Hayward Lake is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

and

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on the

Stave River The Stave River is a tributary of the Fraser, joining it at the boundary between the municipalities of Maple Ridge and Mission, about east of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in the Central Fraser Valley region. Blocked since the 1920s by t ...

in the

Lower Mainland The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 Canadia ...

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 ...

. Located in the District of Mission about 60 km east of Vancouver, Hayward Lake is formed by

Ruskin Dam Ruskin Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Stave River in Ruskin, British Columbia, Canada. The dam was completed in 1930 for the primary purpose of hydroelectric power generation. The dam created Hayward Lake, which supplies water to a 105 MW ...

, which lies about 3 km upstream from the Stave River's confluence with 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 ...

at Ruskin, which sits astride the Mission- Maple Ridge boundary. The lake begins at the tailrace from the Stave Falls Dam and is about 7.5 km in length and an average of 0.5 km wide, with a maximum width of 1.5 km when lengths of small inlets are taken into account.

History

Though cleared of debris since, for many years Hayward Lake was a flooded forest full of dead trees, which had not been logged by the time of the inundation of the canyon of the Stave River, which lies today in the lake's depths behind Ruskin Dam. The original roadbed of the Stave Falls Branch of the

British Columbia Electric Railway The British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) was an historic railway which operated in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Originally the parent company for, and later a division of, BC Electric Company (now BC Hydro), the BCER assumed contro ...

climbed the canyon walls, now underwater, but the line was rebuilt as part of the construction of Ruskin Dam and its track along the west side of the lake is now a hiking and biking trail. Trestles used by the railway are still present along this route, although their ends have been demolished to prevent access for safety reasons. The west side trail, and a hiking-only route on the east side of the lake, are part of a BC Hydro recreation division project; a park at the lake's upper end, where there had been a townsite during construction of the Stave project, now has a public beach and includes a bandstand built for the filming of '' We're No Angels'' above Stave Dam and moved to its present location afterwards. The lake is named for the first operations manager of the Stave Powerhouse.

Recreation

In addition to the public beach at the Stave Falls end of the lake, there are small beaches along the lakeside trail. Canoeing on the lake is now mostly safe though some "snags" remain; power boats are not permitted, and canoeing or swimming within 1 km of Ruskin Dam is prohibited due to the risk of being sucked into the Ruskin Powerhouse's intakes, with a log-boom drawn across from shore to shore as a reminder.

References

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BC Hydro Hayward Lake Recreation Site webpage''Hydro Parks Crackle With Fall'', column by Jack Christie in the ''Georgia Straight'' weekly magazine, Oct 9, 2006
{{British Columbia hydrography Reservoirs in British Columbia Mission, British Columbia Lakes of the Lower Mainland New Westminster Land District