Lajoie Dam is the uppermost of the storage dams of

BC Hydro The British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, operating as BC Hydro, is a Canadian electric utility in the province of British Columbia. It is the main electricity distributor, serving more than 4 million customers in most areas, with the excep ...

Bridge River Power Project The Bridge River Power Project is a hydroelectric power development in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located in the Lillooet Country between Whistler and Lillooet. It harnesses the power of the Bridge River, a tributary of the Frase ...

, which is located in the southwestern

Interior of British Columbia , settlement_type = Region of British Columbia , image_skyline = , nickname = "The Interior" , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivi ...

. It is located just west of the small semi-

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

Gold Bridge Gold Bridge is an unincorporated community in the Bridge River Country of British Columbia, Canada. Although numbering only around 40 inhabitants, Gold Bridge is the service and supply centre for the upper basin of the Bridge River Valley, which i ...

. An earthfill structure, it is 87 m (287 ft) and impounds c. of water in Downton Lake Reservoir. The Lajoie Powerhouse generates 22 MW with an average generating capacity of 170 GWh/year. A few miles downstream is

Carpenter Lake Carpenter Lake, officially Carpenter Lake Reservoir, is the largest of the three reservoirs of the Bridge River Power Project, which is located in the mountains west of Lillooet, British Columbia. The lake is about 185 kilometres north of the pro ...

, which is formed by

Terzaghi Dam Terzaghi Dam is the key diversion dam in BC Hydro's Bridge River Power Project. It forms the project's largest reservoir, Carpenter Lake west of Lillooet. Originally known as the Mission Dam, it was renamed Terzaghi Dam in 1965 to honor Karl von Te ...

, the largest of the

's structures. Downton Reservoir is named for Geoffrey M. Downton, a

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 dev ...

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

who was the first to recognize the

hydroelectric potential Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

in the drop in elevation between the

Bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

and Seton river systems. Lajoie Dam and Powerhouse are atop the site of

Lajoie Falls Lajoie may refer to: People * Andrée Lajoie (born 1933), Canadian jurist and academic * Bill Lajoie (1934–2010), American baseball player and general manager * Claude Lajoie (born 1928), Canadian Liberal Party member * Corey LaJoie (born 1991), ...

, which was named after Lazack Lajoie, a local "

mountain man A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...

" and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

huckster A huckster is anyone who sells something or serves biased interests, using pushy or showy tactics. Historically, the term meant any type of peddler or vendor, but over time it has assumed pejorative connotations. Etymology The original meanin ...

who promoted a townsite and mining complex around Gun Lake which never came to fruition.

References

* ''Water Powers, British Columbia'', BC Dept of Lands and Forests Water Rights Branch, Victoria 1954

External links

BC Hydro Bridge River Development Rec SiteAerial view of Downton Lake, looking westAerial view of Lajoie Dam from overhead
fro
Randall & Kat's Flying Photos
Dams in British Columbia Bridge River Country BC Hydro Publicly owned dams in Canada {{Canada-powerstation-stub