Tŝilhqox Biny (Pronounced: Tsyle-koh Bee), known as Chilko Lake, is a 180 km²

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 ...

in west-central

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, ...

, at the head of the

Chilko River The Chilko River is a river in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, flowing northeast from Chilko Lake to the Chilcotin River. Its main tributary is the Taseko River. The Chilko is the Chilcotin River's mai ...

on the

Chilcotin Plateau The Chilcotin Plateau is part of the Fraser Plateau, a major subdivision of the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. The Chilcotin Plateau is physically near-identical with the region of the same name, i.e. "the Chilcotin", which lies between t ...

. The lake is about 65 km long, with a southwest arm 10 km long. It is one of the largest lakes by volume in the province because of its great depth, and the largest above 1,000 m in elevation. It and

Harrison Lake Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres (95 mi²) in area. It is about 60 km (37 mi) in length and at its widest almost 9 km (5.6 mi) across. Its so ...

are the largest lakes in the southern

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains (french: La chaîne Côtière) are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia ...

. On March 11, 2019, the Province of British Columbia, working with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government, officially changed the name of the lake from Chilko Lake to Tŝilhqox Biny.

Geography

The inland equivalent of the many

fjords 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, Icela ...

which line the

British Columbia Coast , settlement_type = Region of British Columbia , image_skyline = , nickname = "The Coast" , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = British ...

on the other side of the Coast Mountains, Tŝilhqox Biny's glacial valley opens not out onto the ocean, but onto a broad lava plateau that lies inland from the highest section of the main range. The mountains at the head of the lake are among the highest in the province, and two broad, deep glacial valleys connect east to the smaller

Taseko Lakes The Taseko Lakes are a pair of lakes, Upper Taseko Lake and Lower Taseko Lake, which are expansions of the upper Taseko River in the southern Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Their name is based on the orig ...

, which drains northwards parallel to the

, both of them converging with 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 ...

which is a tributary of the

Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal e ...

Tatlayoko Lake Tatlayoko Lake is a lake on the Homathko River in the western Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada, located on a north-south axis just upstream of the entrance of the series of canyons of the Homathko, including ...

, to the west across another range, is not part of the Chilcotin-Fraser drainage, however, but is part of the

Homathko River The Homathko River is one of the major rivers of the southern Coast Mountains of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of the few rivers that penetrates the range from the interior Chilcotin Country to the coastal inlets of the P ...

drainage to

Bute Inlet , image = Bute Inlet.jpg , image_size = 260px , alt = , caption = , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Strathcona RD, British Co ...

. The area spanning the head of Tŝilhqox Biny and Taseko Lake basins and the two valleys between the two lakes has been preserved as the

Tsʼilʔos Provincial Park Tsʼilʔos Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. Tsʼilʔos ( ;BC Geographical Names Information System roughly in Chilcotin) is the official BC Parks designation for this provincial park, though sometimes it is writt ...

, which is co-administered by the Parks Branch of the provincial government and by the

Xeni Gwet'in The Xeni Gwet'in, also known as the Stone Chilcotin, are a First Nations people whose traditional territory is located in the southern Chilcotin District of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the inland flank of the Coast Mountains west ...

, who are the residents of

Nemaia Valley Nemaiah Valley, also spelled Nemiah Valley and Nemaia Valley, is an unincorporated locality and First Nations reserve and ranching community between Chilko Lake and the Taseko Lakes in the Chilcotin District of the Central Interior of British C ...

and one of the component bands of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people; Nemaia is the more northerly of the two east–west valleys, the southerly one is Yohetta Valley. Tsi'l?os is the Tsilhqot'in name for

Mount Tatlow Tŝ’ilʔoŝ, also known as Mount Tatlow, is one of the principal summits of the Chilcotin Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains of southern British Columbia. Standing on an isolated ridge between the lower end of Chi ...

3,063 m (10,049 ft), which stands in the ranges between Chilko and Taseko Lakes. Higher still are the mountains at the head of Tŝilhqox Biny, crowned by 3,182 m (10,440 ft) Monmouth Mountain, and to the southwest of the lake, between the two arms, is

Mount Good Hope Officially Good Hope Mountain but commonly known as Mount Good Hope is one of the principal summits of the Pacific Ranges of the southern Coast Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It stands immediately west of Chilko Lake, with the highest p ...

3,242 m (10,636 ft), with the range rising west from there towards

Mount Queen Bess Mount Queen Bess is one of the principal summits of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains of southern British Columbia. It stands west of Chilko Lake and to the south of Tatlayoko Lake, and crowns a peak-studded ridge to the north of the Ho ...

3,298 m (10,820 ft), to the south of Tatlayoko Lake and higher still beyond to

Mount Waddington Mount Waddington, once known as Mystery Mountain, is the highest peak in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Although it is lower than Mount Fairweather and Mount Quincy Adams, which straddle the United States border between Alaska ...

History

The area around Tŝilhqox Biny was where some of the backwoods maneuverings and sit-outs of the

Chilcotin War The Chilcotin War, the Chilcotin Uprising or the Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people in British Columbia and white road construction workers. Fourteen men employed by Alfred Wadd ...

of 1864 took place, and the Tsilhqot'in people who live here, the Xeni Gwet'in, are said to include descendants of

Klatsassin Lhatŝ’aŝʔin (also known as Klatsassan or Klattasine; died 1864), a chief of the Chilcotin ( Tsilhqot'in) people, led a small group of warriors in attacks on road-building crews near Bute Inlet, British Columbia, in April and May 1864. The road ...

, the main leader of the war. The vicinity of the lake is also the habitat of some of the last holdouts of the Chilcotin Country's once-numerous herds of wild horses, especially in the plateau-terrain area known as the Brittany Triangle area between the Chilko and

Taseko River The Taseko River or Dasiqox in the original Chilcotin, is a tributary of British Columbia's Chilko River, a tributary of the Chilcotin River which joins the Fraser near the city of Williams Lake. The Taseko has its origins at Taylor Pass in ...

s, which is currently (2005) a subject of

preservationist Preservationist is generally understood to mean ''historic preservationist'': one who advocates to preserve architecturally or historically significant buildings, structures, objects, or sites from demolition or degradation. Historic preservation us ...

vs resource industry controversy, though not as high profile as other regions of the province. In the 1950s, Tŝilhqox Biny and River were passed over as a potential hydropower resource for

Alcan Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During t ...

due to the salmon presence.Kendrick, John
The Vision – The Plan
''

Royal BC Museum Founded in 1886, the Royal British Columbia Museum (sometimes referred to as Royal BC Museum) consists of The Province of British Columbia's natural and human history museum as well as the British Columbia Provincial Archives. The museum is loca ...

''. Accessed: 16 February 2012. Projected hydroelectric plans to divert the Taseko Lakes into Tŝilhqox Biny, and the combined Chilko and Taseko flows into Tatlayoko Lake and via a series of dams down the

, have been scrapped because of the provincial park status enjoyed by Chilko and Taseko Lakes. The area between Tatlayoko and Tŝilhqox Biny is not protected, however, and plans for the dams and power plants in the canyon the Homathko River are still possible. One, the largest, would be built immediately atop the site of the first "battle" of the Chilcotin War, marked on government maps as "Murderer's Bar".

References

{{authority control Lakes of the Chilcotin Lakes of British Columbia History of British Columbia Range 2 Coast Land District

Geography

History

See also

References