Tyaughton Creek, formerly gazetted as the Tyaughton River, also historically known as Tyoax Creek, is a 50 kilometre tributary 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, ...
's
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 ...
, flowing generally southeast to enter the main flow of that river about mid-way along the length of Carpenter Lake, a reservoir 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 ...
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 ...
.
Course
The creek begins at
Tyoax Pass Tyoax Pass is a mountain pass in the Chilcotin Ranges of the Pacific Ranges, the southernmost main subdivision of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Located at the head of Tyaughton Creek, a north tributary of the Bridge River, it c ...
, at the divide between the basins of the Bridge River and that of
Big Creek, which is a tributary of the
Chilcotin River
The Chilcotin River /tʃɪlˈkoʊtɪn/ located in Southern British Columbia, Canada is a long tributary of the Fraser River. The name Chilcotin comes from Tŝilhqot’in, meaning "ochre river people," where ochre refers to the mineral used by ...
. Its upper course flows east, then turns south and then southeast, entering a progressively deeper canyon until just northeast of
Tyaughton Lake
Tyaughton Lake, also known as Tyax Lake, is a lake in the Bridge River Country of the West-Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located to the north of Carpenter Lake, a reservoir along the Bridge River formed by Terzaghi Dam of the B ...
, which is connected to it by a short creek, and then turns east-southeast between
Pearson Ridge (SW) and
Marshall Ridge (NE) in a continuation of its canyon until it emerges as a side-inlet of Carpenter Lake which was formed by the creation of Carpenter Lake. That inlet is bridged at the mouth of that inlet by
BC Highway 40, also known as the
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 abo ...
-
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 ...
Road or the Carpenter Lake Road. Before the lake's creation its outlet was at the lower side of the road, and it was bridged by the predecessor route, then known as the Bridge River Road.
Access to Tyaughton Creek is available from a series of secondary roads that run parallel to the creek upstream from where it passes
Tyaughton Lake
Tyaughton Lake, also known as Tyax Lake, is a lake in the Bridge River Country of the West-Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located to the north of Carpenter Lake, a reservoir along the Bridge River formed by Terzaghi Dam of the B ...
. Between
Tyaughton Lake
Tyaughton Lake, also known as Tyax Lake, is a lake in the Bridge River Country of the West-Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located to the north of Carpenter Lake, a reservoir along the Bridge River formed by Terzaghi Dam of the B ...
and its outlet into
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 ...
, however, the steep-sided gorges make for difficult and sometimes treacherous access on foot.
Tributaries
Tyaughton Creek's main tributaries are Liza Creek, Eldorado Creek, Noaxe Creek, Mud Creek and Relay Creek. Tyaughton, Eldorado and Relay Creeks all have their sources at passes along the northwestern boundary of the area known as the
Spruce Lake Protected Area
The Spruce Lake Protected Area, formerly known variously as the Southern Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park, Southern Chilcotins, and also as South Chilcotin Provincial Park, is a 71,347-hectare Protected Area in the British Columbia provincial ...
. The protected area has seen various park proposal names, including the Charlie Cunningham Wilderness and the Spruce Lake-Eldorado Mountain park, and most recently as the "South Chilcotin Provincial Park" but this status was downgraded from park to protected area in 2006.
History
The name Tyaughton is an adaptation of the
Chilcotin word for "jumping fish", and has also appeared on the map in the form Tyoax or Tyax, the latter being the simplified form used by the Tyax Mountain Lake Resort, a five-star resort on Tyaughton Lake, which is tributary to the creek. The name appears to have been conferred by
Chief Hunter Jack Hunter Jack of Shalalth inhabited the Bridge River Country region of southwestern British Columbia. He was a larger-than-life indigenous personality who died in 1905.
Character
His formal name was Jack Tashpola or Tash Poli. He was born at 22-Mile ...
, chief of the Lakes Lillooet (a subdivision of the
St'at'imc, today's
Nequatque
N'Quatqua, variously spelled Nequatque, N'quat'qua, is the proper historic name in the St'at'imcets language for the First Nations village of the Stl'atl'imx people of the community of D'Arcy, which is at the upper end of Anderson Lake about 35 ...
and
Seton Lake First Nations) during the later 19th Century and a legendary hunting guide who held claim to the title of Hyas Tyee (king) of the Bridge River Country.
Hunter Jack's gold wealth was also legendary and is believed to be based on a mysterious
placer find, believed to be somewhere in the uppermost reaches of Tyaughton Creek (he is known to have chased off parties of Italian and Chinese miners who were getting too close). His adoption of a Chilcotin name for a lake in his territory conforms to other Chilcotin names in use in
St'at'imc territory, notably that of the adjacent
Shulaps Range
The Shulaps Range is a subrange of the Chilcotin Ranges subset of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in southwest-central British Columbia. The range is 55 km NW–SE and 15 km SW–NE and 2,970 km2 (1150 mi2) in area. ...
(just east of Tyaughton Creek) and the
Yalakom River The Yalakom River is a tributary of the Bridge River, which is one of the principal tributaries of the Fraser River, entering it near the town of Lillooet, British Columbia. In frontier times it was also known as the North Fork of the Bridge Rive ...
, just east of that range, and also
Noaxe Lake, high on the side of the Shulaps Range above the Tyaughton basin.
Hunter Jack was one of the few Lillooet natives who spoke Chilcotin, and is said to have learned it in order to end a bloody war which had raged over the rich hunting and food-gathering grounds of the area of the upper Bridge River, including the basin of Tyauughton Creek. The end of the war is said to have come about at a place now called
Graveyard Valley
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
, which lies over a narrow
defile from the head of Relay Creek, Tyaughton's northernmost tributary, which is in the upper basin of
Big Creek, a tributary of the
Chilcotin River
The Chilcotin River /tʃɪlˈkoʊtɪn/ located in Southern British Columbia, Canada is a long tributary of the Fraser River. The name Chilcotin comes from Tŝilhqot’in, meaning "ochre river people," where ochre refers to the mineral used by ...
.
The polychromatic mineralization of the Tyaughton basin's geology caught the eye of early explorers, but despite extensive exploration no viable mines have ever operated in its boundaries. In the 1930s, times when the Bridge River Country was as much known for big-game hunting as for gold mining,
Charlie Cunningham
Charlie Cunningham (born August 23, 1948) is a mountain biker from Fairfax, California.
Along with frame builder Steve Potts and his helper Mark Slate, Cunningham co-founded Wilderness Trail Bikes (WTB). Cunningham and Potts were forced out ...
, a guide and multi-faceted entrepreneur in the goldfield hub of
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 ...
first promoted the idea of protecting the region north of Gun Creek and west of Tyaughton and south of Relay, as a wildlife preserve and scenic wilderness treasure, and in the process became a pioneering wildlife cinematographer.
[''The Great Years: Gold Mining in the Bridge River Country'', Lewis Green, Tricouni Press, Vancouver, 2000] In the years since the region has been a hot-point in the mining industry's complaints about protectionist restrictions, and mining interests have been the primary factor in blocking full park status for the area. Although some of the area has been established as
a provincial protected area and the adjacent basins to the north and northwest are now provincial park, controversy over its eventual boundaries continues.
See also
*
Gun Creek
*
References
{{authority control
Rivers of British Columbia
Bridge River Country
Chilcotin Ranges
Canyons and gorges of British Columbia