Clearwater River (British Columbia) - History and Naming

History and Naming

Overlanders. The Overlanders expedition to the Cariboo goldfields rafted down the North Thompson River in 1862. When they arrived at the mouth of the Clearwater River, they noted its distinct clarity compared to the muddy North Thompson and named it Clear Water. In 1863, the first tourists, Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle, traveled through the North Thompson Valley and solidified the Clearwater River name by publishing it in their journal, The Northwest Passage by Land (London, 1865).

The Clearwater River starts as a typical silt-laden glacial stream, then flows into Hobson Lake which acts as a huge settling basin for the glacial material. Clearwater Lake downstream continues the silt removing process. Three major tributaries all have large lakes on them as well: Azure River with Azure Lake, Murtle River with Murtle Lake, and Mahood River with Canim Lake and Mahood Lake. The North Thompson River, by contrast, has no lakes on it so silt from the Thompson Glacier at its origin as well as its glacial tributaries is carried the whole length of the river.

The Overlanders bestowed only two place names during their perilous journey on the North Thompson River: Clear Water River and Raft Peak above the town of Clearwater.

Prospecting and mining. On August 20, 1866, the B.C. Tribune, published in Yale, reported: "...a party of prospectors which went up the Clear Water River about fifty miles, early this season, discovered a quartz ledge on a tributary of it which appears to be very rich in silver." The Cariboo Sentinel of Barkerville commented on October 13, 1869: "About forty Chinamen are working the bench by shooting the gravel down to the Clearwater River, and are making from $4 to $9 a day. With proper water works this bench would yield a large amount of gold, and its extent offers employment to hundreds of miners." Neither of these reports suggests the specific location of the activities on the Clearwater River and, as mileage calculated in those days was generally inaccurate, the figure given by the B.C. Tribune is practically meaningless. Later reports about hydraulic mining, however, indicate that the Chinese miners were probably working upstream from Hobson Lake.

The spark that ignited a flurry of prospecting and mining activity along the Clearwater River was probably provided by H.R. Bellamy of Nelson in 1899: "I believe that all the streams from the west, flowing into the North Thompson River have brought down more or less gold, especially the Clearwater...This river has no doubt brought down vast quantities of gold and deposited it along the bed of the Thompson..."

By the 1920s, much of Hobson Creek and the Clearwater River above Hobson Lake had been staked and active mining or hydraulicking was underway. The Blue Ice Mine on Fred Wells Creek, a branch of Hobson Creek, was a unique endeavour. The name aptly described the site, located at an altitude of 2,075 m (6,808 ft), just 60 m (197 ft) away from an active glacier. Although showings of gold and silver were of an economical quantity during a 1938 survey, the site was never fully developed, because of the unpredictable movements of the nearby glacier.

Canadian Pacific Railway. Between 1872 and 1881, about 20 survey parties fanned out across British Columbia trying to find the best route for the new railway between Yellowhead Pass in the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast. Three survey parties visited what is now Wells Gray Park. In 1873, Marcus Smith, searching for the ideal route to Bute Inlet, visited Hobson Lake and wrote in his diary: "The Clearwater River rises in a range of mountains to the northeast of Quesnelle Lake, and nearly due east of the latter it expands into a lake, which can be reached by a pass...said to be easy and not very high. There is the short space between Clearwater lake and the north fork of the North Thompson River, about which I can get no information....This is undoubtedly part of the Selkirk Range, and I have no expectation that a railway line could be got through it without a tunnel of considerable length, but this route would shorten the line so much that it is well worth consideration."

In 1874, the railway dispatched a survey party to explore the headwaters of the Clearwater River, under the leadership of E.W. Jarvis. The altitude of the pass was calculated at 2,130 m (6,988 ft) (actually only 1,800 m (5,906 ft)) and the route skirted an immense glacier before descending to the Raush River, a tributary of the Fraser River — “clearly impracticable for a railway line”. When the more southern Kicking Horse Pass was chosen instead in 1881, all the meticulously examined routes in the Clearwater River basin were abandoned. Only three place names in Wells Gray Park recognize those 10 wasted years of surveys: Murtle River & Lake, Mahood River & Lake, and Marcus Falls.

Settlement. No homesteads were ever established beside the Clearwater River because there was no arable land. The closest one belonged to John Ray who arrived in 1911 and settled about 55 km (34 mi) up the Clearwater Valley from the North Thompson River. His nearest neighbour, Michael Majerus, was 16 km (10 mi) away. Ray cleared land and became nearly self-sufficient, making trips west to 100 Mile House only once or twice a year to pick up some supplies and trade his furs. He lived alone until 1932, then, at the age of 54, he married Alice Ludtke, age 20. They raised three children on this remote homestead. In 1946, they decided to move to Clearwater so the children could be educated in a school. It took many trips to move homes and John did not return from his last one in December 1947. Some friends trekked into the remote farm and found that John had died of a heart attack there. Today, the Ray Farm buildings are deteriorating and the house has collapsed. B.C. Parks has no funds for restoration, but the trail is in good condition and some interpretive signage has been installed.