Seton Lake is a freshwater

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

draining east via the

Seton River The Seton River is a tributary of the Fraser River in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The name is relatively new, and encompasses what had formerly been the Seton Portage River or Portage Creek (aka Portage River) and Seton Creek (whic ...

into 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 the town of

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 ...

, about long, in area and lies at an elevation of . Its depth is . The lake is natural in origin but was raised slightly as part of the

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 ...

, the two main powerhouses of which are on the north shore of the upper end of the lake near

Shalalth Shalalth and South Shalalth are unincorporated communities on the northern shore near the western end of Seton Lake in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The localities are by road about northwest of Lillooet, but o ...

. At the uppermost end of the lake is the community of

Seton Portage Seton Portage () is a community located on a narrow strip of land between Anderson Lake and Seton Lake in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia. The community is home to two Seton Lake First Nation communities at either end of t ...

and the mouth of the short Seton Portage River, which connects Anderson Lake on the farther side of the Portage to Seton Lake. The Seton Portage River is the main source of natural inflow to Seton Lake, and is primarily fed by Anderson Lake but also by Whitecap Creek, which has its origin on the east slopes of Whitecap Mountain, the highest in the

Bendor Range The Bendor Range is a small but once-famous subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, about It is approximately 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 mi2) in area and about 40 km long (NW to SE) and about 18 km at its widest. ...

, and by Spider Creek, which has its origin on the north slopes of an unnamed summit to the south of Seton Lake, which happens to be the highest of the

Cayoosh Range The Cayoosh Range is the northernmost section of the Lillooet Ranges, which are a subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. The range covers an area of c. 3770 km² (1455 sq mi) and is approximately 65 ...

which lines the south flank of the valley. The

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

(formerly the

British Columbia Railway BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British ...

, originally the Pacific Great Eastern) runs along the north shore of the lake. Seton Lake, 8 juin 2008

Prior to the construction of the power project, Seton was considered the bluer and clearer and more brilliant of the two lakes. Afterwards, diversion of the glacial silt-laden waters of the

Bridge River The Bridge River is an approximately long river in southern British Columbia. It flows south-east from the Coast Mountains. Until 1961, it was a major tributary of the Fraser River, entering that stream about six miles upstream from the town of ...

into Seton Lake have transformed it into a dull turquoise, and

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...

is now considered the bluer of the two lakes. The lake was named in the 1860s by

Alexander Caulfield Anderson Alexander Caulfield Anderson (10 March 1814 – 8 May 1884) was a British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fur-trader, explorer of British Columbia and civil servant. Anderson joined HBC in 1831 and emigrated to Canada from Europe. He was placed ...

, who traversed the uncharted territory in 1846, after his cousin and boyhood friend, Lt. Col. Alexander Seton, who was drowned in the wreck of the troopship off the South African coast in 1852. In 1858 the route of the

Douglas Road The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cattle Trail, which ...

incorporated the lake passage.

References

External links

Bridge River-Lillooet Country ArchiveCanadian Mountain EncyclopediaAerial view looking WAerial view looking NWAerial view looking NWSeton Lake Lookout Hiking Trail
{{authority control Lakes of British Columbia Reservoirs in British Columbia History of British Columbia Bridge River Country Lillooet Country Fjords of British Columbia