The Clear Range is a small

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

located in the angle of the

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...

and

Thompson River The Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. The Thompson River has two main branches, the South Thompson River and the North Thompson River. The ri ...

s in south-central

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. It has a small subdivision just northeast of that confluence named the Scarped Range. The Clear Range totals 16,270 km² (6,280 mi²) and is 75 km (47 mi) north to south and 35 km (22 mi) east to west (at its widest point). The Clear Range and its northward neighbour the Marble Range are both subranges of the Pavilion Range. It and the neighbouring Marble Range line the east bank of the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

north of the town of

Lytton, British Columbia Lytton is a village of about 250 residents in southern British Columbia, Canada, on the east side of the Fraser River and primarily the south side of the Thompson River, where it flows southwesterly into the Fraser. The community includes th ...

. The Clear Range extends as far as the town of

Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

and is bounded by the south wall of

Marble Canyon Marble Canyon is the section of the Colorado River canyon in northern Arizona from Lee's Ferry to the confluence with the Little Colorado River, which marks the beginning of the Grand Canyon. Lee's Ferry is a common launching point for rive ...

on the north. The southeast flank of the Clear Range is the

between

Ashcroft Ashcroft may refer to: Places * Ashcroft, British Columbia, a village in Canada **Ashcroft House in Bagpath, Gloucestershire, England—eponym of the Canadian village * Ashcroft, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Ashcroft, Colorado, ...

and Lytton, while to its northeast are the

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

and Trachyte Hills, and beyond them the Arrowstone Hills of the Bonaparte Plateau. The range is horseshoe-shaped, facing the high rangeland-plateau basin of Hat Creek, which drains northeast to join the

Bonaparte River The Bonaparte River is a tributary of the Thompson River, joining it at the community of Ashcroft, British Columbia. The river is about long, including the length of Bonaparte Lake. Rising on the Silwhoiakun Plateau to the northwest of Kamloops, B ...

, a tributary of the

Thompson Thompson may refer to: People * Thompson (surname) * Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician Places Australia *Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality Bulgaria * Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province Canada * ...

. All of these areas, including the Clear Range, are classified by geographers as belonging to the Fraser Plateau, which is part of the

Interior Plateau The Interior Plateau comprises a large region of the Interior of British Columbia, and lies between the Cariboo and Monashee Mountains on the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range on the west.''Landforms of British Co ...

Terrain

The outer flanks of the range are steep, particularly on the side of the

, where the northerly peaks are a high plateau-edge almost 2000 m (7000 ft) above the river below. The core of the range is rugged and has a complex series of interlocking valleys.

Karst Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

formations throughout the area suggest caves, though none has been discovered, and there are scores of intermittent waterfalls and sub-alpine swamps. The northern edge of the Clear Range is the south wall of

. The highest summits are Blustry Mountain, 2334 m (7657 ft); its neighbor Cairn Peak 2328 m (7638 ft); and north of them, Moore Peak, 2223 m (7293 ft); and Chipuin Mountain, 2170 m (7119 ft). The highest peak in the southern part of the range is Botanie Mountain (bu-TAN-ee), just north of Lytton 2077 m (6814 ft), but higher in the centre of the range is Mount Murray 2153 m (7064 ft). A separate ridge across the

from

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...

is named Fountain Ridge. It is geologically distinct, actually a sliver of plate between the Fraser and Yalakom Faults. Arthur Seat, 1672 m (5486 ft), lies in that range on the west side of

Spences Bridge Spences Bridge is a community in the Canadian province of British Columbia, situated north east of Lytton and south of Ashcroft. At Spences Bridge the Trans-Canada Highway crosses the Thompson River. In 1892, Spences Bridge's population inclu ...

, and was named by pioneer John Murray for the similarly-named mountain in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

.Bivouac.com entry "Arthur's Seat Mountain"
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Flora and fauna

The climate is varied, though mostly dry, especially on the west and southeast. The interior of the range gets more waterfall and is heavily treed relative to the canyons flanking it Typical boreal forest and mountain wildlife prevail:

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

black-tail deer Two forms of black-tailed deer or blacktail deer that occupy coastal woodlands in the Pacific Northwest of North America are subspecies of the mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus''). They have sometimes been treated as a species, but virtually all ...

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

, and various

rodents Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are nat ...

. The range's reptile populations include several varieties of dryland

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

and also the

timber rattlesnake The timber rattlesnake, canebrake rattlesnake, or banded rattlesnake (''Crotalus horridus'') Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a division of ...

; the Clear Range is the farthest northwest extent of the rattlesnake.

History and culture

The Clear Range is largely the domain of the

Nlaka'pamux The Nlaka'pamux or Nlakapamuk ( ; ), also previously known as the ''Thompson'', ''Thompson River Salish'', ''Thompson Salish'', ''Thompson River Indians'' or ''Thompson River people'', and historically as the ''Klackarpun'', ''Haukamaugh'', ''Kni ...

peoples, although the northwest edge of the range is occupied by communities of the St'at'imc people and a rancherie of the

band of the Secwepemc people at

, whose territory also includes southeastern portion of the range along the Thompson. There are no urban settlements or towns in the range although it is skirted by three major highways and also three rail lines (the BCR,

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore sponta ...

and CNR). Due to its location, it overlooked the great movement of goldseekers during the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

and

Cariboo Gold Rush The Cariboo Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Colony of British Columbia, which later joined the Canadian province of British Columbia. The first gold discovery was made at Hills Bar in 1858, followed by more strikes in 1859 on the Horsefly River, ...

es although no major mines or deposits were found on its slopes. At its northern extremity there is a large deposit of low-grade lignite, adjacent to

on the northwestern edge of the Hat Creek basin that has long been proposed for a major open-pit coal mine and coal-powered generating plant. The area is heavily logged but thereby interlaced with logging roads and other trails popular with 4x4 recreationists, mountain bikers and others.

References

*{{BCGNIS, 1990, Clear Range
Bridge River-Lillooet Country ArchiveClear Range
in the Canadian Mountain Encyclopedia Thompson Country Fraser Canyon Mountain ranges of the Interior Plateau