The Deadman River, also known as the Deadman's River, Deadman Creek or Deadman's Creek, is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the

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 ...

in the British Columbia Interior of

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, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is about in length.

Name

The river's name dates back to 1817, when Pierre Charette of the North West Company was killed by his travelling companion in a quarrel over the campsite. In 1827 Archibald McDonald, of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

, mapped it as Chivrette River. Other names the river has had include Knife, Dead, Defeant, Rivière du Défunt, and similar variants. According to

George Mercer Dawson George Mercer Dawson (August 1, 1849 – March 2, 1901) was a Canadian geologist and surveyor. Biography He was born in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the eldest son of Sir John William Dawson, Principal of McGill University and a noted geologis ...

the Shuswap name for the river is ''Hai in wohl'', meaning a circle or detour.

Course

The Deadman River originates in Hoover Lake, near Stockton Hill on the Bonaparte Plateau south of Bonaparte Lake. It flows south to join the Thompson River near Savona, west of

Kamloops Lake Kamloops Lake in British Columbia, Canada is situated on the Thompson River just west of Kamloops. The lake is 1.6 km wide, 29 km long, and up to 152 m deep. In prehistoric time, the lake was much longer, perhaps 20x, with adjacent silt ...

. Its tributaries include Chris Creek.

History

The lower portion of the river's route was a component in the

Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail The Hudson's Bay Brigade Trail, sometimes referred to simply as the Brigade Trail, refers to one of two routes used by Hudson's Bay Company fur traders to transport furs, goods and supplies between coastal and Columbia District headquarters at Fort ...

linking

Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading post that was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was located on the northern bank of th ...

to the New Caledonia fur district and during the

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 Rive ...

was adopted by overland travellers heading north via the Okanagan to the Cariboo. One roadhouse along that route is now a ranch and guest house, the Vidette Lake Gold Mine Ranch, at Vidette, British Columbia, which is the site of Vidette Lake, proclaimed n recent decades by

Tibetan monk Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

s to be the "Centre of the Universe." The economy of the basin is ranching-based.

References

{{authority control Thompson Country Rivers of British Columbia

Name

Course

History

See also

References