Mill Lake is a small lake in the city of

Abbotsford, British Columbia Abbotsford is a city located in British Columbia, adjacent to the Canada–United States border, Greater Vancouver and the Fraser River. With an estimated population of 153,524 people it is the largest municipality in the province outside metrop ...

, Canada, located between the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

and South Fraser Way. It is the centrepiece of Mill Lake Park.

History

Originally called lake Lekw'ōquem (Le-kwa-kwem) by the indigenous Stò:lō Nation that lived off the land. Mill Lake's first settler name was "Bais Lake", after an early settler farmer, before being renamed "Abbotsford Lake", due to its location. It was renamed "Mill Lake" because of its role in local forestry. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Abbotsford resident

Charles Hill-Tout Charles Hill-Tout (1858–1944) was an ethnologist and folklorist, active in British Columbia, born in Buckland, Devon, England, on 28 September 1858. In his early years, Hill-Tout studied divinity at a seminary in Lincoln and preached in Cardiff. ...

opened a sawmill on the shores of the lake, and it contributed over 50,000

railway ties A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie ( Canadian English) or railway sleeper (Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transf ...

to the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

. In 1903, brothers Joe, Richard Arthur, Sam and Bill Trethewey purchased the mill, and in 1912 opened the Abbotsford Timber and Trading Company. This company swiftly became one of the highest employers in all of British Columbia, producing 20 million feet of timber boards per year. The lake was used to sort the logs that arrived by rail, where they were processed and sent to primarily American markets. The mill remained active until 1934, when the Great Depression and the depletion of local forests forced the brothers to close the site. The Abbotsford Lions Club purchased the site, removed the mill equipment, and began the process of turning Mill Lake into a park, bringing in sand and grass locations for visitors.

Geography

Mill Lake is located in central Abbotsford, bordered to the south by Bevan Avenue, to the east by Ware Street, to the north by Mill Lake Road and Bourquin Crescent, and to the west by Emerson Street and Gladwin Road.

References

Lakes of the Lower Mainland Abbotsford, British Columbia New Westminster Land District {{BritishColumbiaCoast-geo-stub