Pacific Lake

British Columbia. Lake: Fraser River drainage
Expansion of Bad River (James Creek) at its headwaters
54.3833 N 121.6 W — Map 93I/5 — GoogleGeoHack
Name officially adopted in 1959
Official in BCCanada

In 1793 the expedition of Alexander Mackenzie [1764–1820] crossed the Continental Divide through the unnamed pass that contains this lake, crossing from Parsnip River, in the Arctic drainage, to Bad River (James Creek), in the Pacific drainage. They crossed from east to west on June 12:

We embarked on this lake [Pacific Lake], which is in the same course, and about the same size as that which we had just left [Portage Lake], and from whence we passed into a small river [James Creek or Bad River], that was so full of fallen wood, as to employ some time, and require some exertion, to force a passage. At the entrance, it afforded no more water than was just sufficient to bear the canoe.

References:

  • Mackenzie, Alexander [1764–1820]. Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the Years 1789 and 1793 with a Preliminary Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Fur Trade of That Country. London: T. Cadell, Jun., and W. Davies, 1803. Internet Archive

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