The Taseko Lakes are a pair of lakes, Upper Taseko Lake and Lower Taseko Lake, which are expansions of the upper

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 ...

in the southern

Chilcotin District The Chilcotin () region of British Columbia is usually known simply as "the Chilcotin", and also in speech commonly as "the Chilcotin Country" or simply Chilcotin. It is a plateau and mountain region in British Columbia on the inland lee of the Co ...

of the Central Interior of British Columbia,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Their name is based on the original in the

Chilcotin language ''Nenqayni Ch’ih'' (lit. "the Native way") (also Chilcotin, Tŝilhqotʹin, Tsilhqot’in, Tsilhqút’in) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqot’in people. The name ''Chilcotin'' is derived from the Ch ...

, Dasiqox Biny, where "Desiqox" means "Mosquito River" and is cognate to the name of the river as in English; the Chilcotin name refers to both lakes as one lake, which was also originally the case with the English usage until official designation of the separate lakes in 1954. The lakes are separated by the short Taseko Narrows, the name of which in Chilcotin is ''nanats'akash'', and is an important crossing place for deer. The Tchaikazan River flows the area between the upper & lower lake from the southwest, while the Taseko River feeds it from the southeast, while the equally large Lord River joins it from the south, at the head of the lake.

History

The Taseko Lakes were proposed to be part of a massive hydroelectric development which would have seen the flow of the Taseko River dammed and diverted westward via a tunnel to

Chilko Lake Chilko may refer to: *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. Th ...

, which would have been also dammed and diverted through further tunnels to

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 ...

on 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 ...

, which unlike the Taseko and

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 ma ...

s drains directly to the ocean at

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

rather than via the Chilcotin and Fraser Rivers. Fisheries and aboriginal

land claims A land claim is defined as "the pursuit of recognized territorial ownership by a group or individual". The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims. Some types of land claims include aboriginal land claims, A ...

concerns have derailed the Taseko diversion, although the Chilko diversion remains as a possibility. The Taseko Lakes are now part of

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 also includes Chilko Lake and the intervening country, including

Nemaiah 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 Col ...

and Yohetta Valley, which form wide alpentals connecting the two lake valleys.

References

Chilcotin Ranges Lakes of the Chilcotin Lillooet Land District {{cariboo-geo-stub

History

See also

References