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 Lake and is on a more-or-less north-south course. Like the lake it is tidal in nature as the Fraser's mouth is only a few miles downstream from their confluence.
The river was named for William Pitt the Younger. The first mention of the name, as "Pitts River", occurs in the 1827 journal kept by James McMillan of the Hudson's Bay Company. The river has an alternate name, Quoitle, which is probably equivalent to Kwantlen.
East of the lower Pitt River, 20 km long, is the community of Pitt Meadows, while to its west are the cities of Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam; opposite its mouth is Surrey. Port Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows are connected by the Highway 7 bridges and the rail trestles of the double-tracked CPR mainline, whose vast main western yards begin on the Pitt's western shore. The plain of the lower Pitt was berry marsh and bog prior to its dyking. The farmland is on the east bank in Pitt Meadows; the poorer soil quality and scrubland on the west shore has encouraged largescale suburbanization in Port Coquitlam. On the west shore in the upper stretches of the lower Pitt is Minnekhada Regional Park, residence of former governor-general Clarence Wallace. It was later sold to Daon Corp., who sold off portions. The Province then bought it, anticipating future development in the area; future provincial governments sold off even more portions.
The upper Pitt's basin is short but is fed by a number of icecaps and mountain streams, such that the river gets quite large only 50 km from its source in Garibaldi Provincial Park. East of the upper Pitt is Golden Ears Provincial Park (formerly a part of Garibaldi Provincial Park). Barge traffic from logging camps in the upper Pitt basin is a regular sight on the Pitt Lake as well as in the area of the two highway bridges and CPR mainline bridge just up from the confluence of the Fraser.
The Pitt is one of a number of north-south river-lake valleys which join the Fraser along the north side of the lower Fraser. The others are the valleys of the Coquitlam River, the Alouette River, the Stave River, Suicide Creek (Norrish Creek), the Chehalis River and, lastly, the valley of Harrison Lake, 60 km east of the Pitt.
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Famous quotes containing the words pitt and/or river:
“The little I know of it has not served to raise my opinion of what is vulgarly called the “Monied Interest;” I mean, that blood-sucker, that muckworm, that calls itself “the friend of government.””
—William, Earl Of Pitt (1708–1778)
“Up a lazy river by the old mill run, that lazy, lazy river in the noonday sun.”
—Sidney Arodin, U.S. songwriter. “Lazy River,” Peer International Corp. (1931)