as examples. A 240 square mile reserve was established in
1925. Since 1925, Bowron Lake Park has been enlarged a number of
times in order to make the boundaries make more ecological sense
and to increase recreational access to the lakes. The largest additions
came in 1961 when it was originally designated a park and in 2000
with the addition of the Betty Wendle, Wolverine and portions of
the Upper Cariboo River.
Conservation
The park is a wildlife sanctuary and is closed to hunting. Increased park visitation during recent years has placed a great deal of pressure on the park’s resources. If we are able to preserve the wilderness experience, it is up to each visitor to treat this special area with the respect it deserves by following the park’s rules and regulations.
Wildlife
One of the reasons
Bowron Lake Park attracts so many visitors is the high likelihood
of wildlife sightings. You may encounter both moose and bear. Never
stress wildlife by approaching too closely. Binoculars and a telephoto
lens are well worth bringing on your trip.
A wide variety
of wildlife lives in the park, including moose, deer, mountain goat
caribou, black bear, grizzly bear, waterfowl, beaver, and otter.
Rainbow trout, lake trout, bull trout, Rocky Mountain whitefish
and Kokanee salmon inhabit the waters of the park. In the winter,
trumpeter swans depend on the open waters of the Bowron Marsh and
Cariboo River.