Mill Lake (British Columbia)

Last updated
Mill Lake
Mill Lake 3.jpg
View of Mill Lake in Abbotsford, British Columbia
Canada British Columbia relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Mill Lake
Location Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
Coordinates 49°02′41″N122°18′39″W / 49.04472°N 122.31083°W / 49.04472; -122.31083

Mill Lake is a small lake in the city of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, located between the Trans-Canada Highway and South Fraser Way. [1] It is the centrepiece of Mill Lake Park.

Contents

History

Originally called lake Lekw'ōquem (Le-kwa-kwem) by the indigenous Stò:lō Nation that lived off the land.

Mill Lake's first settler name was "Bais Lake", after an early settler farmer, before being renamed "Abbotsford Lake", due to its location. It was renamed "Mill Lake" because of its role in local forestry.

Around the turn of the twentieth century, Abbotsford resident Charles Hill-Tout opened a sawmill on the shores of the lake, and it contributed over 50,000 railway ties to the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1903, brothers Joe, Richard Arthur, Sam and Bill Trethewey purchased the mill, and in 1912 opened the Abbotsford Timber and Trading Company. This company swiftly became one of the highest employers in all of British Columbia, producing 20 million feet of timber boards per year. The lake was used to sort the logs that arrived by rail, where they were processed and sent to primarily American markets. The mill remained active until 1934, when the Great Depression and the depletion of local forests forced the brothers to close the site. The Abbotsford Lions Club purchased the site, removed the mill equipment, and began the process of turning Mill Lake into a park, bringing in sand and grass locations for visitors. [2]

Geography

Mill Lake is located in central Abbotsford, bordered to the south by Bevan Avenue, to the east by Ware Street, to the north by Mill Lake Road and Bourquin Crescent, and to the west by Emerson Street and Gladwin Road.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brampton</span> City in Ontario, Canada founded 1853

Brampton is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it the ninth most populous municipality in Canada and the third most populous city in the Greater Golden Horseshoe urban area, behind Toronto and Mississauga.

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

Abbotsford is a city located in British Columbia, next to the Canada–United States border, Greater Vancouver and the Fraser River. With a census population of 153,569 people (2021), it is the largest municipality in the province outside metropolitan Vancouver. Abbotsford–Mission has the third-highest proportion of visible minorities among census metropolitan areas in Canada, after the Greater Toronto Area and the Greater Vancouver CMA. It is home to Tradex, the University of the Fraser Valley, and Abbotsford International Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgetown, Ontario</span> Community in Ontario, Canada

Georgetown is a large unincorporated community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Halton. The town includes several small villages or settlements such as Norval, Limehouse, Stewarttown and Glen Williams near Georgetown and another large population centre, Acton. In 2016, the population of Georgetown was 42,123. It sits on the banks of the Credit River, approximately 40 km west of Toronto, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. Georgetown was named after entrepreneur George Kennedy who settled in the area in 1821 and built several mills and other businesses.

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

Mission is a city in the Lower Mainland of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It was originally incorporated as a district municipality in 1892, growing to include additional villages and rural areas over the years, adding the original Town of Mission City, long an independent core of the region, in 1969. It is bordered by the city of Abbotsford to the south and the city of Maple Ridge to the west. To the east are the unincorporated areas of Hatzic and Dewdney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancaster, Ontario</span> Community/former town in Ontario, Canada

Ancaster is a historic town in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, located on the Niagara Escarpment. Founded as a town in 1793, it immediately developed itself into one of the first significant and influential early British Upper Canada communities established during the late 18th century eventually amalgamating with the city of Hamilton in 2001. By 1823, due to its accessible waterpower and location at the juncture of prehistoric indigenous trading routes, Ancaster had become Upper Canada's largest industrial and commercial centre. Additionally, Ancaster had at that time attracted the 2nd largest populace (1,681) in Upper Canada, trailing only Kingston, but surpassing the populations of nearby Toronto (1,376) and Hamilton (1,000). After this initial period of prosperity in the late 18th century, sudden significant water and rail transportation advancements of the early 19th century would soon better benefit Ancaster's neighbouring towns nearer the Lake Ontario waterfront. Stationary steam engines for industries rapidly developing in the 19th century would eventually make Ancaster's water-powered industries less vital. As a result, after the 1820s, Ancaster's influence would begin to wane during the remainder of the 19th century.

The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E) was a railroad founded in Seattle, Washington, on April 28, 1885, with three tiers of purposes: Build and run the initial line to the town of Ballard, bring immediate results and returns to investors; exploit resources east in the valleys, foothills, Cascade Range, and Eastern Washington in 19th-century style, attracting more venture capital; and boost a link to a transcontinental railroad for Seattle, the ultimate prize for incorporation. The historical accomplishment of the line was Seattle to Sumas at the border, with British Columbia, Canada, connecting with the Canadian Pacific transcontinental at the border at Huntingdon, British Columbia, now part of the City of Abbotsford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bancroft, Ontario</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Bancroft is a town located on the York River in Hastings County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was first settled in the 1850s by United Empire Loyalists and Irish immigrants. From the mid-1950s to about 1982, mining was the primary industry. A village until 1999, Bancroft then merged with Dungannon Township to form the Town of Bancroft. The population at the time of the 2016 Census was 3,881; the regional population is 40,000. There are 150,000 visitors to Bancroft, annually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bradford, Ontario</span> Community in Ontario, Canada

Bradford is the primary country urban area of the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario, in Canada. It overlooks a farming community, known as The Holland Marsh, located on the Holland River that flows into Lake Simcoe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbotsford, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Abbotsford is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km (1.2 mi) north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Yarra local government area. Abbotsford recorded a population of 9,088 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarkson, Mississauga</span> Neighbourhood in Peel, Ontario, Canada

Clarkson, also called Clarkson Village, is a neighbourhood in the city of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, situated in the southwest corner of the city, along the shore of Lake Ontario. It is bordered by Lake Ontario to the south, Oakville to the west, Erindale and Erin Mills to the north, and Lorne Park to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chetwynd, British Columbia</span> District municipality in British Columbia, Canada

Chetwynd is a district municipality located in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. Situated on an ancient floodplain, it is the first town eastbound travellers encounter after emerging from the Rockies along Highway 97, and acts as the gateway to the Peace River Country. The town developed during the construction of infrastructure through the Rocky Mountains in the 1950s; additionally, it was used as a transshipment point during the building of hydroelectric dams, in the 1960s and 1970s, and the new town of Tumbler Ridge, in the early 1980s. Home to approximately 2,600 residents, the town’s population has increased little—if at all—since the 1980s, but is significantly younger than the provincial average.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jarrahdale, Western Australia</span> Suburb of Perth, Western Australia

Jarrahdale is a small historic town located 45 km south-east of Perth, Western Australia in the Darling Range. The name is derived from its situation in a jarrah forest. Established in the late 1800s as the state's first major timber milling operation, it played a key role in the development of Western Australia through the exportation of jarrah around the world. At the 2016 census, Jarrahdale had a population of 1,192. Since 2001, the historic precinct has been managed by the state's National Trust organisation alongside private residential and tourism-oriented developments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nairn and Hyman</span> Township in Ontario, Canada

Nairn and Hyman is a township in the Canadian province of Ontario. The township, located in the Sudbury District, borders on the southwestern city limits of Greater Sudbury west of the city's Walden district. The township had a population of 342 in the Canada 2016 Census.

The District of Kent is a district municipality located 116 kilometres (72 mi) east of Vancouver, British Columbia. Part of the Fraser Valley Regional District, Kent consists of several communities, the largest and most well-known being Agassiz—the only town in the municipality—Harrison Mills, Kilby, Mount Woodside, Kent Prairie, Sea Bird Island and Ruby Creek. Included within the municipality's boundaries are several separately-governed Indian reserves, including the Seabird Island First Nation's reserves on and around the island of the same name.

The Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway, or OA&PS, is a historic railway that operated in central and eastern Ontario, Canada from 1897 until 1959. It was, for a time, the busiest railway route in Canada, carrying both timber and wood products from today's Algonquin Provincial Park areas, as well as up to 40% of the grain traffic from the Canadian west from Depot Harbour at Parry Sound through to the St. Lawrence River valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hastings Mill</span>

Hastings Mill was a sawmill on the south shore of Burrard Inlet and was the first commercial operation around which the settlement that would become Vancouver developed in British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1865 by Edward Stamp, the sawmill operated until its closure in 1928.

Mount Lehman or Mt. Lehman is a small rural community located in the Fraser Valley of south western British Columbia, Canada. The community was established in 1874 and became part of the District of Matsqui in 1892. The District of Matsqui was incorporated into the present day City of Abbotsford, British Columbia in 1995.

The history of Richmond Hill began when the First Nations came and settled in the area. With the Toronto Purchase, the city gradually expanded with new greenhouse industries and improved transportation infrastructure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gur Sikh Temple</span> Sikh temple in Abbotsford, British Columbia

The Gur Sikh Temple, in Abbotsford, British Columbia, is the oldest existing Sikh gurdwara in North America and a National Historic Site of Canada. It is the only gurdwara outside of India and Pakistan that is designated as national historic site.

References

  1. "BC Geographical Names" . Retrieved 20 January 2017.
  2. "History Behind Mill Lake Park". Boulevard Group. Retrieved 17 March 2017.