Pitt Lake
Encyclopedia
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding and including Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of 2007, 2,524,113 people live in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there.While the term Lower Mainland has been...
of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, being about 53.5 square kilometres in area. It is about 25 km long and about 4.5 km wide at its widest, and is also one of the world's largest tidal lakes, its confluence with the Fraser
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
being only a few miles upstream from that river's estuary into the Strait of Georgia
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately long and varies in width from...
. Its southern tip, where the Pitt River
Pitt River
The Pitt River in British Columbia, Canada is a large tributary of the Fraser River, entering it a few miles upstream from New Westminster and about 25 km ESE of Downtown Vancouver. The river, which begins in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coast Mountains, is in two sections above and below Pitt...
resumes, is 40 km east of Downtown Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
.
The upper Pitt River valley is a typical U-shaped glacial valley in the Coast Mountains
Coast Mountains
The Coast Mountains 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. They are so-named because of their proximity to the sea coast, and are often...
of British Columbia. The overdeepening
Overdeepening
Overdeepening is a characteristic of basins and valleys eroded by glaciers. An overdeepened valley profile is often eroded to depths which are hundreds of metres below the deepest continuous line along a valley or watercourse...
of the lower end of the valley over the span of the Wisconsin glaciation
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....
created a trough over 140 m below current sea level. After initial glacial retreat at around 13,000 years ago a saltwater fjord occupied this basin when relative sea levels were still ca 120 to 140m above current levels in the region. Unlike neighbouring Indian Arm and Howe Sound farther west this fjord basin became cut off by sedimentation of the lower Fraser River by ca 10,500 years ago and is now considered a tidal fjord lake.
The community of Pitt Meadows occupies the marshy lowland at the southern end of the lake, some of which has become drained and is known as the Pitt Polder
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...
. Just southwest of the lake is the community of Port Coquitlam, which is across the Pitt River
Pitt River
The Pitt River in British Columbia, Canada is a large tributary of the Fraser River, entering it a few miles upstream from New Westminster and about 25 km ESE of Downtown Vancouver. The river, which begins in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Coast Mountains, is in two sections above and below Pitt...
from Pitt Meadows. At the north end of the lake is a locality named Alvin
Alvin, British Columbia
Alvin is an unincorporated locality just north of the head of Pitt Lake in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada.Alvin was formerly located at the homestead and farm of Alvin Thomas Patterson , a logging contractor and farmer who settled there about 1901, originally from...
, which is a transport and shipping point for logging companies and their employees. The Upper Pitt, meaning the valley upstream from the lake, is considered BC's best fly-fishing rivers and one of its best steelhead streams.
The lake is popular with boaters and canoeists, but is prone to heavy winds and rains as well as big waves (due to its great depth). The mountain range on its east flank comprises Golden Ears Provincial Park
Golden Ears Provincial Park
Golden Ears Provincial Park is a Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada at 555.9 km². It is named after the prominent twin peaks which are commonly referred to as Golden Ears...
, its basin to the north is in southern Garibaldi Provincial Park
Garibaldi Provincial Park
Garibaldi Provincial Park, also called Garibaldi Park, is a wilderness park located in British Columbia, Canada, about 70 kilometres north of Vancouver. The park is located to the east of the Sea to Sky Highway between Squamish and Whistler and covers an area of over 1,950 square kilometres...
, while the mountain range on its west, northeast of Vancouver's
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
Coquitlam Lake watershed reservoir, is Pinecone Burke Provincial Park
Pinecone Burke Provincial Park
Pinecone Burke Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It extends from the southwest corner of Garibaldi Provincial Park, west of Pitt Lake and Pitt River to include Burke Mountain in the City of Coquitlam. Most of the park is unserviced wilderness with very rough trails...
. The waterfront and foreshore of the lake and river are public-access and include extensive migratory wildfowl habitat. Part of it is protected by BC Parks as the Pitt Polder Ecological Reserve. There is a destination golfing resort in the Pitt Polder area called Swan-e-set. Also at the south end of Pitt Lake, adjacent to the Polder, is Pitt Lake Indian Reserve 5.
It is the second-largest lake in the Lower Mainland
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding and including Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of 2007, 2,524,113 people live in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there.While the term Lower Mainland has been...
. The largest is Harrison Lake
Harrison Lake
Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres in area. It is about 60 km in length and at its widest almost 9 km across. Its southern end, at the resort community of Harrison Hot Springs, is c. 95 km east of...
, 60 km east, which is the last in a series of north-south lake and river combinations that line the north bank of the Fraser River
Fraser River
The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver. It is the tenth longest river in Canada...
in its last stretch west through BC's Lower Mainland
Lower Mainland
The Lower Mainland is a name commonly applied to the region surrounding and including Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of 2007, 2,524,113 people live in the region; sixteen of the province's thirty most populous municipalities are located there.While the term Lower Mainland has been...
. Others are those of the valleys of the Coquitlam
Coquitlam Lake
Coquitlam Lake is a reservoir located just north of Coquitlam, British Columbia. It is one of the three main water sources for Metro Vancouver, and also a part of BC Hydro's power generation system...
, Alouette
Alouette Lake
Alouette Lake, originally Lillooet Lake and not to be confused with the lake of that name farther north, is a lake and reservoir in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. It is located at the southeast foot of the mountain group known as the Golden Ears and is about 8 km in length on a...
, Stave
Stave Lake
Stave Lake is a hydroelectric reservoir in the Stave River system, located on the northern edge of the District of Mission, about 65 km east of Vancouver, British Columbia. The main arm of the lake is just over 20 km long, and there is a southwest arm ending at Stave Falls Dam about...
, and Chehalis Lake
Chehalis Lake
Chehalis Lake is a lake on the Chehalis River in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The lake and the river share the name with the community of Chehalis, British Columbia, which is the home of the Sts'Ailes people, a Halqemeylem-speaking Coast Salish group...
s, beyond which is Harrison
Harrison Lake
Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres in area. It is about 60 km in length and at its widest almost 9 km across. Its southern end, at the resort community of Harrison Hot Springs, is c. 95 km east of...
.
Folklore
The area along the east side of the lake is somewhat famous for being the reputed location of SlumachSlumach
Slumach who died on the gallows in New Westminster, BC, in 1891 was an elderly Katzie First Nations man. Baptized moments before his death he was given the first name "Peter", a name never used in his lifetime. His unmarked grave is in St. Peter's Cemetery in Sapperton...
's lost gold mine
Pitt Lake Gold
Pitt Lake's Lost Gold Mine is a legendary lost mine said to be near Pitt Lake, British Columbia, Canada, the supposed wealth of which has held the imagination of people worldwide for more than a century...
, the location of many failed and sometimes disastrous searches for the alleged murderer's lost gold mine. Local historian Bill Barlee
Bill Barlee
Neville Langrell Barlee is a Canadian politician who was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia as a New Democrat in 1988...
has said "that this highly colourful and interesting tale, accepted as fact by a host of treasure seekers, probably does not exist."
According to Barlee by the geological information available it would appear unlikely that a gold deposit would be found in the region of Pitt Lake. Historian Garnet Basque states that geologists are convinced that the region around Pitt Lake is not gold bearing.
The lost mine of Pitt Lake is a story without scientific support.