Anderson Lake is located about 25 miles North of the town of Pemberton, British Columbia and is about 28.5 km² (11 sq mi) in area and around 21 km (13 mi) in length. Its maximum depth is 215 meters (705 feet). It is drained by the

Seton River The Seton River is a tributary of the Fraser River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The name is relatively new, and encompasses what had formerly been the Seton Portage River or Portage Creek (aka Portage River) and Seton Creek (whic ...

, which feeds Seton Lake and so the Fraser River. It is fed by the

Gates River The Gates River is a short river in the Lillooet Country of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Approximately 14.5 km in length, it flows generally northeast from the outlet of Birken Lake (aka Gates Lake or Summit Lake) to it ...

, which drains from the

Pemberton Pass Pemberton Pass, , also formerly known as Mosquito Pass, is the lowest point on the divide between the Lillooet and Fraser River drainages, located at Birken, British Columbia, Canada, in the principal valley connecting and between Pemberton and Li ...

divide with the

Birkenhead River The Birkenhead River, formerly known as the Portage River, the Pole River and the Mosquito River, is a major tributary of the Lillooet River, which via Harrison Lake and the Harrison River is one of the major tributaries of the lower Fraser River. ...

valley towards Pemberton- Mount Currie. It and Seton Lake were originally the same lake, which was cut in half between ten and twenty thousand years ago by a large

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

from the north face of the

Cayoosh Range The Cayoosh Range is the northernmost section of the Lillooet Ranges, which are a subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. The range covers an area of c. 3770 km² (1455 sq mi) and is approximately 65 ...

, which fronts Anderson Lake on the east. The slide created a locality known today as

Seton Portage Seton Portage () is a community located on a narrow strip of land between Anderson Lake and Seton Lake in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia. The community is home to two Seton Lake First Nation communities at either end of t ...

, which combined with the steamer ''Lady of The Lake'' played a key role on the route of the

Douglas Road The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cattle Trail, which ...

during the

Fraser Canyon Gold Rush The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, (also Fraser Gold Rush and Fraser River Gold Rush) began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's c ...

of 1858–59.http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/bchf/bchq_1946_1.pdf At its head, near the mouth of the Gates River, is the community of D'Arcy, the

St'at'imcets Lillooet , known in the language itself as / (), is the language of the St’át’imc, a Salishan language of the Interior branch spoken in southern British Columbia, Canada, around the middle Fraser and Lillooet Rivers. The language of ...

name for which is

N'quatqua N'Quatqua, variously spelled Nequatque, N'quat'qua, is the proper historic name in the St'at'imcets language for the First Nations village of the Stl'atl'imx people of the community of D'Arcy, British Columbia, D'Arcy, which is at the upper end of ...

. Also on the lake is the resort/retirement community of

McGillivray Falls McGillivray may refer to: People * McGillivray (surname) Places * McGillivray Creek (British Columbia), a creek in the Lillooet Country of British Columbia ** McGillivray, British Columbia (formerly McGillivray Falls) in the Lillooet Country of B ...

(pron. McGill-vah-ree) which served as a relocation centre for

Japanese-Canadians are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living ...

during their World War II forced exile from the British Columbia Coast. Overlooking the lake from the north is the southeast flank of the

Bendor Range The Bendor Range is a small but once-famous subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, about It is approximately 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 mi2) in area and about 40 km long (NW to SE) and about 18 km at its widest. ...

, along the base of which runs the

British Columbia Railway BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British ...

, now owned by

Canadian National Railways The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

and originally built as the

Pacific Great Eastern BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British ...

. Skirting the shoulder of the

high above the lake is a powerline road, known as the High Line Road, connecting D'arcy to

, and from near D'Arcy a trail traverses the high

McGillivray Pass McGillivray Pass (1867 m or 6215 ft) is a mountain pass in the Pacific Ranges of southwestern British Columbia, Canada, located about 30 miles west of the town of Lillooet and immediately west of the upper end of Anderson Lake, above the form ...

to the gold towns of

Bralorne Bralorne ( ) is a historic Canadian gold mining community in the Bridge River District of British Columbia, some 130 km on dirt roads west of the town of Lillooet. Background Gold has been the central element in the area's history going ba ...

and

Pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

and the rest of the upper

Bridge River Country The Bridge River Country is a historic geographic region and mining district in the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, lying between the Fraser Canyon and the valley of the Lillooet River, south of the Chilcotin Plateau and north of the Lilloo ...

References

BCGNIS listing "Anderson Lake"Bridge River-Lillooet Country ArchiveCanadian Mountain Encyclopedia
Lakes of British Columbia Lillooet Country {{cariboo-geo-stub

See also

References