Bonaparte Plateau

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Bonaparte Plateau
Canada British Columbia relief location map.jpg
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Bonaparte Plateau
Coordinates: 51°09′00″N121°17′00″W / 51.15000°N 121.28333°W / 51.15000; -121.28333
Location British Columbia, Canada
Part of Thompson Plateau

The Bonaparte Plateau, in British Columbia, Canada, is a sub-plateau of the Thompson Plateau which extends to the Quesnel River and lies between the Cariboo Mountains on the east and the Fraser River on the west. The Thompson Plateau is itself a sub-plateau of the larger Fraser Plateau.

Contents

Etymology

The name of the plateau comes from a chief of the Shuswap people who adopted the name Bonaparte in emulation of Napoleon Bonaparte, who for some reason was popular among the First Nations of British Columbia, apparently for his reputation as a chieftain and warrior. [1]

Geography

The Bonaparte Plateau lies between the Bonaparte River on the north and west, and the Thompson River on the east and south; on its northern edge is Bonaparte Lake, the largest in the locality and at the head of the Bonaparte River, near the edge of the plateau above the Thompson. [2]

Other streams draining the plateau is the Deadman River, in fur trade times known by its French name, Rivière Defunté, which joins the Thompson River at Savona, and Loon Creek, which runs west from Loon Lake to join the Bonaparte River between the towns of Clinton and Cache Creek. In the SE portion of the plateau near Kamloops, both Bonaparte and Loon Lakes are known for their recreational fishing, and the plateau is covered in many lakes and ponds which attract fly-fishing aficionados from around the world (notably Hihium Lake). [3] Porcupine Meadows Provincial Park is also located within this quadrant. Northeast of the Bonaparte Plateau there is a semi-mountainous region near the southern boundary of Wells Gray Provincial Park that is part of the Shuswap Highland (or the Quesnel Highland, depending on which definitions are used).

The Last Chance Lake and the Goodenough Lake beside it, [4] as well as the Probe Lake and the Deer Lake in the Cariboo Plateau, are soda lakes. [5]

The plateau is a mix of wilderness, large ranch holdings, and private recreational properties. The group of hills immediately northeast of Cache Creek have been preserved as the Arrowstone Hills Provincial Park. The Arrowstone Hills, the highest summit of which is 1,791 metres (5,876 ft), feature sand canyons, hoodoos and other unusual landforms and a rich wildlife population, including rattlesnake. The highest summit of the plateau overall is Silwhoiakun Mountain 1,870 metres (6,135 ft), at the top of the Silwhoiakun Plateau, which lies between Bonaparte Lake (N) and Kamloops Lake (S), between the Deadman River (W) and the North Thompson River (E).

Parks

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia Mountains</span> Mountain range in Canada and the United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interior Plateau</span> Region in Interior of British Columbia, Canada

The Interior Plateau comprises a large region of the Interior of British Columbia, and lies between the Cariboo and Monashee Mountains on the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range on the west. The continuation of the plateau into the United States is known there as the Columbia Plateau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cariboo Mountains</span> Mountain range in British Columbia, Canada

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cariboo Plateau</span> Geographic feature in British Columbia, Canada

The Cariboo Plateau is a volcanic plateau in south-central British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Fraser Plateau that itself is a northward extension of the North American Plateau. The southern limit of the plateau is the Bonaparte River although some definitions include the Bonaparte Plateau between that river and the Thompson, but it properly is a subdivision of the Thompson Plateau. The portion of the Fraser Plateau west of the Fraser River is properly known as the Chilcotin Plateau but is often mistakenly considered to be part of the Cariboo Plateau, which is east of the Fraser.

Cariboo was one of the twelve original electoral districts created when British Columbia became a Canadian province in 1871. Roughly corresponding to the old colonial electoral administrative district of the same name, it was a three-member riding until the 1894 election, when it was reduced through reapportionment and became a two-member riding until the 1916 election, after which it has been a single-member riding. It produced many notable Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), including George Anthony Boomer Walkem, third and fifth holder of the office of Premier of British Columbia and who was one of the first representatives elected from the riding; John Robson, ninth Premier of British Columbia; and Robert Bonner, a powerful minister in the W.A.C. Bennett cabinet, and later CEO of MacMillan Bloedel and BC Hydro.

Porcupine Meadows Provincial Park is a 2,704 hectare provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located north of Tranquille Lake to the northwest of Kamloops. Its name is a direct translation of the Shuswap word for this area, "pisitsoolsia", named so for the numerous porcupine in the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Secwépemc</span> First Nations people in Canada

The Secwépemc, known in English as the Shuswap peopleSHOOSH-wahp, are a First Nations people residing in the interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia. They speak one of the Salishan languages, known as Secwepemctsín or Shuswap.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinton, British Columbia</span> Village in British Columbia, Canada

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Okanagan Highland</span> Geographical region in North America

The Okanagan Highland is an elevated hilly plateau area in British Columbia, Canada, and the U.S. state of Washington. Rounded mountains with elevations up to 8,000 ft (2,400 m) above sea level and deep, narrow valleys are characteristic of the region.

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The Shuswap Nation Tribal Council is a First Nations Tribal Council in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Based in the Thompson and Shuswap Districts of the Central Interior, although including one band on the upper Columbia River in the East Kootenay region. It is one of two tribal councils of the Secwepemc people, the other being the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council of the Cariboo region farther to the north. The council is based in Kamloops, British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonaparte Indian Band</span>

The Bonaparte Indian Band a.k.a. Bonaparte First Nation, is a member band of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quesnel Highland</span>

The Quesnel Highland is a geographic area in the Central Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia. As defined by BC government geographer in Landforms of British Columbia, an account and analysis of British Columbia geography that is often cited as authoritative, the Highland is a complex of upland hill and plateau areas forming and defined as being the buffer between the Cariboo Plateau and the Cariboo Mountains, as a sort of highland foothills along the eastern edge of the Interior Plateau running southeast from a certain point southeast of the city of Prince George to the Mahood Lake area at the southeast corner of the Cariboo. Beyond Mahood Lake lies another separately classified area dubbed by Holland the Shuswap Highland which spans similar terrain across the North Thompson and Shuswap Lake-Adams River drainage basins, forming a similar upland-area buffer between the Thompson Plateau and the Monashee Mountains. A third area, the Okanagan Highland, extends from the southern end of the Shuswap Highland in the area of Vernon and Enderby in the northern Okanagan region into Washington State, and also abuts the Monashee Mountains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shuswap Highland</span>

The Shuswap Highland is a plateau-like hilly area of 14,511 km2 (5,603 sq mi) in British Columbia, Canada. It spans the upland area between the Bonaparte and Thompson Plateaus from the area of Mahood Lake, at the southeast corner of the Cariboo Plateau, southeast towards the lower Shuswap River east of Vernon in the Okanagan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deadman River</span> River in British Columbia, Canada

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Cache Creek, originally Rivière de la Cache, is a tributary of the Bonaparte River in the Thompson Country of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada, joining that river at the town of Cache Creek, British Columbia, which is located at the junction of the Trans-Canada and Cariboo Highways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trophy Mountain</span>

Trophy Mountain is a mountain in east-central British Columbia, Canada, located in the south-east region of Wells Gray Provincial Park. The Clearwater River flows to the west, Raft River to the east and Spahats Creek to the south. Trophy Mountain is part of the Shuswap Highland. There are nine summits in the group and the highest is 2,577 m (8,455 ft). Battle Mountain and Table Mountain are the closest summits to the north and Raft Mountain is immediately south. Trophy Mountain was given its name by Dan Case, a big-game hunting guide in the area.

References

  1. "Bonaparte Plateau". BC Geographical Names .
  2. "Bivouac - Bonaparte Plateau".
  3. "Bonaparte Provincial Park Management Plan" (PDF). Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  4. "Last Chance Lake and Goodenough Lake, map". openstreetmap.org.
  5. Zorz, Jackie K.; Sharp, Christine; Kleiner, Manuel; Gordon, Paul M.K.; Pon, Richard T.; Dong, Xiaoli; Strous, Marc (September 2019). "A shared core microbiome in soda lakes separated by large distances". Nature Communications. 10 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12195-5 . Retrieved 2024-07-05.