Dease Lake

Dease Lake is a small community in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is 230 km south of the Yukon border on Stewart–Cassiar Highway (Highway 37) at the south end of the lake of the same name. Dease Lake is the last major centre before the Alaska Highway while driving northbound, and also the junction to Telegraph Creek and the Grand Canyon of the Stikine. Dease Lake Indian Reserve No. 9 is nearby and is under the governance of the Tahltan First Nation band government.

The town sits astride a drainage divide separating the basins of the Dease River (to the north) from that of the Tanzilla (to the south), a tributary of the Stikine. As this is a division point between drainage to the Pacific Ocean, via the Stikine, and the Arctic Ocean, via the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers, this is part of the Continental Divide.

The town has a school, various stores, a fuel and service station, hotel, and a Northern Lights College campus. It used to have a restaurant and a pub, but both have closed. On the reservation there is a local candy shop known as Jeans candy shop, run by and elderly lady that has been selling candy and other similar items for years. The town also has two local restaurants, 1 being a burger and fries place known as the Shack, 2 being a Filipino restaurant known as Nimpha’s Asian Food Eatery. Dease Lake also has a local gym at Service BC open Monday-Friday at 5-9, with amenities as various gym equipment, bathrooms and showers, and free wifi. The town sees a large influx of visitors during the summer months from tourists on their way to the Alaska Highway, Yukon, and Alaska. A majority of these tourists are from Canada or the United States. Dease Lake is also a destination for hunting and other wilderness activities, and the local economy benefits from local gold, copper, and jade mining and exploration activities.