Kinbasket Lake (or Kinbasket Reservoir) is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

in southeast

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, ...

, north of the city of Revelstoke and the town of

Golden Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...

. The reservoir was created by the construction of the

Mica Dam Mica Dam is a hydroelectric embankment dam spanning the Columbia River 135 kilometres north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada. It was built as one of three Canadian projects under the terms of the 1964 Columbia River Treaty and is operated b ...

. The lake includes two reaches, Columbia Reach (to the south) and Canoe Reach (to the north), referring to the river valleys flooded by the dam. To the north it almost reaches the town of

Valemount Valemount () is a village municipality of 1,018 people in east central British Columbia, Canada, from Kamloops, British Columbia. It is between the Rocky, Monashee, and Cariboo Mountains. It is the nearest community to the west of Jasper Natio ...

in an impoundment of the

Canoe River The Canoe River is a river in southeastern Massachusetts. It is longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 and part of the Taunton River Watershed. The Canoe R ...

. To the south it reaches upstream the Columbia River towards the city of Golden. The original, smaller Kinbasket Lake was named in 1866 after Kinbasket, a chief of the Shuswap people. The modern, large lake was created after the completion of the

in 1973, and was called McNaughton Lake (after

Andrew McNaughton Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...

) until 1980. A number of small communities were inundated by the creation of Kinbasket Lake, and comprised a region known as the Big Bend Country, a subregion of the Columbia Country. Among these towns were

Mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

, Big Bend, Downie,

Boat Encampment Boat Encampment is a ghost town in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The locality was at the tip of the Big Bend on the north shore of the Columbia River. The general vicinity, on the former Big Bend Highway, was by road a ...

, La Porte and Beavermouth.

References

External links

Place name history for Kinbasket Lake
Lakes of British Columbia Columbia River Reservoirs in British Columbia Columbia Country Kootenay Land District {{BritishColumbiaInterior-geo-stub

See also

References

External links